By Iain Martin
Publication Date: 2025-11-12 19:15:00
Mercor’s recent fundraising made its CEO Brendan Foody (pictured) and his two co-founders the world’s youngest self-made billionaires. Now contractors say his startup has shut down one of its AI training projects and cut salaries.
Cody Pickens for Forbes
Mercor’s co-founders became billionaires last month after raising $350 million for a $10 billion venture for the AI training startup. Just over a week later, they reportedly failed an AI project involving thousands of contractors. According to several people affected, hours later an offer was made to rehire the workers at a lower hourly rate.
Contractors who worked with startup Mercor said they were banned from Slack on Tuesday after the AI training project they had been working on was suddenly shut down.
The San Francisco startup, which was valued at $10 billion last month, reportedly sent an email to contractors on Wednesday to inform them that the project, codenamed Musen, had been canceled.
Forbes spoke to five Mercor contractors who worked on the project…