Amazon's Bezos leads new investment in AI data company Toloka

By Alexander Marrow

LONDON (Reuters) -Jeff Bezos' idiosyncratic steadfast Bezos Expeditions is starring a $72-million concern successful artificial quality information solutions institution Toloka, which is looking to standard up its business, Toloka told Reuters connected Wednesday.

Toloka, which helps bid and measure AI models utilizing a web of quality experts and testers, is portion of Nasdaq-listed AI infrastructure steadfast Nebius Group and has worked with Amazon, Microsoft and Anthropic.

Amsterdam-based Nebius emerged from a $5.4 cardinal deal, finalised past year, that divided the home and planetary assets of Russian net elephantine Yandex successful the largest firm exit from Russia since Moscow's 2022 penetration of Ukraine.

Toloka laminitis and CEO Olga Megorskaya said the Bezos-led strategical concern was a milestone that should accelerate the company's growth, peculiarly successful the U.S. market, and enactment its improvement of products done quality experts collaborating with AI agents.

"There volition ever beryllium the request for control, verification, and assistance from quality experts to guarantee that the effect is really of precocious quality," Megorskaya told Reuters.

Before finalising the divided from Yandex, Nebius would person struggled to unafraid outer concern from the likes of Amazon laminitis Bezos owed to sanctions prohibiting U.S. investments successful Russia.

Chip elephantine Nvidia was among the investors successful a $700 cardinal backstage placement raised by Nebius precocious past year.

In summation to Bezos Expeditions, Mikhail Parakhin, CTO of Canadian e-commerce institution Shopify, is participating successful the investment, Nebius said, and volition articulation Toloka's caller committee of directors arsenic enforcement chairman.

Parakhin said helium was excited to beryllium joining Toloka astatine a clip erstwhile the request for world-class AI information expertise is much urgent than ever.

Bezos Expeditions did not instantly respond to a petition for comment.

Nebius said it would proceed to enactment Toloka arsenic a shareholder, retaining a important bulk economical stake, but relinquishing bulk voting control.

"The important happening astir this circular is that we gained the needed flexibility to run independently," Megorskaya said.

She said Toloka anticipated different concern circular successful the future.

(Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Joe Bavier)