Best ways to sell manufacturing data to AI companies
By Gareth HoyleLast updated How we research
In short
The best ways to sell manufacturing data to AI companies are a vetted broker such as Sell My Data To AI, or a license with Mercor, Handshake AI, micro1 or Labelbox Prism. ddiy.co reported Mercor's listing at $100,000 to $1.5 million for manufacturers, its highest reported ceiling. Check export controls and customer drawings held under NDA before any sample leaves.
Key takeaways
- Mercor is best for manufacturers of 20 to 2,000 staff on cloud tools.
- Handshake AI is best for firms with specifications, design records and test reports.
- micro1 is best for established firms with engineering documentation.
- Sell My Data To AI wrote this list and ranks itself first. The method section explains the criteria.
- Every entry's facts come from the company's own published terms, checked November 2026.
Manufacturers hold labeled records of faults, root causes and fixes from real production lines: non-conformance reports, CAPA and 8D investigations, maintenance work orders, sensor time series and inspection images. Few companies outside manufacturing hold them. Our manufacturing data page lists the records buyers ask for.
ddiy.co reported Mercor's referral listing at $100,000 to $1.5 million for manufacturers of 20 to 2,000 employees. Handshake AI gives design documentation, specifications and test reports as hardware and engineering examples, and Labelbox Prism lists operational data from systems such as SAP.
Export controls come before price. Export Control Joint Unit guidance on GOV.UK says emailing controlled technology overseas, or making it available from the cloud abroad, needs an export license, and US deemed export rules can apply inside the US. Our guide on whether selling company data to AI is safe covers trade secrets.
- 1
Sell My Data To AI
Best for manufacturers that need buyers screened on intended use and onward transfer
Sell My Data To AI values manufacturing records and brokers licenses with vetted AI buyers. Every buyer is verified on company identity, intended use, security and retention and onward transfer limits before seeing a sample. You pay nothing to be assessed, approve every buyer, sample and license term, and agree the success fee in writing before any introduction. We do not take custody of your raw data.
- Fee to seller
- Nothing to be assessed. A success fee only when a deal completes, agreed in writing before any buyer introduction
- Seller vetting
- Eight-point standard, from authority to sign to manifest accuracy, before any buyer sees your data
- Buyer vetting
- Company identity, intended use, security and retention, onward transfer limits and, for larger deals, ability to pay
- Data custody
- No custody of raw data. Buyers see redacted samples under a mutual NDA
- Your control
- You approve every buyer, sample and license term, and can withdraw at any point before signing
- 2
Mercor
Best for manufacturers of 20 to 2,000 staff on cloud tools
Mercor pays businesses to license workflow data from more than 100 supported tools and names manufacturing among its target industries. ddiy.co reported Mercor's referral page listing $20,000 to $1.5 million by industry in October 2026. Mercor covers extraction, anonymization and transfer costs and typically pays by wire within 2 to 4 weeks of the signed agreement.
- Published payout
- Not published on mercor.com/data. ddiy.co reported Mercor's referral page listing $20,000 to $1.5 million by industry (October 2026)
- Size requirement
- Not published on mercor.com/data. Target industries include legal, healthcare, finance and insurance, professional services, manufacturing, retail, real estate and logistics
- Exclusivity
- Not published
- Fee to seller
- None. Mercor covers extraction, anonymization and transfer costs
- Payment timing
- Wire transfer after delivery, typically within 2 to 4 weeks of the signed agreement
- 3
Handshake AI
Best for firms with specifications, design records and test reports
Handshake AI, the AI arm of the Handshake careers network, buys operational data such as financial models, process documentation, underwriting workflows, design documentation and test reports. Its data partnerships page headlines $100,000 to more than $4 million and sets out a five-step process ending in delivery and payment. Its page text does not state size thresholds, exclusivity, fees or payment timing.
- Published payout
- $100,000 to more than $4 million (headline). Its calculator shows estimates up to $100,000 and $400,000 to $800,000 or more
- Size requirement
- Not published. The calculator asks for employees, tools used and years in business
- Exclusivity
- Not published
- Fee to seller
- Not published
- Payment timing
- Not published. Payment follows delivery as the final process step
- 4
micro1
Best for established firms with engineering documentation
micro1 licenses operational records such as engineering documentation, finance SOPs, support tickets, CRM records and logistics workflows, and supplies them to AI labs and enterprises in the US and allied countries. Its data partnerships page publishes tiers from $100,000 to more than $3 million, asks for 30 or more full-time staff and mainly English records, and says micro1 removes or transforms personal information before sharing data.
- Published payout
- $100,000 to $500,000 (qualified partnerships), $500,000 to $3 million (large-scale or ongoing), more than $3 million (highly unique data). Agent trajectories listed at $1 million to $2 million a year
- Size requirement
- 30 or more full-time staff, mainly English records, US first, then the UK and Canada
- Exclusivity
- Not published
- Fee to seller
- None stated
- Payment timing
- Homepage says within 30 days of acceptance. FAQ says up to 30 days to review, then payment within 30 days of invoice
- 5
Labelbox Prism
Best for manufacturers running SAP who accept exclusivity
Prism, operated by Labelbox, acquires work documents such as coding sessions, research traces and financial modeling, plus operational data from Salesforce, Jira and SAP, for frontier AI developers. It publishes deals from around $50,000 to more than $1 million, pays an upfront fee at signing plus a revenue share, makes licenses exclusive by default and says first call to first wire takes under 21 days.
- Published payout
- From around $50,000 (smaller targeted datasets) to more than $1 million (large enterprise partnerships)
- Size requirement
- Not published. Prefers high-volume B2C companies for support logs
- Exclusivity
- Exclusive by default, tailored to scope, sensitivity and strategic value
- Fee to seller
- Not published. Scoping is free and non-binding
- Payment timing
- Upfront fee at signing plus revenue share. Prism says first call to first wire takes under 21 days
- 6
Endless Data
Best for plants that want to keep work orders licensable elsewhere
Endless Data, the trading name of Seldon Ventures, L.L.C., licenses quotes, tickets, work orders, SOPs and internal communications and places them with several AI labs, naming micro1, Mercor and Handshake. It advertises up to $4 million as an indicative estimate, asks for roughly 30 or more staff, uses a non-exclusive license and charges the seller nothing because the labs pay it.
- Published payout
- Up to $4 million (indicative estimate based on headcount, years of history and location)
- Size requirement
- Roughly 30 or more employees, several years of history, English documentation. US, UK and Canada prioritized
- Exclusivity
- Non-exclusive
- Fee to seller
- None. Endless is paid by the labs
- Payment timing
- Fixed sum agreed before data is shared, paid after signing, preparation and transfer. No date published
- 7
Polyshares
Best for owners who want one fixed payment and no fees
Polyshares is a direct buyer that licenses a company's operational record, from Slack and email to CRM history, support tickets and call recordings, and supplies AI labs itself. It sets no headcount minimum, charges no fee or commission, makes an offer within one to two weeks and pays net 30 to 60 days. All four published licenses, from $110,000 to $450,000, are perpetual and exclusive.
- Published payout
- $100,000 to $2 million and above typical. Four published licenses range from $110,000 to $450,000
- Size requirement
- No headcount minimum. Any company with real operating history, in any sector
- Exclusivity
- All four published case studies are perpetual exclusive licenses. Its terms page does not state exclusivity
- Fee to seller
- None. No fee and no commission
- Payment timing
- Offer within one to two weeks. Net 30 to 60 days after data is approved, shared and anonymized
- 8
Protege
Best for holders of sensor, spatial and physical data
Protege licenses real-world data from data holders to AI model builders, from startups to frontier labs, in healthcare, video, audio and speech, spatial and physical data and other domains. Its site covers pre-training, post-training and evaluation data, including healthcare benchmarks built on clinical documentation. It does not publish payouts, exclusivity, fees or payment timing, and data partners start through a contact form.
- Published payout
- Not published
- Size requirement
- Not published
- Exclusivity
- Not published
- Fee to seller
- Not published
- Payment timing
- Not published
How we ranked this list
Sell My Data To AI wrote this list and ranks itself first. We are a broker with a commercial interest in the result, and some companies below offer a service similar to ours. Read the order with that in mind.
For manufacturers we gave extra weight to buyers that name manufacturing, engineering documentation or ERP data in their published brief, and to terms that let you set exclusions before data leaves.
| Criterion | What we checked |
|---|---|
| Fit for the data type | Whether the company names this kind of record in its own published brief |
| Published terms | Whether payouts, size requirements and license terms appear on the company's own pages |
| Vetting | What checks the company says it runs on sellers, buyers or datasets before a sample changes hands |
| Exclusivity | Whether licenses are exclusive, non-exclusive or perpetual, and whether that is published |
| Fees | Whether the seller pays a fee or commission, and whether the rate is published |
| Payment timing | When sellers are paid, as stated by the company |
| Transparency | How much of the above you can confirm before a first call |
Every fact about another company comes from our profile of it in the data buyers directory, checked on that company's own pages in November 2026. Where a term is missing we write "Not published" rather than guess. After first place, the order reflects fit for a company selling or licensing its data, not a quality score, and we do not rate any company negatively.
We rank Sell My Data To AI first because this is our list and our service is built for this reader, not because we scored ourselves against the others. We are independent of the buyers we work with, and our terms are on our fees and how we vet pages so you can compare them line by line.
Frequently asked questions
Is sensor data from our machines worth selling?
Who is responsible for export control compliance in a data sale?
Can we license manufacturing data without revealing our processes?
Sources
- How to sell your company's data to AI companies, ddiy.co (figures taken from each buyer's own site), accessed November 2026
- Exporting military or dual-use technology: definitions and scope, Export Control Joint Unit, GOV.UK, accessed November 2026
- What is a deemed export?, Bureau of Industry and Security, US Department of Commerce, accessed November 2026
- Data monetization, Mercor, accessed November 2026
- Data partnerships, Handshake, accessed November 2026
- Data partnerships, micro1, accessed November 2026
- Prism, Labelbox, accessed November 2026
- Endless Data homepage and FAQ, Endless Data, accessed November 2026
- Polyshares homepage, Polyshares, accessed November 2026
- Track record, Polyshares, accessed November 2026
- Data licensing terms, Polyshares, accessed November 2026
- Answers, Polyshares, accessed November 2026
- Protege homepage, Protege, accessed November 2026
- Data providers, Protege, accessed November 2026