Jeff Bezos’ personal investment firm, Bezos Expeditions, is leading a $72 million funding round in Toloka, an artificial intelligence data solutions company aiming to expand its footprint in the U.S. and global markets, Toloka announced on Wednesday.
Toloka, a subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed Nebius Group, specializes in training and evaluating AI models through a global network of human experts and testers. Its services have been used by major tech firms, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Anthropic.
The investment marks a major milestone for the company, according to founder and CEO Olga Megorskaya. “This strategic backing will help us accelerate growth, especially in the U.S., and further develop our AI-human collaboration tools,” she told Reuters. “There will always be a need for human oversight to ensure the quality of AI outputs.”
Amsterdam-based Nebius was formed following a $5.4 billion restructuring deal last year that separated Russian internet giant Yandex’s domestic and international assets. The transaction was the largest corporate exit from Russia since the country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, enabling Nebius and its subsidiaries like Toloka to seek external funding previously blocked by sanctions.
Bezos’ involvement underscores growing investor interest in AI infrastructure. Other notable participants in the round include Mikhail Parakhin, Chief Technology Officer at Shopify, who will join Toloka’s board as executive chairman. Parakhin said he was “excited to support Toloka at a time when the need for world-class AI data expertise is greater than ever.”
While Nebius will remain a major economic shareholder in Toloka, it has relinquished majority voting control, allowing the company greater independence. “The important thing about this round is that we gained the needed flexibility to operate independently,” Megorskaya said.
She added that Toloka expects to launch another funding round in the future as it continues to scale.
Last year, Nebius also attracted significant backing, including a $700 million private placement with participation from U.S. chipmaker Nvidia.
