How to sell your company's data to AI labs.
A company sells data to AI labs by licensing it: the lab gets the right to train on a defined copy, and the company keeps the data. The steps are to confirm you have the rights, value it against what labs pay, remove personal and sensitive data, agree the license terms and deliver. This guide covers each step and what recent deals were worth.
Updated · Indri Labs
Why do AI labs buy company data?
Labs have already trained on most of the public web, and researchers at Epoch AI estimate the stock of public human-written text could be used up between 2026 and 2032. What the web lacks is the record of how real work gets done: operational logs, recordings, transactions and years of history held inside companies. That data is what sets one model apart from another, so labs license it.
What have AI data licensing deals been worth?
The largest public deals involve content platforms. They show what buyers pay for data that is large, unique and cleanly licensed. Figures are as reported; see sources.
| Deal | Data | Term | Reported value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reddit → Google | User posts and comments | Per year | ~$60M |
| Reddit, all buyers | Data licensing contracts | 2-3 years | $203M |
| News Corp → OpenAI | News archive and content | 5 years | >$250M |
| Wiley | Academic books and papers | One-time | $23M |
What makes company data valuable?
- Rarity: nobody else holds it, and it is not on the open web
- Depth: years of history and large volume
- Structure: consistent formats a lab can use quickly
- Clear rights: you can show you are allowed to license it
- Exclusivity: whether one lab gets it or many can
What should you check before you sell?
- Customer and supplier contracts, and any confidentiality clauses
- Data that belongs to third parties rather than to you
- Privacy notices, consent and the personal data in the set
- Your terms of service: change them openly, not retroactively
- How long the license lasts, since a trained model can't forget
How does selling through Indri Labs work?
We review what you hold and tell you whether a lab would buy it. We value it against what labs are paying and agree a price with you before any work starts. Then we handle the contract, the clean-up and the delivery. Personal and sensitive data is removed and legally reviewed before anything is transferred, and you sign one agreement, with us. More on selling your data. Buyers care about this too: see the legal risks of training on scraped data.
Questions, answered.
How can my company sell data to AI labs?
License it rather than hand it over. Confirm you have the rights, have the data valued against what labs pay, remove personal and sensitive data, agree a license that sets scope, exclusivity and term, then deliver a clean copy. Indri Labs runs every step and agrees the price with you before any work starts.
How much is my company's data worth to AI companies?
It depends on how rare it is, how much history it covers, how clean it is, whether the rights are clear and whether the license is exclusive. Public deals show the range at the top end: Reddit reported $203M in data licensing contracts, and Wiley earned $23M from one deal. Most company datasets sell for far less, so get a valuation against real buyer demand.
Do I keep ownership of the data?
Yes. A license gives the lab the right to train on a defined copy under agreed terms. You keep the data and can license it again unless you sell exclusive rights.
Can I sell customer data or call recordings for AI training?
Only with the rights to do so. Check your customer contracts, privacy notices and consent, and note that the US FTC has warned companies against quietly changing their terms of service to allow AI training. Personal data has to be removed before transfer.
Should the license be exclusive?
Exclusive licenses usually pay more but stop you selling the same data again. Non-exclusive licenses let you sell to several labs. Remember that a trained model cannot simply forget data, so treat any license as permanent for the copy you deliver.
More articles on AI training data
- The Decoder, Reddit signs $60 million annual training data deal with Google (Reuters report, 2024)
- Maginative, Reddit's S-1 data licensing disclosure (2024)
- LLM Pulse, AI content licensing deals (News Corp and OpenAI, WSJ report)
- Monda, list of data licensing deals for AI (Wiley)
- PBS NewsHour, AI could run out of human-written training text as early as 2026 (Epoch AI)
- US FTC, Quietly changing your terms of service could be unfair or deceptive (2024)