How much is company data worth to AI labs?
Updated
Short answer: A 20-person company with 3 years of documents, email, chat and CRM data is worth about $100k to AI data buyers. Value grows slower than headcount, recent years count for more than old ones, and expert industries like healthcare, legal and financial services earn a premium. Large firms top out around $2M.
Example valuations
These come from the same model as our calculator. Ranges show the likely spread of offers.
| Company | History | Estimated value |
|---|---|---|
| 20-person agency (documents, email, chat, CRM) | 3 years | $70k – $130k |
| 20-person consultancy | 3 years | $91k – $169k |
| 50-person law firm | 5 years | $297k – $552k |
| 100-person consultancy (+ workflow logs) | 4 years | $331k – $615k |
| 80-person software company (+ code, tickets) | 5 years | $447k – $830k |
| 200-person healthcare company (+ financial) | 6 years | $923k – $1.7M |
| 1,000-person financial services firm | 8 years | $1.4M – $2M |
What drives the price of company data?
Headcount
More people means more work recorded, but value grows much slower than headcount. A company with 100 times the staff is worth roughly 16 times as much, because much of the work is repetitive.
Years of history, and how recent it is
Each additional year adds value, but recent data is worth the most. Each year back is worth about 85% of the year after it, so the last three years carry most of the value.
Industry
Buyers pay most for experts reasoning through real problems. Relative to a baseline industry such as logistics or media: healthcare is about 1.8×, legal 1.7×, financial services 1.6×, insurance 1.4×, software and consulting 1.3×, manufacturing 1.1× and retail 0.9×.
Data types
Per employee-year, code repositories and documents are worth the most, then financial records, workflow logs, support tickets, email, CRM records and team chat. Holding more types helps, with diminishing returns.
Anonymisation
Stripping identifiers loses some signal. Our estimates already take about 15% off for value lost to anonymisation.
Is the estimate a firm offer?
No. It is an estimate. Each buyer makes a firm offer after reviewing an anonymised sample, and offers can land above or below the range.
Frequently asked questions
What is a small company's data worth?
About $100k for a 20-person company with 3 years of documents, email, chat and CRM data. Expert industries such as legal or healthcare are worth more.
Which company data is most valuable to AI labs?
Code repositories and documents (memos, analyses, contracts) are worth the most per employee-year, followed by financial records, workflow logs and support tickets.
Does old data have value?
Yes, but less. Each year back is worth about 85% of the year after it, so recent history carries most of the value.
What is the most a company can get?
Our model caps estimates at about $2M, in line with the largest deals buyers have described.