US Data Firms Reportedly Sell AI Training Environments to Chinese Labs
A ChinaTalk investigation reported by The Decoder identifies at least nine US data firms selling roughly $500 million in AI training data to Chinese AI labs. Some of the data consists of reinforcement learning environments for tasks such as coding, financial analysis and office work. Buyers reportedly purchase environments previously sold to OpenAI or Anthropic, allowing them to avoid some in-house development costs and wasted training runs. The investigation’s authors called for export controls on dual-use environments, particularly in cybersecurity and biology, while saying Chinese labs still trail US peers by at least several months structurally.
The reported trade raises supply-chain and export-control questions because reusable environments can support advanced AI development and may have dual-use applications. The investigation also cited reports of about $100 million in annual recurring revenue for AfterQuery but said it could not independently verify those sales.
US data brokers are selling half a billion dollars in RL training environments to Chinese AI labs
Maximilian Schreiner View the LinkedIn Profile of Maximilian Schreiner
Nov 11, 2026
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Key Points
- At least nine US firms are selling $500 million worth of AI training data to Chinese labs, according to a ChinaTalk investigation.
- Chinese buyers use the same training environments built for OpenAI or Anthropic, cutting their own compute costs and development time.
- Because this data trade remains largely unregulated, the authors call for export controls over potential security risks in areas like cybersecurity and biology.
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