Islamabad, May 8, 2025: Jeff Bezos’ personal investment firm, Bezos Expeditions, is leading a $72 million funding round in Toloka, an AI data solutions company aiming to expand its global footprint, especially in the U.S., Toloka confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday.
Toloka, a subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed Nebius Group, specializes in training and evaluating AI models through a global network of human experts.
The company has previously collaborated with major tech firms, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Anthropic.
Nebius, based in Amsterdam, emerged from a $5.4 billion corporate split of Russian internet giant Yandex last year—an effort to separate its domestic and international operations following Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
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The split allowed the newly formed Nebius to attract Western investment, previously hindered by U.S. sanctions on Russian entities.
Toloka CEO Olga Megorskaya described the Bezos-led investment as a “milestone,” that would help accelerate product development by combining human intelligence with AI.
“There will always be the need for control, verification, and help from human experts to ensure that the result is actually of high quality,” Megorskaya told Reuters.
Also Mikhail Parakhin, CTO of Canadian e-commerce firm Shopify, will join Toloka’s new board as executive chairman.
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Parakhin expressed enthusiasm about joining at a time when demand for high-quality AI data is more urgent than ever.
Chip giant Nvidia was among the investors in a $700 million private placement raised by Nebius late last year.
Nebius will maintain major economic stake in Toloka but will give up majority voting control, giving Toloka more operational independence.
“The important thing about this round is that we gained the needed flexibility to operate independently,” Megorskaya said.
Bezos Expeditions has not yet commented on the investment.
