Jeff Bezos Invests $72 Million in Toloka, the AI Data Subsidiary of Nebius Group (NBIS)

Jeff Bezos, through his investment firm Bezos Expeditions, has led a $72 million strategic funding round in Toloka, the AI data labeling and evaluation platform previously operated as a subsidiary of Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS). The announcement in May 2025 signals a major milestone for Toloka and marks a deepening of Bezos’ involvement in the rapidly evolving AI infrastructure and data ecosystem.

This deal is not just a vote of confidence in Toloka's capabilities. It is also a reflection of growing global recognition that high-quality AI data is foundational to the next generation of safe, scalable artificial intelligence. As AI systems become more powerful and ubiquitous, the need for accurate, diverse, and ethically sourced data has never been more critical.

Why Jeff Bezos Chose Toloka

Toloka operates at the heart of the AI lifecycle. Its services directly support the three most critical stages of large-scale AI model development:

1. Training – Fine-tuning models with labeled datasets

2. Alignment – Ensuring models align with human expectations and safety standards

3. Evaluation – Measuring performance, bias, and behavior of LLMs across domains

These services are essential to companies building generative AI tools, from chatbots to vision systems to autonomous vehicles. Toloka has emerged as one of the few global players able to scale this process across multiple languages, cultures, and use cases, serving enterprise-grade AI needs with scientific rigor.

For Jeff Bezos, who revolutionized global commerce and built Amazon Web Services (AWS), the investment in Toloka represents a strategic extension into a core layer of the AI value chain. Just as AWS became the foundational infrastructure of the cloud, Toloka is positioning itself to become a key layer of infrastructure for the safe development of AI systems.

Strategic Restructuring: Autonomy with Alignment

One of the most significant aspects of the deal is its structural innovation. As part of the investment, Nebius has relinquished majority voting control of Toloka while maintaining an estimated 28 percent economic interest. This ensures Toloka has the operational freedom to chart its own growth path while still benefiting from Nebius’ backing and expertise.

This hybrid model, economic retention without majority control, is gaining traction in the AI sector, particularly as specialized units require more agile governance, capital access, and strategic partnerships than traditional subsidiaries.

With the appointment of Mikhail Parakhin, CTO of Shopify, as Executive Chairman, Toloka gains strategic oversight from a respected voice in enterprise AI. Parakhin’s background includes advisory roles at AI leaders like Perplexity, Liquid.ai, and Recraft, giving Toloka immediate access to deep expertise and industry networks.

Leadership Continuity and Vision

While Parakhin will help guide strategy, founder and CEO Olga Megorskaya remains the driving force behind Toloka’s execution and culture. A former Yandex executive and pioneer in the crowdsourcing space, Megorskaya has transformed Toloka from a generic data marketplace into a world-class AI data engine, known for its focus on agent safety, large-scale human-AI collaboration, and multi-lingual data collection.

Under her leadership, Toloka has developed capabilities in:

• Named-entity recognition (NER)

• Optical character recognition (OCR)

• Transcription and audio labeling

• Search relevance ranking

• Sentiment and toxicity analysis

These services are increasingly critical for generative AI safety frameworks, where human oversight and evaluation must be integrated into machine learning pipelines.

Global Client Base and Infrastructure

Toloka boasts a network of more than 200,000 contributors working in over 100 countries and across 40 languages. This infrastructure allows it to serve clients with unique localization needs, which is essential for any AI model deployed globally.

Its client list includes:

• Amazon

• Anthropic

• Microsoft

• Shopify

With use cases ranging from conversational AI to multimodal models, Toloka’s value proposition is both horizontal and defensible, giving it a first-mover advantage in the premium segment of the AI data services market.

Implications for Nebius (NASDAQ: NBIS)

For Nebius, the Toloka spin-off is a textbook example of strategic capital allocation. The company retains an economic interest while unburdening its core business from the operational complexity of a fast-scaling subsidiary.

Since its reentry onto the Nasdaq in October 2024, Nebius has:

• Announced over $1 billion in AI infrastructure investments

• Expanded its data center network in Finland, France, and the United States

• Grown its flagship Nebius.AI cloud business

• Attracted strategic partners including Nvidia and Goldman Sachs

The Toloka spin-off adds a new dimension to this strategy, showing that Nebius is willing to incubate, spin off, and partner for value creation. This approach is more commonly seen in Silicon Valley than among European cloud providers.

The market responded accordingly. NBIS stock surged more than 26 percent in the week following the announcement, making it one of the best-performing emerging tech stocks during that period.

FAQ: Jeff Bezos Investment in Nebius Subsidiary Toloka

What is Toloka and what does it do?

Toloka is a provider of AI data solutions used in training, aligning, and evaluating artificial intelligence models. It operates globally with a large pool of human annotators and supports enterprise clients developing LLMs and generative AI systems.

How much did Jeff Bezos invest in Toloka?

Bezos, through Bezos Expeditions, led a $72 million investment round in May 2025. The funding gives Toloka operational independence while Nebius retains a minority economic interest.

Why did Nebius spin off Toloka?

The spin-off allows Toloka to attract dedicated capital and strategic leadership. It also enables faster scaling in the competitive AI data sector while allowing Nebius to focus on its core AI infrastructure business.

What companies use Toloka?

Toloka's client portfolio includes major technology firms such as Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, and Shopify.

How did the investment impact Nebius’ stock?

NBIS shares surged over 26 percent following the investment news, reflecting investor confidence in the deal's strategic value and the company's direction.

Jeff Bezos Investment NBIS Toloka

Jeff Bezos Investment NBIS Toloka

Financial Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. All investments carry risks, including the risk of loss. Readers should conduct their own research or consult with a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decisions. The author and publisher are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this article.