Investigation: US Data Brokers Sell Half a Billion Dollars in RL Training Environments to Chinese AI Labs
A ChinaTalk investigation reveals that at least nine US firms are selling reinforcement learning environments previously used by OpenAI and Anthropic to Chinese labs, potentially circumventing export controls and saving significant compute resources.
According to a report by technology media outlet The Decoder, an investigation by ChinaTalk found that at least nine US data broker firms are selling approximately $500 million worth of AI training data to Chinese artificial intelligence laboratories. The data includes reinforcement learning (RL) environments—simulated worlds where AI models are trained on specific tasks such as coding, financial analysis, or office work.
The report highlights that Chinese buyers are deliberately purchasing the same products previously sold to frontier labs like OpenAI and Anthropic. By acquiring these pre-built environments, Chinese labs can skip costly in-house development and avoid wasted training runs. This strategy is particularly valuable given the acute memory bottlenecks affecting Chinese chips, allowing them to close the capability gap with less domestic compute.
In addition to purchasing environments, Chinese labs are reportedly using powerful US models like GPT and Claude as "teachers" through distillation, using their outputs as training examples. This two-pronged approach combines external data acquisition with knowledge transfer from US models.
The identified US firms include Mercor, Surge AI, AfterQuery, and Turing. The deals often run through offshore structures, with some procurement offices located in Singapore and San Jose. Because RL environments remain largely unregulated, existing export controls barely apply to this trade.
The authors of the investigation argue that domains with dual-use potential, such as coding and biology, pose particular risks. Coding environments can sharpen offensive cyber capabilities, while biology environments could enhance gene synthesis and bioweapons-relevant applications. They call for the US Bureau of Industry and Security to subject these dual-use environments to existing export controls.