Unicorn Mercor acquires Deeptune after founder Brendan Foody backed the startup

Unicorn Mercor’s acquisition of Deeptune signals a push toward “reinforcement learning environments” that let frontier AI agents rehearse enterprise tasks safely. The deal, announced Thursday, follows Mercor’s purchase of the Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup for $10 billion by Brendan Foody’s $10 billion business; financial terms were not disclosed. Foody, who founded Mercor at 19 and is now 23, had also quietly invested in Deeptune, listed as an angel investor in its $43 million Series A just three months before the acquisition closed. Based on Mercor, Deeptune’s team will relocate to New York. The move targets demand for full digital replicas of software ecosystems where models can practice and be scored. Mercor says it reached $2 billion ARR in June, up from $1 billion a year earlier. Competitive context includes customers such as Anthropic and OpenAI, and Mercor claims all “Mag Seven” except Tesla use it. The acquisition follows Mercor’s March data breach involving LiteLLM and an estimated four-terabyte exfiltration, which Mercor says customers expanded relationships with after.