Methods & sources

Scope & source coverage

The company map contains 203 RL environment, AI training data, evaluation, infrastructure, and physical-AI vendors in 8 product layers. It includes all vendors listed in Who Sells Data at the latest import, alongside our existing company research. Primary segments describe the main product; capability tags describe overlap. Dot size does not rank revenue, quality, or market share.

The dataset was updated on 2026-11-09. Discovery used Pavlov's List, RL List, YC reinforcement-learning directory, Who Sells Data, company sites, published announcements, and existing sourced environment research. Each dossier preserves its own source links, confidence, and verification date; an import date does not mean we independently checked a company's products.

The Who Sells Data import covers 187 directory listings, fetched on 2026-11-09; the upstream export is dated 2026-11-04T00:18:09.034960+00:00. Directory-only entries are labelled in their dossiers and use the directory's own checked date. Summaries are generated from its offering and domain categories. Existing researched entries retain their descriptions and evidence.

A weekly sync adds newly listed vendors after validation, tests, and a production build. Matching uses stable directory references and company identities to avoid duplicates. Directory removals do not delete mapped companies, and automatic imports do not invent investment links or independently verify funding.

Each company and investor has an external link. Official websites are preferred; public profiles are labelled separately. Where an investor’s identity or homepage could not be verified, the link opens its investment record and is labelled accordingly. Website verification dates are separate from funding research dates.

Hover cards and directory rows use short product summaries; selecting a company retains its full description and evidence.

For new directory entries, robotics-only vendors enter the robotics layer. The remaining classification checks RL environments first, then RL infrastructure, training data or annotation, evaluation, and simulation. Vendors offering several products receive one main layer under that rule; their capability tags retain the overlap. Training & expert data includes licensed datasets, human feedback, specialist data, and annotation services. These categories organize the map and do not rank vendors or certify their offerings.

Position describes products. Bounded regions group companies by their main product layer. Within each region, capability overlap attracts related companies: each nominates up to three peers with positive Jaccard similarity, with stable ID tie-breaking. Financial ties do not determine placement. Distance is approximate, and distance between regions has no numerical meaning. Region sizes allow room for their company counts and labels; area does not represent funding or market size. Filters preserve positions.

Capability tags are normalized from recorded product descriptions. Similarity is shared tags divided by the union of tags (Jaccard similarity). These broad categories support discovery.

The connection slider sorts by distinct mapped neighbors. Shared-investor edges come from overlapping reported backer lists; acquisition edges come from linked announcements. A shared investor never asserts a partnership or a warm introduction. Agents of Chaos is an ordinary company entry with the same treatment as every other provider.

The investor layer in the vendor map has researched backers for 103 of the 203 mapped companies, with investment research dated 2026-10-18. Newly imported vendors are marked “not yet reviewed”; an empty backer set is not a claim that they have no investors. Its 770 investor nodes and 949 investment links combine company announcements, investor portfolios, and reported funding. Every link carries its sources and verification date; solid lines have primary disclosures and dashed lines rely on reports. Investor nodes are ordered and labelled alongside the company map. Connections appear on hover or selection; selecting a company shows its complete researched backer set. The shared overview includes investors backing at least two visible companies. Individual backers are separate from their employers, and fund aliases are consolidated. With the investor layer on, direct investment connections replace the company-to-company shared-backer lines on screen.

Investment links record historical backing, not current ownership or complete cap tables. Unnamed investors stay unknown. Grants, customers, advisers, employment, and unclosed fundraising talks do not create investment links. Historical private backers and disclosed corporate parents are included; passive public-market shareholder lists are outside this map. A person and their investment vehicle may both disclose backing; their inclusion does not establish separate checks. Parent-company backing is identified explicitly in the company notes rather than presented as a newly raised round.