Mecka AI in talks for Sequoia-led round at ~$500M valuation

The speed of the re-rate matters more than the headline figure: a second round three months after a $60 million raise suggests investors are pricing data pipelines, not robot hardware, as the scarce asset in humanoid development. It also puts Mecka in a different capital bracket than most motion-data rivals, which could let it lock up contributor supply before demand is proven. Whether the valuation holds once terms are final — and whether paid human motion capture remains the cheapest path as synthetic data improves — is the open question.