LONDON, May 7 (Reuters) - Jeff Bezos' personal firm

Bezos Expeditions is leading a $72-million investment in

artificial intelligence data solutions company Toloka, which is

looking to scale up its business, Toloka told Reuters on

Wednesday.

Toloka, which helps train and evaluate AI models using a

network of human experts and testers, is part of Nasdaq-listed

AI infrastructure firm Nebius Group ( NBIS ) and has worked with

Amazon ( AMZN ), Microsoft and Anthropic.

Amsterdam-based Nebius ( NBIS ) emerged from a $5.4 billion deal,

finalised last year, that split the domestic and international

assets of Russian internet giant Yandex in the largest

corporate exit from Russia since Moscow's 2022 invasion of

Ukraine.

Toloka founder and CEO Olga Megorskaya said the Bezos-led

strategic investment was a milestone that should accelerate the

company's growth, particularly in the U.S. market, and support

its development of products through human experts collaborating

with AI agents.

"There will always be the need for control, verification,

and help from human experts to ensure that the result is

actually of high quality," Megorskaya told Reuters.

Before finalising the split from Yandex, Nebius ( NBIS ) would have

struggled to secure external investment from the likes of Amazon ( AMZN )

founder Bezos due to sanctions prohibiting U.S. investments in

Russia.

Chip giant Nvidia ( NVDA ) was among the investors in a $700

million private placement raised by Nebius ( NBIS ) late last year.

In addition to Bezos Expeditions, Mikhail Parakhin, CTO of

Canadian e-commerce company Shopify ( SHOP ), is participating in the

investment, Nebius ( NBIS ) said, and will join Toloka's new board of

directors as executive chairman.

Parakhin said he was excited to be joining Toloka at a time

when the demand for world-class AI data expertise is more urgent

than ever.

Bezos Expeditions did not immediately respond to a request

for comment.

Nebius ( NBIS ) said it would continue to support Toloka as a

shareholder, retaining a significant majority economic stake,

but relinquishing majority voting control.

"The important thing about this round is that we gained the

needed flexibility to operate independently," Megorskaya said.

She said Toloka anticipated another investment round in the

future.