Follow ChabadInfo & Never Miss an Update!

Follow us on Instagram Subscribe to our WhatsApp status and broadcast Follow us on Tiktok Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on Google News Subscribe on YouTube

Google has won a $10 million bankruptcy auction for a vast collection of internal business data from Spirit Airlines, seeking to use the information to improve its products and train artificial intelligence models. The deal, however, still requires approval from a federal bankruptcy court.

The data package includes roughly 100 million emails and 500 million Microsoft Teams messages, along with calendars, spreadsheets, marketing materials, human-resources information, project documents, financial databases, audits and presentations. Customer profiles and frequent-flyer information are excluded from the transaction.

Google’s interest comes as technology companies increasingly look beyond the public internet for large amounts of real-world data to develop and train AI systems. Corporate records such as these can provide AI models with examples of how businesses actually operate, communicate, manage employees and respond to complex situations.

The purchase has also raised concerns among former Spirit employees. A flight attendants’ union has objected to the proposed sale, arguing that the privacy protections described in the deal do not adequately address sensitive employee information contained in Spirit’s records. Google and Spirit have said the information transferred to Google will be de-identified and that personally identifiable information will not be provided.

Google prevailed over competing bids, including a $7.5 million offer from AI company Mercor. More recently, another AI startup, Micro1, submitted a $12.5 million offer in an effort to challenge Google’s winning bid, potentially complicating the sale as the bankruptcy court weighs the competing interests.

The unusual transaction illustrates the growing value of proprietary business data in the AI race — turning the digital records of a failed airline into a potentially valuable resource for developing the next generation of AI technology.

1