Google wins $10M bankruptcy auction to acquire Spirit Airlines' internal business data for AI training

Google has won a bankruptcy auction to acquire a massive repository of internal business data from the defunct Spirit Airlines for $10 million.

Alphabet's company plans to use the enterprise dataset for product development and training artificial intelligence models.

The tech giant outbid competing offers, including a $7.5 million bid from AI data firm Mercor.

As reported by Reuters, extensive dataset encompasses roughly 100 million company emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams chats, 30 million lines of code, spreadsheets, calendars, marketing records, and documentation covering finance, accounting, website analytics, and operations.

The acquired data will be de-identified before the sale is complete, containing no customer information or personally identifiable information.

Google has emphasized that no consumer personal information, customer profiles, or credit card data are part of the purchase.

Furthermore, a third party is responsible for rigorously scrubbing all data of any remaining personally identifiable information (PII) before it is handed over to Google.

Spirit Airlines ceased operations and entered liquidation following deep financial strains. The data sale is pending final approval by a U.S. bankruptcy judge.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge will consider approving the data sale at a Wednesday court hearing.

Spirit group received a $7.5 million bid from Mercor, an AI data company.

The airline is also selling off assets in bankruptcy after shutting down its business in May due to high debt and high fuel costs.