Google Wins $10M Auction for Spirit Airlines Data

Google has won a bankruptcy auction to acquire a vast repository of internal business data from the defunct Spirit Airlines for $10 million, a deal that underscores the growing demand for proprietary corporate information to train artificial intelligence models. The tech giant outbid competing offers, including a $7.5 million bid from AI data firm Mercor, to secure the dataset, which is pending final approval by a U.S. bankruptcy judge at a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

The acquisition encompasses a massive collection of Spirit Airlines' operational and communications data. According to court filings and company statements, the dataset includes approximately 100 million company emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams chats, 30 million lines of code, along with spreadsheets, calendars, marketing records, and documentation covering finance, accounting, website analytics, and operations. The data represents a comprehensive snapshot of how the airline ran its business.

Google has stated it plans to use the enterprise dataset for product development and to train its artificial intelligence models. A Google spokesperson said the company "acquired part of an enterprise dataset from...