Google has won a bankruptcy court auction for a large trove of Spirit Airlines' internal records, agreeing to pay $10 million for data the search giant plans to use for AI training. The winning bid included roughly 100 million emails and 500 million Microsoft Teams chats, alongside financial databases, HR files, marketing materials, audits and project-management documents from the now-defunct carrier.
AI-focused hiring platform Mercor was the runner-up bidder, topping out at $7.5 million after Google opened at $5 million. According to court filings, the dataset excludes passenger profiles and frequent-flyer information, and contains no personally identifiable information — a third party will "deidentify" the records before Google receives them, and Google has committed not to attempt re-identifying any individuals. A federal judge still has to approve the sale.
The deal underscores how bankrupt companies' internal communications and operational archives have become valuable raw material for large language model training, as AI developers compete for real-world text data beyond what's publicly scraped from the web. Spirit Airlines ceased operations earlier in 2026 after a prolonged financial collapse.