Google Acquires Spirit Airlines Internal Business Data for $10 Million

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Google is purchasing a large collection of internal business data from bankrupt Spirit Airlines for $10 million, according to court filings and statements from the company.

The deal covers employee emails, calendar information, chats, documents, spreadsheets, marketing records, operations data, software code and related enterprise materials. The information will be thoroughly deidentified by a third party to remove any personal details before the transfer. The purchase excludes passenger profiles, loyalty records and other customer information.

Google said it plans to use the dataset to improve its products and train artificial intelligence models. “We acquired part of an enterprise dataset from Spirit Airlines, which can be helpful in improving our products and AI models,” a Google spokesperson said. “We will not receive any personal information from this dataset. Any data we receive will be rigorously scrubbed of any personally identifiable information by a third party before receipt.”

Spirit Airlines ceased operations in May after failing to recover from high debt and elevated fuel costs. The carrier has been liquidating remaining assets through bankruptcy proceedings. Google’s successful bid exceeded a competing $7.5 million offer from Mercor, an artificial intelligence-focused firm.

A court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday to approve the sale.