Archive · 18 Aug 2026
Google to buy Spirit Airlines' employee data for AI training
Spirit Airlines was a company that flew airplanes.
It ran out of money and went bankrupt, which means it couldn't keep doing business.
Now the company's old files are being sold to help other companies learn.
Google, the technology company, is paying ten million dollars for these files.
The files include lots of emails, messages, and documents from Spirit's workers.
Google wants this information to help teach its computers to be smarter, which is called artificial intelligence, or AI.
Workers' private details and passengers' personal information will be removed before Google gets the files.
Google promised it won't try to figure out who the people are from the data.
This lets Google improve its products without using anyone's private secrets.
Google will pay $10 million for Spirit Airlines' corporate data to help train its AI systems, according to bankruptcy case documents.
Google's bid outbid AI training startup Mercor, which had offered $7.5 million.
The dataset includes about 100 million employee emails, roughly 500 million Microsoft Teams messages, and over 190 million booking records.
It also contains more than 17 million OneDrive files, 20 million SharePoint documents, and nearly 30 million lines of code from 516 engineering repositories.
Passenger profiles and frequent flyer information are excluded, and a third party will remove all personally identifiable information before the data is handed over.
- Who
- Google, Spirit Airlines, and AI training startup Mercor, which submitted a rival bid.
- What
- Google agreed to pay $10 million for Spirit Airlines' enterprise data, including employee emails, Microsoft Teams messages, files, and records, to train and improve its AI models and products.
- When
- The deal is documented in bankruptcy case filings after Spirit Airlines went bankrupt and ceased operations earlier this year; no exact date is given.
- Where
- Not explicitly stated in the articles; the sale is part of Spirit Airlines' bankruptcy proceedings.
- Why
- Spirit Airlines went bankrupt and ceased operations, and Google is buying the corporate dataset to help improve its products and AI models.
Privacy advocates
Google / data purchaser
Privacy of employee data
Privacy advocates
Selling a trove of about 100 million employee emails and records, including payroll and tax filings from 1986, raises serious privacy concerns for former Spirit Airlines workers.
Google / data purchaser
A third party will remove all personally identifiable information before handover, and the data will be deidentified so it cannot be associated with specific people or re-identified.
Scope of data sold
Privacy advocates
Handing a technology giant such a large corporate dataset, including booking records, HR files, and code, is concerning even after deidentification.
Google / data purchaser
Passenger profiles and frequent flyer information are excluded from the sale, and Google says the enterprise dataset will help improve its products and AI models.
- Deal value
- $10 million paid by Google
- Competing bid
- Mercor offered $7.5 million
- Employee emails
- About 100 million
- Microsoft Teams messages
- Approximately 500 million
- Booking records
- Over 190 million
- Employee records
- More than 175,000 employees
- Payroll and tax filings
- Dating back to 1986
- Excluded data
- Passenger profiles and frequent flyer information