NEW YORK: Google has bought a vast trove of data from bankrupt US budget airline Spirit Airlines for US$10 million to help train artificial intelligence (AI) systems, according to documents filed in the airline's bankruptcy proceedings.
The package, acquired in an auction, includes about 100 million emails and 500 million conversations on Microsoft's Teams messaging platform, as well as software and pricing data.
Google said all personally identifiable information would be removed by a third party before the data was handed over. The dataset could "be helpful in improving our products and AI models", Google said in a statement quoted by US media outlets including Axios on Monday.
The purchase comes as AI companies increasingly seek to acquire internal corporate communications data, including from failed start-ups, to train their systems. Such data could help AI models simulate real-world business processes.
AI company Mercor was the losing bidder in the Spirit auction, offering US$7.5 million, according to the bankruptcy documents.
Spirit Airlines ceased operations in early May after filing for bankruptcy for the second time in less than a year in August 2025.
The budget carrier had initially planned to emerge from bankruptcy with a reduced debt burden, but those plans were derailed by a sharp rise in jet fuel prices during the war with Iran.
