As part of Spirit Airlines' liquidation, Google agreed to buy $10 million worth of the bankrupt carrier's data, including nearly 2 billion emails and 664 million Microsoft Teams messages dating back to 1986. The Association of Flight Attendants objected that Google's original privacy safeguards were insufficient, prompting a revised agreement requiring Spirit to hire third-party firm Tonic AI to strip and de-identify personal employee information before the sale, pending a judge's approval next week.
wired.com
· 2026-11-12
Google has reportedly offered $10 million to acquire Spirit Airlines' data archive, according to Fast Company's AI Decoded newsletter. The bid highlights how major AI companies are pursuing large troves of consumer and business data as a resource for training systems.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-10-22
Springshot, a startup whose operations platform powered Spirit Airlines' logistics until its final flight, says it received no advance notice that Spirit planned to auction a massive trove of operational data to Google as part of its bankruptcy proceedings. The company filed a limited objection arguing the sale agreement's vague data categories could improperly include Springshot's proprietary intellectual property rather than data Spirit actually owns.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-10
Bankrupt Spirit Airlines accepted a $10 million bid from Google to acquire 34 years of company records, including invoices, flight operations details, Wi-Fi sales, and employee files, beating a $7.5 million offer from AI firm Mercor. The Association of Flight Attendants, representing 5,500 former Spirit crew members, has filed a court objection arguing the sale exposes sensitive worker data that employees never consented to having used for AI training, even though Google says customer information is excluded.
wired.com
· 2026-08-25
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