Google has won a $10 million bankruptcy auction for Spirit Airlines’ corporate data and custom software, securing a trove of internal records that the company plans to use to improve its products and AI models. The deal emerged from Spirit Aviation Holdings’ bankruptcy process in the US and beat a competing $7.5 million bid from AI recruiting company Mercor.
The package does not include customer or credit-card data, but it does cover enterprise information and software developed by the airline. Court filings described the sale as part of Spirit’s liquidation of non-core assets after its financial collapse. The auction also underlines how airline operating records, pricing data and workflow systems can carry value well beyond their original commercial use.
Google’s purchase reflects growing demand for large, real-world business datasets that can be used to train and refine artificial intelligence systems. Spirit’s remaining assets have been sold off through bankruptcy proceedings, with the data sale standing out as one of the more unusual transactions in the process.