Google's $10 million "bargain" on bankrupt airline Spirit Airlines: 100 million emails and 500 million Teams records will become AI fuel

According to Zhitong Finance APP, Google (GOOGL.US) recently won a bankruptcy auction, successfully acquiring a large amount of de-identified commercial data, software code, and operational records from the defunct low-cost airline Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc. Google stated that it plans to utilize these assets to further optimize its artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

An announcement submitted to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on August 14 indicated that Google bid $10 million to encompass the vast data resources of the bankrupt airline, which include 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams chats and collaboration records, as well as information related to revenue, aircraft operations, employee productivity, auditing, and risk control.

According to court documents, this acquisition does not include personal data and privileged materials, such as Spirit's 97.5 million passenger records and approximately 50.2 million "Free Spirit" loyalty program records. Additionally, court documents show that the relevant data will undergo further processing to ensure it cannot be linked to specific customers.

Google emphasized in a statement on Monday that the company will not acquire any personal information, and all data will be strictly de-identified by a third party before delivery, completely removing any identifiable personal information.

Google stated, "We have acquired a portion of Spirit Airlines' corporate data set, which is expected to provide valuable support for improving our products and AI models."

Headquartered in Florida, Spirit officially ceased operations on May 2. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in two years, impacted by soaring fuel prices and failed financing negotiations. At the time of its shutdown, Spirit was burdened with approximately $8.1 billion in debt and had laid off about 17,000 employees.

Court records indicate that the acquired data set also includes information related to marketing activities, human resources, strategic planning, and project management. Additionally, the data encompasses 7.2 billion records of competitor flight pricing, approximately 7.5 billion passenger transaction records since 2008, and pricing curve data.

Google's acquisition also includes about 30 million lines of code, development metadata, as well as software models and algorithms. Furthermore, this transaction includes over 175,000 employee records traceable back to 1986.

In this bidding process, Google's bid exceeded the $7.5 million offer made by AI talent recruitment company Mercor.io Corp., which has been designated as a backup buyer in case the Google transaction does not complete.

Last month, Spirit received bankruptcy court approval to sell its 22 takeoff and landing slots at New York's LaGuardia Airport to JetBlue Airways (JBLU.US) for $58.5 million