- Buyers include foundation AI labs, vendors building simulated workspaces, and companies training their own models.
- Alphabet paid $10 million for Spirit Airlines' data in August 2026, outbidding Mercor.
- Surge AI buys workplace archives to build agent training environments.
- Intermediaries include SimpleClosure, Sunset and brokers.
Buyers reported
| Buyer | What they bought or sought | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Alphabet (Google) | Spirit Airlines' emails, Teams messages and records, $10 million | TravelPulse |
| Mercor | Bid for Spirit Airlines' data | MIT Technology Review |
| Surge AI | Slack, email and calendar histories for RL environments | MIT Technology Review |
| SpaceX's AI unit | Reportedly weighing purchases (Bloomberg, September 2026) | MIT Technology Review |
| Foundation labs and simulated-workspace vendors | Code and workspace data via asset platforms | MIT Technology Review |
Intermediaries
| Intermediary | Model |
|---|---|
| SimpleClosure | Wind-down service with an Asset Hub; 150+ deals |
| Sunset | Wind-down service with a data resale business |
| AI Data For Sale (us) | Broker introducing vetted buyers under negotiated licenses |
What buyers look for
Varied archives with real decisions and disagreements, years of history, and clear rights. Valuations rest on estimates of how many useful training tasks the data yields, so documentation matters (MIT Technology Review).
Read next
Questions
Why do AI companies want dead startups' Slack and email?
To train agents on how real work happens. Real archives show decisions, disagreements and outcomes that synthetic data struggles to reproduce.