by Donald Wood
Last updated: 8:05 AM ET, Tue August 18, 2026
Google announced on Monday that it had agreed to pay $10
million for a massive collection of internal business data from bankrupt Spirit
Airlines.
According to Reuters.com, the details of the deal were revealed Monday
in bankruptcy court, as Google’s parent company, Alphabet, purchased the data
through a bankruptcy auction by submitting the winning $10 million bid.
As part of the decision to purchase Spirit’s data, Google
plans to use the information for product development and to improve the
training of its artificial intelligence models.
The deal includes Google receiving approximately 100 million
emails and 500 million Microsoft Teams chats, along with other internal
business records and technology assets.
The purchase does not include the defunct airline’s customer
list or credit card information, which will be stripped of personally
identifiable information before transfer.
The deal comes just months after Spirit began winding down operations on May 2, canceling all remaining
flights after rising fuel prices and other financial pressures derailed its
plans to emerge from bankruptcy.
Spirit had previously announced a restructuring plan that
was expected to allow the airline to emerge from bankruptcy in the spring or
summer of 2026. TravelPulse reported at the time that the carrier had been cutting
costs, shrinking its fleet and reducing routes in an effort to return to
profitability.
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