Google (GOOGL.US) “picks up the leak” of the bankrupt airline Spirit Airlines data: 100 million emails and 500 million Teams records will become AI nourishment

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Google (GOOGL.US) recently won a bankruptcy auction and successfully competed for a large amount of de-identified commercial data, software codes, and operating records under Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc., a low-cost airline that has ceased operations. Google said it plans to use these assets to further optimize its artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

According to an announcement submitted to the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on August 14, Google used a bid of 10 million US dollars to include the huge data resources of the defunct airline, including 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams chat and collaboration records, and information relating to revenue, aircraft operations, employee productivity, audit and risk control.

According to court documents, the acquisition did not include personal data and privileged materials, such as Spirit's 97.5 million passenger files and approximately 50.2 million “Free Spirit” membership records. Furthermore, court documents also indicate that the relevant data will be further processed to ensure that it cannot be linked to a specific customer.

Google stressed in a statement on Monday that the company will not obtain any personal information, and all data will be strictly desensitized by a third party before delivery to completely remove personally identifiable information.

Google said, “We have acquired part of the Spirit Airlines corporate data set, which is expected to provide useful support for improving our products and AI models.”

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

Court records show that the acquisition's data set also includes information on marketing activities, human resources, strategic planning, and project management. In addition, the data also covers 7.2 billion competitor flight pricing records, approximately 7.5 billion passenger transaction records since 2008, and pricing curve data.

The target of Google's acquisition also included approximately 30 million lines of code, development metadata, and software models and algorithms. At the same time, the deal also included more than 175,000 employee records dating back to 1986.

In this bid, Google's bid was higher than the $7.5 million offer proposed by the AI talent recruitment company Mercor.io Corp. The latter has been designated as a backup buyer in case the Google transaction fails to complete.

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