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- AI labs are buying data from dead startups to train their models
MIT Technology Review reports that a new cohort of companies is selling defunct startups' digital assets to AI training buyers. SimpleClosure's Asset Hub helps founders sell code and workspace data from Google, Notion, Figma and Slack; CEO Dori Yona says it has handled more than 150 deals and expects to return over $10 million to startups by the end of 2026, with 47% of deals now including code or data sales, while rival Sunset is also growing its data resale business. The report says Google outbid data company Mercor in August in Spirit Airlines' bankruptcy, paying $10 million for about 100 million emails, 500 million Teams messages and 176,000 employee records, while firms such as Surge AI use such archives to build reinforcement-learning environments. Real archives avoid common errors in synthetic worlds, but the piece notes no company has published tests comparing real-world data training with alternatives, and pricing varies widely because valuations rest on uncertain "research theses". Privacy advocates and attorneys question the sales, and the report says proceeds typically go to senior creditors and investors rather than employees.
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