Alphabet Inc Class CGoogle buys Spirit Airlines data for $10M to train AI models, showing aggressive data acquisition

Alphabet's Google agreed to buy internal business data from bankrupt Spirit Airlines for $10 million, outbidding a $7.5 million offer from AI data company Mercor. The purchase includes employee emails, Microsoft Teams messages, spreadsheets, calendars, and marketing and operations records, with customer information stripped before the sale closes at a bankruptcy court hearing. The deal is tiny by Alphabet's standards but signals how aggressively the company is hunting for raw material to train its AI models. Alphabet reported second-quarter net income of $112.2 billion on revenue of $119.8 billion, but $98 billion of that came from other income, mainly a $94.1 billion unrealized gain tied to its early stake in SpaceX. Google Cloud revenue grew 82% year over year to $24.8 billion, while Alphabet raised its 2026 capital expenditure guidance to as much as $205 billion.
Alphabet Inc Class CGoogle buys Spirit Airlines data for $10M to train AI models, showing aggressive data acquisition
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Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Class A Common StockMercor lost the bidding war for Spirit Airlines data to Alphabet