SI labs are buying data from defunct startups: emails, chats and code sell for tens of thousands of dollars
Prepared by Sintelligent with the help of SI. Published in SI: . Updated: .
Labs have found a new source for training models, the work archives of closed companies, and the question of employees' rights remains open.
According to MIT Technology Review, intermediaries SimpleClosure (more than 150 deals) and Sunset resell emails, Slack histories, code, calendars and documents. In August 2026 Google paid $10 million for Spirit Airlines data, including 100 million emails and 500 million Teams messages; the flight attendants' union objected on privacy grounds. One founder made about $25,000 for code and about $15,000 for workspace data. Attorney Greg Ewing called such data "legally radioactive"; the money goes to creditors and investors, not employees.
Sources 1