How a closed or bankrupt company can sell its data to AI labs
By Nico Vergauwen, founder of grokkedPublished Updated 6 min read
Yes. A company that is closing down, bankrupt or in liquidation can license its internal data to AI labs: email, chat, tickets, documents and code. Who decides depends on timing. If you are winding the company down yourself, it can license its data for as long as it exists. Once a court opens a bankruptcy or judicial liquidation, the company loses control of its assets and the curator or liquidator decides (eJustice, Faillissementswet, e-Justice). grokked works with both: owners closing their company, and curators and liquidators.
Buyers are paying. In Spirit Airlines’ bankruptcy auction, Google bid $10 million for the airline’s emails, Teams chats and files (TechSpot), and SimpleClosure, which helps startups wind down, handled nearly 100 such deals in a year (Fortune). The GDPR still applies, so personal data comes out before any buyer sees anything.
Key takeaways
- Bankruptcy doesn’t make workplace data worthless. For startups shutting down, SimpleClosure reports typical payments of $10,000 to $100,000 per company.
- After the judgment, the curator (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg) or the liquidator (France) decides, under the oversight of a supervisory judge or the court.
- The GDPR still applies. Belgium’s data protection authority holds that the curator takes over as controller.
- grokked de-identifies first, then sells non-exclusive licenses. The seller approves every buyer and is paid within 7 days of each sale.
- You pay nothing. grokked takes a commission on each sale.
What the Spirit Airlines case shows
Spirit Airlines shut down in May 2026 and is selling its remaining assets through the bankruptcy court (TravelPulse). Those assets include its internal data: about 100 million emails, 500 million Teams chats, 17 million OneDrive files and 516 code repositories (TechSpot).
At auction, Mercor bid $7.5 million and Google $10 million; Micro1 later proposed $12.5 million (Fortune). As of mid-September 2026, the sale was still awaiting the bankruptcy court’s approval (TravelPulse).
A third party removes personal information before the transfer, and the buyer may not try to identify anyone (TechSpot). Customer profiles and loyalty data are excluded from the sale (TravelPulse).
Spirit isn’t an outlier. For startups shutting down, SimpleClosure reports typical payments of $10,000 to $100,000 per company (Gizmodo, Fortune). For the data types labs buy, see who buys AI training data and what they pay.
Who can sell the data
It depends on where the company stands.
| Situation | Who decides | What the law says |
|---|---|---|
| You’re closing the company yourself | The company, while it exists | The same rules as for any company; see is it legal to sell company data to AI? |
| Bankruptcy in Belgium | The curator (curateur) | The bankrupt loses the administration of all its assets by operation of law; the curator administers the estate, liquidates it and distributes the proceeds to creditors (art. XX.110 and XX.98 Code of Economic Law) (eJustice) |
| Bankruptcy in the Netherlands | The curator | The debtor loses the right to dispose of and manage its assets by operation of law; the curator manages and liquidates the estate and may sell assets (art. 23, 68 and 101 Faillissementswet) (Faillissementswet) |
| Judicial liquidation in France | The liquidator, usually a mandataire judiciaire | The debtor loses the administration and disposal of its assets; the liquidator exercises most of its property rights (e-Justice) |
| Bankruptcy in Luxembourg | The curator (curateur) | The bankrupt loses the administration of all its assets by operation of law, which passes to a court-appointed curator; a supervisory judge oversees the liquidation (e-Justice) |
Judges oversee asset sales. In the Netherlands, a private sale of estate assets needs the supervisory judge’s consent unless they are worth €2,000 or less in total (art. 176 Faillissementswet) (Faillissementswet). In France, the liquidator needs the juge-commissaire’s authorization to sell assets (e-Justice), and in Luxembourg the curator needs the court’s authorization (e-Justice). In Belgium, the curator may, with the juge-commissaire’s authorization, bring in help to realize the assets (art. XX.134) (eJustice).
grokked works with curators, liquidators and owners closing their company. The curator, liquidator or owner stays the seller: we are a broker, not a buyer.
The GDPR still applies
A bankrupt company’s archive is full of personal data, and the GDPR covers any information about an identifiable person (GDPR, recital 26).
In 2024, Belgium’s data protection authority held that the curator takes over the role of controller from the bankruptcy onward. Transferring personal data to realize the assets is, in its view, a new purpose that isn’t compatible with the original one and so needs its own legal basis. It did accept that winding up a bankruptcy is a legitimate interest (APD).
In the Netherlands, the curator may process personal data as far as necessary to manage and liquidate the estate, including selling assets and preparing a sale (art. 68a Faillissementswet) (Faillissementswet).
That’s why nothing reaches a buyer through grokked before it is de-identified. Truly anonymous data is outside the GDPR (GDPR), and buyers only get a de-identified copy.
Staff and unions
The staff have often left, but their emails and chats are in the archive. The GDPR requires telling people before their data is processed for a new purpose (art. 13(3)) (GDPR).
At Spirit, the unions objected. The flight attendants’ union warned that individuals or small groups might still be identifiable despite de-identification. The pilots’ union wanted medical records, fatigue reports and training records kept out of the sale (TravelPulse).
So leave personnel files out of scope, and pick channels and folders that show the work, not the people. With grokked, DMs and private channels are excluded by default, and you approve the de-identified sample before anything is listed.
How it works for curators, liquidators and owners
- Get an estimate. Pick the data types, headcount and years. 60 seconds.
- Approve the scope. In a 20-minute call, you pick the channels, folders and date ranges. Nothing is included by default.
- We de-identify first. Personal and confidential details are removed before anything goes into our catalog. You approve the de-identified sample.
- AI labs license it. Buyers get a non-exclusive license to a de-identified copy. You approve each buyer by name.
- The seller gets paid. Within 7 days of each sale; in a bankruptcy or liquidation, the seller is the curator or liquidator.
You pay nothing: no sign-up, setup or exit fees. grokked takes a commission on each sale. Each license lasts at most 3 years, and the whole process takes about an hour of your time.
For a standard sale, see how to sell AI training data in Europe or how grokked sells company data to AI labs. To compare services, read where to sell AI training data.
See what your data is worth.
Get an estimate in 60 seconds. Listing your data costs nothing.
This guide is general information about EU, Belgian, Dutch, French and Luxembourg rules as of October 2026, not legal advice. A curator, liquidator or owner making the decision should ask their lawyer or data protection officer.
Questions
Can a bankruptcy curator sell a company’s data in Belgium?
The curator administers and liquidates the bankrupt’s estate (art. XX.98 Code of Economic Law) (eJustice). Belgium’s data protection authority treats the curator as the controller and requires a separate legal basis to transfer personal data to realize the assets (APD). Through grokked, only a de-identified copy is licensed.
Can I sell data from a company I’m closing down?
Yes, while the company exists. The same rules apply as for any company licensing its data: de-identify it, inform staff, and leave out anything under professional secrecy or an NDA. grokked also works with owners closing their company.
How much is a bankrupt company’s data worth?
There is no set price. For startups shutting down, SimpleClosure reports typical payments of $10,000 to $100,000 per company, and Google bid $10 million for Spirit Airlines’ data (Fortune). The grokked estimator gives a range in 60 seconds.
Are customer records part of the sale?
No. Personal data is removed before anything is licensed. Spirit’s sale also excludes customer profiles and loyalty data (TravelPulse).
Did Google buy Spirit Airlines’ data?
Google won the auction with a $10 million bid (TechSpot), and Micro1 later proposed $12.5 million (Fortune). As of mid-September 2026, the sale still needed the bankruptcy court’s approval (TravelPulse).
See what your data is worth.
Get an estimate in 60 seconds. Listing your data costs nothing.
Sources
- Belgian Official Gazette (eJustice). Code de droit économique, livre XX (articles XX.98, XX.110 and XX.134)
- wetten.overheid.nl. Faillissementswet (articles 23, 68, 68a, 101 and 176)
- European e-Justice Portal, March 3, 2025. Insolvabilité/faillite – France
- TechSpot, August 18, 2026. Google pays $10 million for 100 million Spirit Airlines emails and 500 million Teams chats to train AI
- Fortune, September 14, 2026. Little-known AI startup Micro1 tries to trump Google’s bid for bankrupt Spirit Airlines’ data
- TravelPulse, September 15, 2026. What travelers should know about Spirit Airlines’ potential data sale to Google
- Gizmodo, April 17, 2026. Failed companies are selling old Slack chats and email archives to train AI
- European e-Justice Portal, March 2, 2025. Insolvabilité/faillite – Luxembourg
- EUR-Lex, April 27, 2016. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation)
- Autorité de protection des données (Belgium), August 27, 2024. Décision quant au fond 108/2024 du 27 août 2024
About the author
Nico Vergauwen
Nico Vergauwen is the founder of grokked, a data broker that licenses companies’ de-identified internal data to AI labs. Owners never pay anything and are paid within 7 days of each sale.