AI Agent · OpenAI · Google · MIT Technology Review
AI labs are buying data from dead firms to teach their models
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 1 source. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◌ Single Source
When Keelan Miskell began winding down his crypto startup this year, he didn’t think its data was worth much: the users were anonymous, the company a few years old.
Key facts
- Asset Hub has handled over 150 deals and expects to return over $10 million to startups by the end of 2026
- He’s netted roughly $25,000 for his code base and a still-pending amount (likely around $15,000) for the workspace data in Google, Notion, Figma, and Slack
- This past August, as part of Spirit Airlines’ bankruptcy, Google outbid the AI data company Mercor to buy the carrier’s decades of data, including 100 million emails, 500 million Teams messages
- Estimates from Carta and AngelList show shutdowns rising between 26% and 56% annually in recent years, and an end-of-life ecosystem—including coaches, “death doulas,” and firms that help handle
Summary
The sale was brokered by a company called SimpleClosure, part of a new growth sector in tech: businesses catering to dying startups. SimpleClosure added data sales to its services in April. Asset Hub has handled over 150 deals and expects to return over $10 million to startups by the end of 2026. And it’s got company. Demand for defunct companies’ data emerged suddenly last year, as AI training labs hit the limits of public and synthetic datasets.