Micro1 offered $12.5 million for Spirit Airlines' data after Google's $10 million bid won the auction. A bankruptcy judge will decide if the late offer can disrupt the sale. Next hearing Sept 9.
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Micro1, an AI training startup, offered $12.5 million for Spirit Airlines' corporate data this week. That is $2.5 million more than Google's winning bid of $10 million in the bankruptcy auction, a person familiar with the matter said.
Ali Ansari, Micro1's 25-year-old founder and CEO, told Business Insider the bid is "materially higher." He called Google's winning offer "actually quite low" given Spirit operated for decades. Micro1 pays other companies up to $2 million for their data, he said.
Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy last year and is selling assets in federal court. The data includes troves of operational records that AI companies value for training models. Mercor, another AI training startup, bid $7.5 million before losing to Google.
Bankruptcy law professors said judges sometimes entertain late bids that generate significantly more money for creditors. Courts also want to preserve the auction process, they said.
Nancy Rapoport, a law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said a well-run auction generally won't get undone. "The higher bidder had the opportunity to bid during the auction," she said.
Lindsey Simon, an associate law professor at Emory University, said the outcome often depends on the judge. "The bankruptcy code isn't clear on this," she said.
The federal bankruptcy court in New York has not approved the auction results. A hearing scheduled for Tuesday was delayed after former Spirit flight attendants objected over concerns about their personal data. Google has said any data it receives will be "rigorously scrubbed" of personally identifiable information by a third party.
Ansari said Micro1 is working on submitting details of its offer to the court. A hearing for the data sale is set for September 9.
Google, Spirit Airlines, and Mercor declined to comment. A representative for Spirit's creditors committee did not respond to requests for comment.
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