WASHINGTON (August 18, 2026) – Google LLC won a bankruptcy auction for obtaining business data, software code, and operations records from Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc. Google plans to use those assets to improve its artificial intelligence. According to court records, Google’s purchase does not include personal data, like Spirit’s 97.5 million passenger profiles or an estimated 50.2 million records related to the Free Spirit loyalty program.
The purchase includes data related to marketing campaigns, human resources, and project management, as well as about 30 million lines of code, development metadata, software models, and algorithms. The data also includes more than 175,000 employee records dating back to 1986.
For more analysis on these developments, please consider Scott J. White, Associate Professor and Director of the Cybersecurity Program and Cyber Academy at the College of Professional Studies. White is an expert in cybersecurity, cybercrime, counter-terrorism and infrastructure protection. He has worked for a variety of law enforcement agencies in the US, the UK and Canada, holds a Queen’s Commission, and was an officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
To schedule an interview, please contact Nadia Payne at nadia [dot] payne
gwu [dot] edu (nadia[dot]payne[at]gwu[dot]edu) or GW Media Relations at gwmediagwu [dot] edu (gwmedia[at]gwu[dot]edu).
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