AI labs acquire data from defunct startups via new afterlife marketplaces

A growing ecosystem of "tech undertakers" now brokers the sale of data, code, and workplace archives from defunct startups to AI labs and other buyers. Services like SimpleClosure’s Asset Hub and Sunset facilitate these transactions, which have moved from rare to routine within the past year.

SimpleClosure’s Asset Hub has completed over 150 deals and expects to return more than $10 million to founders by the end of 2026. CEO Dori Yona reports that 47% of SimpleClosure’s deals now include code or data sales, up from a smaller share when the service launched in April.

Pricing varies widely due to uncertain valuations. For example, Keelan Miskell sold a small crypto startup’s code base for roughly $25,000 and expects an additional $15,000 for workspace data stored in Google, Notion, Figma, and Slack. In contrast, Google paid $10 million in August for Spirit Airlines’ decades of data, including 100 million emails, 500 million Teams messages, and 176,000 employee records during the carrier’s bankruptcy process.

Buyers include foundation AI labs, vendors building simulated workspaces for AI training, and mature tech companies developing their own models. Surge AI, for instance, uses such archives to construct reinforcement-learning environments where AI agents practice tasks like debugging IT architectures or drafting legal briefs.

Legal and ethical concerns remain unresolved. Spirit Airlines’ flight attendants’ union objected to the sale on privacy grounds, and attorney Greg Ewing has described such data as "legally radioactive" due to the potential presence of sensitive personal details in emails, calendars, and chats. Suppliers and buyers report scrubbing personally identifiable information, but the adequacy of these measures is debated.

Proceeds from these sales typically flow to senior creditors and investors, not employees, raising questions about fairness and consent. Ifeoma Ajunwa, a law professor at Emory University, characterizes this as a form of "captured capital" and argues that workers should provide express consent before their data is sold after a firm’s closure.