Google has won a bankruptcy auction to acquire a large trove of operational data from defunct Spirit Airlines, prompting objections from third-party technology vendors who fear their own intellectual property is being swept up in the sale. Springshot, a startup whose airline-efficiency platform powered Spirit's technology stack until its final flight, says it received no notice of the auction and warns that the vaguely defined data categories in the sale agreement could improperly include IP that Spirit never owned. The case has raised broader concerns that bankruptcy proceedings could become a mechanism for large AI companies to acquire valuable proprietary data without the consent of the smaller firms that actually created it.

Springshot has filed a limited objection asking the bankruptcy court to pause the sale until a forensic review confirms no third-party data is included, arguing that categories such as "productivity and collaboration data" and "workflow and process data" fail to distinguish Spirit's own data from that of its vendors. Aircraft engine maker International Aero Engines has raised similar concerns, citing confidentiality clauses it says were ignored. Google has declined to address these objections directly, stating only that it acquired part of an "enterprise dataset" to help improve its products and AI models, and that no personal information is included. The dispute follows Ryanair's recent five-year data-sharing partnership with Google, fuelling Springshot's fear that its own IP could be used to build a competing product.