# AI labs buying startup archives: who, why, how much > AI labs buying startup archives want realistic workplace records for agent training. Reported payouts run $10,000 to $300,000, per company and press claims. By Matt Burns, Vaultfish. Canonical: https://vaultfish.com/answers/ai-labs-buying-startup-archives Published: 2026-09-14 Updated: 2026-10-14 ## The short answer AI labs buy startup archives to train agents on real workplace records. SimpleClosure processed nearly 100 deals in a year at $10,000 to $100,000 per company, and Mercor made offers up to $300,000. All figures are company claims or press reports, not guaranteed payouts. So who is actually writing the checks? Mostly data vendors and agent builders. The press names few labs outright. ## Why do labs want a dead startup's records? [Gizmodo reported](https://gizmodo.com/failed-companies-are-selling-old-slack-chats-and-email-archives-to-train-ai-2000747916) that buyers build "RL gyms." These are simulated workplaces where an AI agent practices tasks such as planning a birthday celebration for a coworker. [Futurism reported](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/employer-selling-emails-train-ai) that the data is valued for its realistic workplace noise. That noise makes agent tests look like a real company. [Fortune](https://fortune.com/2026/09/14/micro1-tries-to-beat-googles-bid-to-buy-bankrupt-spirit-airlines-data-for-12-5-million-highlighting-value-of-data-to-ai-companies/) wrote that AI companies call the record of steps in a workflow a trajectory. My page on [what AI labs do with company data](/answers/what-do-ai-labs-do-with-company-data) explains the uses Epoch lists. [Why labs want real data](/answers/why-ai-labs-want-real-company-data) covers the synthetic alternative. ## Who is buying? [Mercor](/buyers/mercor) approached Warmly, an AI agent startup, about eight days after Warmly announced its acquisition by HubSpot in late June 2026. Warmly's founder declined ([BigGo](https://finance.biggo.com/news/d34746c0-e437-4855-93c5-09c6e850550d)). BigGo says Mercor targets Slack logs, GitHub records, Asana content, Google Drive files and meeting transcripts. Bloomberg, relayed by [Yahoo Finance](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/spacex-discusses-buying-data-ai-154235416.html), reported that SpaceX's AI unit was weighing purchases. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. Gizmodo reported that Anthropic leadership discussed spending up to $1 billion on RL gyms. I found no archive purchase by Anthropic named. ## How do founders license their data? There are three routes: - a shutdown service such as SimpleClosure's [Asset Hub](/answers/simpleclosure-asset-hub) ([launch post](https://simpleclosure.com/blog/insights/simpleclosure-asset-hub/)) - a listing board such as [BuyMyDeadStartup](/answers/buymydeadstartup) - approaching a vendor directly My page on [licensing startup data](/answers/sell-startup-data-to-ai) compares the routes. It also lists the buyers that take a company still operating. The [shutdown checklist](/guides/startup-shutdown-checklist-ai-data) puts the data decision before you close accounts, and I'd keep it there. ## What do critics say? Marc Rotenberg of the Center for AI and Digital Policy told [Gizmodo](https://gizmodo.com/failed-companies-are-selling-old-slack-chats-and-email-archives-to-train-ai-2000747916) the privacy issues are "quite substantial." Futurism reported that privacy experts question anonymization claims. They say employee data stays identifiable. See [re-identification risk](/answers/can-ai-re-identify-anonymized-emails-and-slack-messages). ## What is not shown? [Epoch's review of the market](https://epoch.ai/gradient-updates/state-of-rl-envs) prices a website clone near $20,000, a clone of a product like Slack near $300,000 and a task at $200 to $2,000. It doesn't say real company data fills those environments. So the link from a startup archive to a training run is a stated plan from buyers. I'd keep that gap in mind with every number above. Talk to a corporate or privacy lawyer in your state before you sign. The [rights check](/rights-check) and [risk map](/risks) list where deals break. Our only referral relationship is with micro1, an AI data company. It may pay us a fee if a company we introduce goes ahead with it. You pay nothing extra. [How we are paid](https://vaultfish.com/disclosure) Figure: scale, Reported deals and offers, per startup: Top SimpleClosure deal $100K, A reported Mercor offer $300K (emphasized). One reported Mercor offer ran three times the top SimpleClosure deal. Source: Gizmodo and BigGo, self-reported and press-reported. _Vaultfish helps you run the process. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. If you need counsel who knows this area, we can point you to one._ ## Sources - [Gizmodo reported](https://gizmodo.com/failed-companies-are-selling-old-slack-chats-and-email-archives-to-train-ai-2000747916) - [Futurism reported](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/employer-selling-emails-train-ai) - [Fortune](https://fortune.com/2026/09/14/micro1-tries-to-beat-googles-bid-to-buy-bankrupt-spirit-airlines-data-for-12-5-million-highlighting-value-of-data-to-ai-companies/) - [BigGo](https://finance.biggo.com/news/d34746c0-e437-4855-93c5-09c6e850550d) - [Yahoo Finance](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/spacex-discusses-buying-data-ai-154235416.html) - [launch post](https://simpleclosure.com/blog/insights/simpleclosure-asset-hub/) - [Epoch's review of the market](https://epoch.ai/gradient-updates/state-of-rl-envs)