License source code to AI companies: prices and checks
The short answer
Troveo's guide says AI companies want full code history: commits, pull requests and code reviews. It cites an unnamed platform's $5,000 baseline per repository. Shutdown deals run $10,000 to $100,000 per company. Google bid $10 million for Spirit Airlines' archive, with 30 million lines of code.
Our legal page on source code covers licenses and export rules. This page covers what buyers want and what has been reported.
What does Troveo say labs want with source code?
A snapshot of source code is worth little to a lab, Troveo says, because there's already a lot of code in the world.
In Troveo's account, labs pay for production history: full commit history, pull requests and code review, linked tickets, design docs and incident notes, and the configuration that lets a buyer run the code. Troveo calls the trail around the code workflow data.
Troveo sells this service, so read the list as its view of what labs ask for.
What have sales reported?
- An unnamed platform's baseline: $5,000 per repository, adjusted up or down after grading, as Troveo's guide reports it. The guide doesn't name the platform.
- SimpleClosure: about $10,000 to $100,000 per shutting-down company, nearly 100 deals in a year, per Gizmodo.
- A single founder: hundreds of thousands of dollars for a complete company dataset including code, as Troveo reports it.
- Spirit Airlines: Google's $10 million bid covered about 30 million lines of code with the emails and chats, and the court has not approved it.
What do owners clear first?
Troveo's checklist has three parts. Confirm that every contributor, including contractors and agencies, assigned their work to the company.
Inventory open-source dependencies and flag copyleft code. Remove secrets, credentials and customer data from the history. Code written for clients may belong to the client.
Is a source code deal a license or an outright sale?
Troveo says an operating company usually licenses and keeps ownership, and that an outright sale is common in a shutdown. See shutting down and licensing workspace data for that route. Talk to a commercial lawyer in your state before you sign.
Our rights check asks about customer contracts, NDAs and who can sign, and our free fit check asks whether code repositories are among your systems. Neither reviews open-source licenses.
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
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. Ask for a referral
