When a company closes, its Slack, email, tickets and code are usually deleted with the last software bill. In 2026 that has become an asset decision. AI labs and their data partners now pay for the records of how real companies worked, and closed companies are one of their main sources. Before anything is deleted, find out what the records are worth and who can sign for them. A two-minute way to start: get a confidential estimate.
Why buyers want records from closed companies
MIT Technology Review reported on Oct 13, 2026 that AI labs are buying data from dead startups to train their models. The article noted that startup shutdown rates rose between 26% and 56% a year, citing Carta and AngelList estimates. A closed company’s archive is complete, it no longer competes with anyone, and the founders are often ready to sign.
Who buys from companies that are winding down?
These programs say on their own pages, or in the Who Sells Data register, that they accept closing or closed companies.
| Program | What it takes | Price or fee |
|---|---|---|
| SimpleClosure AssetHub | Source code and workspace data | Free for SimpleClosure dissolution customers; success fee otherwise, rate not published |
| Turing Project Lazarus | Full operating record, code included | Single payment up to $1M |
| Ooak Data | Work-tool data from operating, winding-down and closed companies | Closed deals from $20K to several hundred thousand dollars |
| The General Data Company | Industrial operating records, including companies no longer trading | One-off price or revenue share |
| Appen | Operational documentation and decision records | Not published; a faster path for companies winding down |
| HUD DataVendor | Codebases and records, self-listed | 20% fee on bank withdrawals |
| pre.dev | Private codebases with git history | $100 per million source tokens plus $40 per million git-history tokens |
Sources: each program’s page, observed Oct 16, 2026, and Who Sells Data, observed Oct 14, 2026. MIT Technology Review also named Sunset, a wind-down firm with a growing data resale business that values assets by headcount, years in operation, data volume and tool use.
What do shut-down companies actually get?
The disclosed numbers are modest at the small end.
- Forbes reported typical SimpleClosure payouts of $10,000 to $100,000 per company in April 2026 (via Skylab Intel, Oct 8, 2026).
- A crypto startup netted about $25,000 for its codebase, with about $15,000 more expected for workspace data from Google, Notion, Figma and Slack (MIT Technology Review, Oct 13, 2026).
- SimpleClosure said in September that AssetHub had supported 350+ companies and was on track to return more than $10M by the end of 2026 (SimpleClosure, Sep 3, 2026).
Larger companies with years of records across many teams sit in the published bands most buyers use, usually from $100,000. Our guide on what company data is worth covers those bands.
A checklist before you shut anything off
- Pause deletion. Tell whoever is closing accounts not to cancel Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, GitHub, Jira or your CRM until you have decided.
- Check retention duties. Some records must be kept for tax, employment or litigation reasons. Your accountant and counsel decide this, separately from any license.
- List what exists. Systems, date ranges and rough volume. Buyers price on years of history and how many tools connect.
- Confirm who can sign. In an ordinary dissolution, that is the officers or the board. In a bankruptcy or assignment for the benefit of creditors, it is the trustee or assignee, and a sale needs court or fiduciary approval.
- Check ownership. Customer data, client deliverables and vendor-generated records may not be yours to license. FKKS lists the common problems in its Oct 1, 2026 guide.
- Exclude HR, payroll and health records. SimpleClosure does not sell sensitive employee and health records, and most buyers exclude them.
- Think about former employees. Their messages are in the archive. The flight attendants’ union objected to the Spirit Airlines data sale on privacy grounds (MIT Technology Review). Ask counsel what notice applies in your state.
- Export before access ends. A buyer needs read access or an export. Keep one admin account alive until the deal closes.
- Compare more than one route. A wind-down platform, a direct buyer and a seller-side advisor will price the same archive differently.
- Put payment terms in writing. Most buyers pay on acceptance of the de-identified data. The company must still exist to receive the money, so time the final dissolution filing after payment.
What about bankruptcy?
In a bankruptcy, company data is an asset of the estate. The Spirit Airlines case shows how this works. Google won the auction with a $10M bid (iTnews, Aug 19, 2026). micro1 filed a late $12.5M bid and Mercor was the backup at $7.5M (ch-aviation, Aug 24, 2026). A court-appointed privacy ombudsman recommended approval after passenger databases were removed from the deal (The Next Web, Oct 9, 2026). The approval hearing then moved to Nov 6, 2026 (TravelPulse, Oct 10, 2026). Proceeds go to the estate and follow its priority rules, so creditors benefit before shareholders.
Wind-down platform or seller-side advisor?
A wind-down platform is convenient if you already use it for the dissolution, and SimpleClosure’s AssetHub is free for its own dissolution customers. A seller-side advisor runs the records past several buyers and negotiates for you. Marin Data costs you nothing. More in how seller-side data advisors work.
Shutdowns move fast. A short call before the accounts close keeps your options open. Get a confidential estimate.
Sources
- MIT Technology Review, AI labs are buying data from dead startups, Oct 13, 2026
- Skylab Intel, AI labs are buying company records, Oct 8, 2026
- SimpleClosure release via Webull, Sep 3, 2026
- Who Sells Data, buying programs, observed Oct 14, 2026
- Turing Project Lazarus, Ooak Data, HUD DataVendor docs, pre.dev, observed Oct 14–16, 2026
- Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, selling company data for AI training, Oct 1, 2026
- iTnews (Reuters), Aug 19, 2026; ch-aviation, Aug 24, 2026; The Next Web, Oct 9, 2026; TravelPulse, Oct 10, 2026