SpaceXAI has held informal internal discussions about buying customer and operational data from failed startups to train Grok, though the talks may not lead to a transaction. The plan would target companies that have ceased operating, rather than licensing data from active businesses. Google paid $10 million in a bankruptcy auction for Spirit Airlines’ internal records, including about 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams messages and decades of employee files. A flight attendants’ union has challenged that sale in bankruptcy court, arguing that removing names may not prevent people from being identified. SpaceXAI told employees in August that it would also train Grok on all of SpaceX’s internal records. Elon Musk said the model would effectively absorb employees’ thoughts and outlooks, though the company did not specify which data would be used or how. SpaceX released Grok 4.5 in July as its first model since the xAI merger closed, while another Grok version has been delayed.