28 October 2026
AI labs are buying datasets from defunct startups
First reported
The Algorithm ran this on .
- A former crypto startup founder, Keelan Miskell, assumed his company's leftover data was worthless when it shut down.
- AI labs, companies that build large AI models, are now buying datasets from failed startups to train their systems.
- The data is being treated as a sellable asset even after the businesses that collected it have closed.
How it was covered
The AlgorithmMIT Technology Review
Dead startups, the data they hold, and AI labs buying it for model training