AI Companies Buy Failed Startups’ Digital Assets to Train Agentic AI, Raising Privacy Concerns

As the supply of publicly available online data for large language models dwindles, AI labs are turning to companies’ internal work records to train Agentic AI systems capable of handling projects and office tasks. SimpleClosure has launched Asset Hub, a marketplace where failed startups can sell Slack messages, emails and Jira data. Employees, however, may not have consented to the resale of their conversations, while the risks of inadequate anonymization and models leaking sensitive information have fueled privacy concerns.

A report dated April 26, 2026, said voice-transcription startup Cielo24 used SimpleClosure to sell several terabytes of communications and support tickets accumulated over 13 years, receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars and paying its bills. SimpleClosure facilitated nearly 100 transactions over the past year, recovering more than $1 million for founders, with each company receiving about $10,000 to $100,000. The Center for AI and Digital Policy warned that the data could still be used to identify individual employees.