AI startup Micro1 wants to challenge Google's winning bid for Spirit Airlines data with a higher offer

Spirit Airlines.

GIORGIO VIERA / AFP via Getty Images Micro1 says it's making an offer "materially higher" than Google's for Spirit Airlines' data.

The AI startup told the airline it will pay $12.5 million for its data.

Bankruptcy experts say overturning the deal is possible, but a long shot.

Another AI company wants to get its hands on Spirit Airlines' data.

Ali Ansari, 25, the founder and CEO of Micro1, a startup that helps train AI models, told Business Insider that his firm is making a "materially higher" offer for Spirit Airlines' data after Google successfully bid $10 million for it this week.

Micro1 sent a $12.5 million offer to Spirit Airlines' legal team on Wednesday, a person familiar with the matter said.

Spirit Airlines is selling off its assets in bankruptcy court — including troves of corporate data — after going under last year.

Bankruptcy experts told Business Insider it would be unusual — but not out of the question — for the court to consider Micro1's offer after it missed the deadline to bid in the original auction.

Ansari said Micro1's interest reflects the value of company data for training AI models , as it contains the kind of messy inputs that help AI models learn to operate in real-world environments.

"Realistic data is very valuable," he said, calling Google's winning bid "actually quite low" given Spirit Airlines' decades of operation.

Micro1 pays other companies up to $2 million for their data.

Based in San Francisco, Micro1 pays gig workers to improve AI models for its clients, and runs digital 'environments' where AI agents can get better at tasks like booking train tickets.

Founded in 2022, it has about 150 employees and has fielded offers at a $2.5 billion valuation, Forbes reported in December .