Code, chats, and documents can now be sold after a company closes, but their value and safeguards remain unsettled.

When startups shut down, their digital records can become training material for AI systems. SimpleClosure added data sales to its wind-down services in April through Asset Hub, a platform that helps founders sell code and workplace data such as emails, chats, and documents.

According to MIT Technology Review, buyers include foundation AI labs, companies building simulated training environments, and established technology companies developing their own models. Asset Hub says it has handled more than 150 deals, expects to return over $10 million to startups by the end of 2026, and now includes code or data sales in 47% of its deals. Rival Sunset is also expanding in this market.

The appeal is practical. Surge AI buys archives to build “reinforcement-learning gyms,” where AI agents practice tasks such as debugging complex IT architectures and drafting appellate briefs. Real records can capture disagreements and difficult decisions that synthetic environments sometimes represent inaccurately, but the performance benefit remains unproven.

No company has released tests comparing systems trained on real workplace archives with systems trained on public or synthetic data. Reported deal counts and forecasts also come from the companies involved, rather than independent performance studies.

Privacy creates a separate risk. Suppliers and buyers say they remove personally identifiable information and exclude human-resources records, yet emails and calendars can still reveal doctor appointments, school pickups, and other private details. Law professor Ifeoma Ajunwa says employers should obtain workers’ express consent; she also notes that no federal law bans these sales.

The money may not reach workers: proceeds typically go to senior creditors and investors instead. For engineers, the next useful step is a controlled benchmark. For founders and workers, it is clearer disclosure about buyers, licensing, consent, and who receives the proceeds.