Guides to selling company data
Companies can license de-identified copies of their records (Slack, email, tickets, documents, CRM history and code) to AI labs and AI data companies. The deal is legal when the company owns the records and its notices and contracts allow it, and published floors for a whole operating company sit at $100,000. Each guide below covers one part of that process and includes an original study.
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The guides
How to sell company data to AI labsThe buyers, the prices and the five steps that turn inventory into a signed license. We reviewed 33 public offers for company data.
Is it legal to sell company data?Who owns the data, the privacy notices, the CCPA, employee data, contracts and bankruptcy sales. Built on the promises in 100 company privacy policies.
How does AI data licensing work?How a deal unfolds, which clauses fix the value and what becomes of trained models. Sourced from 43 published data licenses.
Company data value calculatorAn indicative value for your company, benchmarked to public deals, with each step of the math shown.
What our studies found
In October 2026, we ran one study per guide. Each produced a headline result:
- $100,000is the published floor for a whole operating company in 4 of 5 programs. Five reported deals ran $280,000 to $1.2 million.Study of 33 public offers · What buyers pay
- 95%of 100 company privacy policies reserve the right to transfer data in a merger, but 57% promise not to sell personal information.Study of 100 privacy policies · What policies promise
- 91%of 43 published data licenses never say what happens to models trained on the data once the license ends.Study of 43 licenses · What licenses say
Which guide do you need?
| If | Read |
|---|---|
| You want to know who buys company data and what they pay | How to sell company data to AI labs |
| You are not sure your privacy policy or contracts allow a sale | Is it legal to sell company data? |
| You have an offer or a draft license in front of you | How AI data licensing works |
| You want a rough number for your own company | Company data value calculator |
The five steps of a company data sale
Sales and licenses alike run through five steps, always in the same order.
- Inventory. Inventory each system, the years it spans and what must never leave. Pull your exports before canceling anything.
- Rights check. Verify ownership, which privacy notices were live at collection, contracts and personal data.
- De-identification. Take out or uniformly substitute names, emails and account IDs, keeping the workflows easy to follow.
- Valuation. Benchmark your expected price against the published floors and reported deals, with adjustments for size, history and systems.
- License and payment. Before signing, lock in scope, term, exclusivity, deletion and model terms, plus the payment trigger.
Frequently asked questions
Can a company sell its internal data to AI companies?
Yes. US law allows it when the company owns the records, its privacy notices and contracts permit that use, and personal information has been removed or consented. Because most deals are licenses, the company retains ownership. Details: is it legal to sell company data.
How much is company data worth to AI labs?
In 4 of 5 programs, the published floor for an entire operating company sits at $100,000, and five reported deals ran from $280,000 to $1.2 million. For closed startups, archives go for $10,000 to $100,000. Use the calculator for an indicative range specific to your company.
Do you lose ownership when you license company data?
A license doesn’t transfer ownership. Non-exclusive terms let you license the same data to other buyers; exclusive terms cut that off for a defined field and term; only a sale moves ownership itself. See how AI data licensing works.
What happens to AI models trained on our data after the license ends?
Most contracts stay silent here: 91% of the 43 licenses we reviewed never address it, and Reddit’s Data API Terms are the only ones that require deleting derived models. Spell out the model terms and a deletion deadline in the license itself.