Flight Attendants Challenge Google’s $10M Spirit Airlines Data Deal

Former flight attendants from Spirit Airlines are challenging Google’s $10 million acquisition of the bankrupt carrier’s database, creating a legal hurdle in the tech giant’s bankruptcy auction purchase.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a labor union representing thousands of former flight attendants from the defunct airline requested that the court block the transaction unless explicit protections are guaranteed for their personal data.

Google intends to ingest the database—comprising decades of booking histories, travel records, payroll data, and internal emails—into its artificial intelligence models, stating that customer personal information will be scrubbed. However, the flight attendants are demanding matching safeguards for employee records, leading the bankruptcy judge to delay approval of the sale while the court evaluates the union’s claims.

Under U.S. bankruptcy law, asset liquidations involving sensitive consumer or worker records frequently trigger legal challenges under Federal Trade Commission privacy standards, which require strict adherence to pre-existing corporate privacy policies unless an independent ombudsman approves the transfer terms.

Now for today’s other tech news…

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Amazon isn’t giving up on delivery drones

Remember those delivery drones Jeff Bezos promised were coming, way back in 2013?

Don’t count them out yet. Amazon announced plans Wednesday to significantly ramp up its Prime Air drone delivery service, aiming for airborne deliveries in nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of this year. The drones can transport virtually any item weighing five pounds or less that can fit in a shoebox-sized container, with free delivery for Prime members who spend $50 or more.

To be sure, the drones are still constrained by various issues: They can’t fly beyond a roughly seven mile radius, limiting their reach, and they operate primarily in suburban locations in order to avoid tall buildings and other tricky obstacles. But as Fortune’s Sebastian Herrera writes, the announcement signals that Amazon is still serious about making Bezos’ drone dream a reality. —AO

Stripe’s snaps up OpenRouter

Stripe, the fintech company that once reigned as the world’s most valuable startup, has found a way to get some of that AI sparkle. It’s paying big bucks to acquire OpenRouter.

As its name suggests, OpenRouter makes AI router software—a type of tool that allows organizations to select the best and most cost-efficient AI models for every task. Routers have become one of the hottest areas in enterprise tech lately, as Fortune reported earlier this month, due to the sticker shock many businesses have experienced while their token consumption surges.

AI model routers function as an intelligent software layer, evaluating user prompts in real time to route simpler tasks to lower-cost open-source platforms while directing complex requests to high-capacity commercial models.

Stripe did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, but the New York Times, citing an anonymous source, put the price tag at $7.5 billion. Three months ago, investors in a funding round valued OpenRouter at just $1.3 billion. Talk about sticker shock.—AO

Google and Marvell get circular

Another day, another “circular” deal in the AI industry.

Google parent-company, Alphabet struck a deal recently that gives it the right to buy as much as $12.2 billion in shares of Marvell Technology, a Silicon Valley semiconductor company. In return, Marvell will develop chips designed for Google’s “TPU ecosystem” (basically, Google’s homegrown alternative to Nvidia GPUs—the key chips in the data centers that are running AI models).

The near term loser is Broadcom, which already works with Google to create the TPU chips, and whose stock dropped 4.6% on Wednesday. In the longer term, the risk for the entire industry grows as the interests and ownership of various companies become ever more entwined.—AO

More tech

—Ex-engineer/whistleblower testifies in Meta child safety trial. ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell.’

—OpenAI will be a public company in 2027. So says CFO in all-hands.

—Did SpaceX try to buy AI coding startup Cognition? “Not for sale and we haven’t been talking” says Cognition CEO.

—YouTube reportedly offers creators millions for ‘exclusivity’ windows. And ‘consequences’ for Netflix deals.

—Rivian spinoff Also, which makes a $3,500 e-bike, is now worth $1 billion.

—Targeting atmospheric emissions, Google and government authorities in the U.K. are collaborating on atmospheric flight path alterations designed to measurably reduce aviation’s climate impact.