Google Buys Play Store Developer Code to Train AI

Google has quietly begun approaching Android developers with an offer to purchase access to their Play Store code in order to train its AI models, according to a report from 404 Media. The company has sent emails to select developers inviting them to join a “confidential content offer pilot,” promising additional revenue in exchange for sharing their codebases.

One developer, whose app has millions of downloads, shared the email with 404 Media on condition of anonymity due to fears of retaliation. The message frames the deal as a chance to “generate additional revenue from your apps” while helping Google improve its developer tools. “Whether it’s the active production codebase powering your current app, or archives of prototypes and side projects no longer in use, that code could have untapped value,” the email reads.

Although the email does not explicitly mention artificial intelligence, a linked page titled “partnerships to improve our AI products” clarifies the company’s intent. It states that beyond publicly available data scraped from the web, Google is seeking to “pay for the delivery of non-public content in a range of media formats.” The page frames the effort as a mission-driven initiative, saying AI presents “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help the world combat and manage natural disasters, help doctors detect diseases earlier.”

The developer would retain full intellectual property rights under a non-exclusive license, and the agreement would not prevent them from monetizing the same code elsewhere. Google emphasizes that participants can keep 100% of their IP and that their apps remain entirely theirs.

The move signals that Google may be struggling to keep pace with rivals in the AI code generation space. Anthropic has surged ahead with Claude Code, reaching a valuation higher than OpenAI, while Microsoft’s Copilot has seen widespread adoption. The fact that Google is turning to direct purchases of developer codebases suggests that its ability to build a competitive coding AI using only web-scraped data has fallen short. It also underscores a broader trend: companies are likely running out of high-quality training material. Google’s $60 million deal with Reddit for AI training access, which has produced mixed results, further illustrates this challenge.

The full email sent to developers reads:

“We are reaching out on behalf of the Google Partnerships team with an invitation for a select group of Google Play app developers to join a confidential content offer pilot.

We’d like to offer a unique opportunity to generate additional revenue from your apps. You’ve put a lot of hard work into building your app and growing its user base. Whether it’s the active production codebase powering your current app, or archives of prototypes and side projects no longer in use, that code could have untapped value. This is a unique occasion to help transform tools and products, support the developer ecosystem, and unlock new revenue.

The Opportunity: We are looking for high-quality, real-world codebases to help improve Google’s developer tools and products. Here is what this program offers you:

• Additional revenue opportunities: Get paid for sharing the code powering your apps, as well as your archived projects.
• Be an early adopter: As a pilot partner, you will shape how Google partners with the developer community moving forward.
• Drive impact: We’ve found real-world code to be useful to our product and service development across a wide variety of use cases, from understanding complex logic to developing coding evals and benchmarks. Your production tested code can directly help.
• Retain control: This is non-exclusive. You keep 100% of your IP, your app remains entirely yours, and you retain the right to monetize your data anywhere else.You can learn more about Google’s approach to partnerships in our blog post.”