Assemblies, boards, BOMs, firmware and test logs
Sell hardware data to AI without losing track of who owns what
A hardware company's record is scattered across a PLM, a BOM tool, a design-review app, a test-data platform and the fabs that cut its parts. We read 23 documents from 15 of those vendors, the newest on 2026-10-28: 10 say the uploaded data is the customer's, and 8 keep a right to use it in aggregated or anonymised form.
Source: Plm software data terms: every row, with its source
- 10 of 15
- PLM, test and fab vendors whose terms leave the product data with the customer (Plm software data terms: every row, with its source)
- 8 of 15
- hardware software vendors that keep an aggregated or anonymised use (Plm software data terms: every row, with its source)
- 5
- vendors that name a window in days to ask for your data back after you leave (Plm software data terms: every row, with its source)
- 2026-10-28
- date of the newest vendor document on the board (Plm software data terms: every row, with its source)
PLM, test-data and fab terms on a hardware company's data, vendor by vendor
- 8 of 15 PLM, test-data and manufacturing vendors whose terms we read up to 2026-10-28 keep a right to use customer data in aggregated or anonymised form.(Plm software data terms: every row, with its source)
| PLM or service vendor | Who owns the uploaded data | Keeps pooled or anonymised use of it | Says it trains AI on the files | Getting the data back at exit | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aras | the business | reserved | not stated | on request | Aras Innovator SaaS Subscription Terms and Conditions |
| Arena | the business | not stated | will not train | 30 days | Master Services Agreement |
| CoLab | the business | not stated | varies by document | 30 days | Subscription Agreement |
| Duro | not stated | reserved | not stated | not stated | Terms of Use |
| Epsilon3 | the business | not stated | not stated | not stated | Terms of Service |
| Fictiv | the business | reserved | will not train | not stated | Terms of Services |
| First Resonance | the business | reserved | not stated | 30 days | Terms of Use (ion) |
| Instrumental | not stated | reserved | not stated | not stated | Privacy Policy |
| Nominal | the business | reserved | may train | 30 days | Commercial Terms |
| OpenBOM | the business | reserved | not stated | on request | Data export |
| Propel | the business | not stated | not stated | 30 days | Master Subscription Agreement |
| SendCutSend | the business | not stated | not stated | not stated | Terms of Service |
| Siemens | not stated | not stated | not stated | not stated | Cloud Supplemental Terms for Teamcenter X |
| Sift | not stated | not stated | not stated | not stated | Privacy Policy |
| Valispace | not stated | reserved | not stated | no export promised | Terms of Use |
Each vendor's own published terms were read through estate-fetch and stored whole (sha256 on every row). For every document, four questions were answered from the vendor's own words: who owns the business's data, vendor keeps aggregated or anonymised use, training AI on the business's data, export at exit. Every stated answer carries the sentence it rests on, checked against the stored text; 'not stated' means the document read does not address the question. A vendor with several documents reads 'varies' where they disagree. 15 vendors, 23 documents.
Cite: “PLM, test-data and fab terms on a hardware company's data, vendor by vendor”, Sell Hardware Data to AI, https://sellhardwaredatatoai.com/ (updated 2026-10-28).
Tell us about the product record
Worth knowing
Every figure sourced and dated.
PLM data export at exit: what Arena, Propel, Aras and others promise
PLM data export at exit, read from the vendors' own terms: the request windows at Arena, Propel, CoLab and Nominal, Aras's notice period and Valispace's warning.
Hardware startup shutting down: can the CAD and test data be sold?
A hardware startup shutting down can still sell its CAD, board designs and test data, but who signs depends on the route: trustee, administrator, liquidator or the board.
Selling a hardware startup: the product record as an asset
Selling a hardware startup that is still trading: the stockholder vote Delaware asks for, why customer-owned designs stay out, and what an AI buyer prices.
Who buys hardware engineering data: the buyers' own words
Who buys hardware engineering data, from each buyer's own page: Mercor's hardware listing, the company-data licensors and the brokers, with what each says it pays.
What happens next
- Say what the vault holds, which systems it sits in and how many product generations it covers.
- We check those systems against the clauses on our board and the sale rules that apply to your situation.
- You get a written reply about your own record and decide whether anything should happen next.
No PLM vendor, test-data platform, fab or buyer pays to appear here, and nothing on this site earns a commission from them. Each answer is our reading of a published document, not legal advice about your own contracts. How this site is paid: if your company licenses its records to a buyer we introduce, our fee is 12.5% of the deal, with a minimum, when we act as your exclusive agent, 10%, with a minimum, when the records join a bundle, or 10% when they join the pool, agreed in writing beforehand; any fee a buyer pays us is credited back to you.
Common questions
Can a hardware company sell its engineering data to an AI company?
Only the parts it owns outright. Mercor's Hardware Engineering Company listing asks for designs the company owns, not customer IP, and on our board 10 of 15 PLM, test and fab vendors say the data uploaded to them stays the customer's. Designs made under a customer's contract are the first thing to separate out. (Plm software data terms: every row, with its source)
Which PLM tools say they will not train AI on our data?
Arena's own article says it does not use a customer's data to train or fine-tune AI models. Fictiv's terms say it shall not use customer data to train generative AI models, except data irreversibly de-identified and aggregated. Nominal's commercial terms take consent to use Usage Data from its AI Features to improve its internal machine learning models, and a customer may switch those features off. (Plm software data terms: every row, with its source)
How long do we have to get the vault out after cancelling a PLM?
5 vendors on the board name a window. Arena, Propel, CoLab and Nominal each take a request made within 30 days of the end of the agreement; Aras asks for the request at least sixty days before the agreement ends. Valispace says it does not guarantee access to the data after termination. (Plm software data terms: every row, with its source)
What does an AI buyer want from a hardware company?
Mercor's listing asks for full multi-part assemblies in native CAD with feature trees, not only exported meshes, from several products or product generations. It lists PCB designs and Gerber files, drawings and bills of materials, firmware, FEA and CFD files and measured test results as welcome extras, and rules out single parts and parts catalogs. (Plm software data terms: every row, with its source)
We are closing the company. Who can sign a sale of the files?
It depends on how the company closes. In a US bankruptcy the trustee may sell the debtor's property outside the ordinary course after notice and a hearing; in a Delaware solvent sale of substantially all assets a majority of the voting stock must approve. In Great Britain an administrator or a liquidator holds a statutory power to sell the company's property. (Plm software data terms: every row, with its source)
Is a hardware company's design data export-controlled?
Some of it can be. ITAR's definition of technical data includes blueprints, drawings, plans and documentation for defence articles, and under the EAR releasing technology to a foreign person inside the US is a deemed export. Files like these go to an export-control adviser before any buyer, and we answer such enquiries with information only. (Plm software data terms: every row, with its source)
Sources
This site's own datasets, every figure quoted from its source and dated:
- Who asks for a hardware company's CAD, circuit and test data: 6 of 12 organisations whose pages we read take data by licensing it from the company that owns it, read 28 October 2026.
- Rules on selling a hardware company's records: 14 rules that decide who may sell a hardware company's design and test records, with whose consent, and what export and personal-data rules go with them, each quoted from its text, read 28 October 2026.
- Plm software data terms: 8 of 15 plm software vendors whose terms we read reserve the right to use their customers' data in aggregated or anonymised form, read 28 October 2026.
| No. | Source | Published by |
|---|---|---|
| [1] | Arena (PTC) Master Services Agreement | arenasolutions.com |
| [2] | Arena on responsible AI and data protection | arenasolutions.com |
| [3] | Propel Master Subscription Agreement | propelsoftware.com |
| [4] | OpenBOM data export | openbom.com |
| [5] | OpenBOM privacy statement | openbom.com |
| [6] | OpenBOM customer questions | openbom.com |
| [7] | Duro terms of service | durolabs.co |
| [8] | Duro terms | durolabs.co |