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Apple licenses tech and offers jobs to team from AI podcast startup Huxe
Apple disclosed in a filing with the European Commission that it agreed to make job offers to certain Huxe employees and take a non-exclusive license to its intellectual property. Huxe, founded by developers who worked on NotebookLM's AI podcast features, shut down its app in May. No financial terms were disclosed.
Key points
- Apple will offer jobs to certain Huxe employees and license its IP non-exclusively.
- The deal was disclosed in a European Commission filing; no financial terms were given.
- Huxe shut down its app in May and deleted user data.
What happened: Apple has agreed to bring on team members and technology from Huxe, a personalized AI audio startup, according to a regulatory filing reported by TechCrunch. The filing says Apple will make employment offers to "certain employees of Huxe AI" and "receive a non-exclusive license to Huxe's intellectual property rights." MacRumors first reported the deal on October 9.
The details: Apple notified the European Commission on June 9, shortly after Huxe announced it was shutting down. The filing does not say who received offers, whether anyone accepted or what Apple plans to do with the technology. No dollar amounts were disclosed. TechCrunch described the arrangement as a reverse acqui-hire.
Background: Huxe was founded by developers who previously worked on the AI-generated podcast features in NotebookLM, which has since been renamed Gemini Notebook. On May 21, Huxe said it would remove its app from the Apple and Google app stores, halt service and delete user data. "The team is moving on to new things, and we won't be continuing development of the product," the company said. Spotify unveiled AI-powered podcast generation features a day before that announcement.
What to watch: TechCrunch suggested Apple could add similar personalized audio features to its Podcasts app, though it presented this as speculation.
Our take
Reverse acqui-hires keep moving AI talent into large platforms, so teams relying on small AI apps should plan for sudden shutdowns.