Apple discloses deal to hire team and license tech from personalized podcast startup Huxe

Apple revealed in a regulatory filing that it has reached an agreement to bring on team members and technology from personalized audio startup Huxe, in what’s commonly known as a reverse acqui-hire deal.

As first reported in MacRumors, Apple disclosed to the European Commission that it has agreed to make employment offers to “certain employees of Huxe AI,” and to “receive a non-exclusive license to Huxe’s intellectual property rights.”

Reverse acqui-hires emerged in recent years as a way for larger companies to hire key team members and license technology from startups without acquiring the startups outright — presumably allowing them to build up AI talent and tech without drawing as much antitrust scrutiny. (Confusingly, these deals have both been referred to as “reverse acqui-hires” and as plain old “acqui-hires.”)

In the case of Huxe, the startup was founded by developers who’d previously worked on the AI-generated podcast features in NotebookLM (recently renamed Gemini Notebook). But Huxe announced on May 21 that it was shutting down, with the team posting on the Huxe website that the company would be removing its app from the Apple and Google stores, halting service, and deleting user data.