Apps & Consumer
Apple discloses deal to hire team, license tech from Huxe
Apple disclosed in a European Commission filing that it has agreed to hire certain employees of the now-shut-down personalized podcast startup Huxe and license its technology.
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 — an arrangement commonly known as a reverse acqui-hire. The filing was first reported by MacRumors.
Reverse acqui-hires have 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, which presumably lets them build up AI talent and technology while drawing less antitrust scrutiny. Confusingly, these deals are also sometimes called plain “acqui-hires.”
Huxe was founded by developers who had previously worked on the AI-generated podcast features in NotebookLM, recently renamed Gemini Notebook. The startup announced on May 21 that it was shutting down, telling users on its website that it would remove its app from the Apple and Google app stores, halt service, and delete user data.
The company said at the time, “The team is moving on to new things, and we won’t be continuing development of the product.” It also thanked its users for their support, saying it had felt like the product was built together with them.
Apple notified the European Commission of the deal on June 9, shortly after Huxe’s shutdown announcement. The filing does not say which employees received offers or whether they accepted, nor does it disclose Apple’s plans for the acquired technology.
Huxe’s shutdown came one day after Spotify unveiled its own AI-powered podcast-generation features, so Apple could be hoping to add similar functionality to its Podcasts app — though the filing itself does not say so.
Why it matters
If Apple folds Huxe’s technology into Podcasts, it would signal that Apple is chasing the same AI-generated, personalized-audio bet Spotify and others are already making. But it remains untested, even for Huxe itself, whether everyday listeners want personalized audio over regular podcasts.