Apple Licenses Huxe AI Audio Technology in Startup Hiring Deal

Apple has disclosed an agreement to recruit employees and license technology from Huxe, a startup specialising in personalised AI-generated audio. The arrangement lets Apple offer jobs to selected Huxe employees and obtain a nonexclusive license to its intellectual property without buying the company outright.

The agreement appeared in a European Commission filing submitted on June 9, as MacRumors first reported. The filing does not identify which employees received offers, whether they accepted or how Apple intends to use Huxe’s technology.

What Huxe Developed Before Shutting Down

Former Google NotebookLM developers founded Huxe after working on AI-generated podcast features. Its app created personalised audio briefings using information such as emails, calendars and user interests, offering a spoken alternative to information people might otherwise find through web searches.

In a May 21 shutdown announcement, Huxe said it would remove its app from Apple’s App Store and Google Play, discontinue its service and delete user data. The company said its team was moving on to other work rather than continuing development.

Apple’s Deal Follows a Growing AI Hiring Trend

The agreement follows a structure commonly called a reverse acqui-hire, in which a company recruits startup employees and licenses intellectual property without purchasing the entire business. Such arrangements have drawn scrutiny over their potential competitive effects, as a Financial Times commentary on acqui-hires examined.

Huxe announced its shutdown one day after Spotify introduced its own AI-powered podcast generation features. Although the technology could apply to Apple’s audio services, the company has not announced plans to integrate Huxe’s capabilities into Apple Podcasts or another product.