Apple Acqui

Apple secured the right to make employment offers to and hire certain employees of Huxe AI and to receive a non-exclusive license to Huxe’s intellectual property rights, according to a European Commission filing tied to the Digital Markets Act transparency list. The deal is structured as an acqui-hire, with Apple bringing over key people and gaining access to the technology without purchasing the business itself. Huxe was founded by Raiza Martin, the former project lead for Google’s NotebookLM, which has since been renamed Gemini Notebook, and the startup launched after Martin left Google in December 2024.

The Huxe app generated personalized audio content including daily briefings drawn from a user’s email and calendar, podcast-style conversations on specific topics, and continuously updated feeds covering subjects such as news and sports. Huxe debuted on an invite-only basis in June 2025, opened to the public that September with a $4.6 million funding round, and shut down on May 28, 2026.

Raiza Martin left Google in December 2024 and founded Huxe alongside designer Jason Spielman and engineer Stephen Hughes, all described as veterans of the NotebookLM team. The European Commission transparency list entry says Apple notified the bloc in June and that Apple would have the right to make job offers to “certain employees of Huxe AI,” while also receiving “a non-exclusive license to Huxe’s intellectual property rights.” TechCrunch said Apple’s disclosure came as a reverse acqui-hire, and it described the structure as a way for larger companies to hire key team members and license technology without acquiring the startups outright.

Huxe announced on May 21 that it was shutting down, and the Huxe team said it would be removing its app from the Apple and Google stores, halting service, and deleting user data. TechCrunch quoted Huxe saying, “The team is moving on to new things, and we won’t be continuing development of the product,” and it also quoted Huxe thanking users with, “The fact that you used it, told friends about it, sent us your suggestions and your ideas, made it feel like we built it together.”

Regulators scrutinize acqui-hires

FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said in January that the agency would examine acqui-hire arrangements more closely, and the FTC and the Justice Department sought public comment on new premerger reporting rules in March. The proposed rules were described as potentially covering acqui-hires, reverse acqui-hires, and deals involving non-exclusive IP licenses, and the sources said there had been little public movement since the comment period opened. The Huxe deal is presented as Apple’s latest in a set of AI-related transactions, with the sources describing it as at least the fourth AI-related deal Apple disclosed this year.

The sources also linked Apple’s broader pattern to a January purchase of Israeli startup Q.ai for close to $2 billion, and to a May talent and licensing agreement with avatar startup Animato. The European Commission filing did not disclose a price or specific employee details, and the sources said it left unclear whether Huxe’s technology would become a standalone feature or be folded into existing products.