Apple has agreed to hire employees from shuttered personalized podcast startup Huxe and license its technology, according to a regulatory filing disclosed to the European Commission on June 9.
The deal, known as a reverse acqui-hire, allows Apple to bring on "certain employees of Huxe AI" and receive "a non-exclusive license to Huxe's intellectual property rights" without acquiring the company outright. The filing does not specify which employees received offers or whether they accepted.
Huxe shut down on May 21, just one day before Spotify announced its own AI-powered podcast generation features. The startup, founded by former developers who worked on AI-generated podcast features in Google's NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook), removed its app from Apple and Google stores and deleted user data upon closure.
Reverse acqui-hires have become common among larger technology companies seeking to hire specialized talent and license intellectual property while potentially reducing antitrust exposure, as the arrangement stops short of a full acquisition.
Apple has not disclosed its plans for Huxe's technology. The company may be seeking to add AI-powered podcast generation capabilities to its Podcasts app, following Spotify's recent launch of similar features. The timing of Huxe's shutdown, coinciding with Spotify's announcement, suggests competitive pressure in the personalized audio space.
The source material does not reveal whether Huxe's founders or key personnel accepted Apple's employment offers. The nature and scope of Huxe's intellectual property licensed to Apple also remains undisclosed in the filing.