IT之家 October 10 news, tech media 9to5Mac published a blog post yesterday (October 9), reporting that Apple has reached a talent acquisition and technology licensing agreement with AI audio startup Huxe, which is the 4th publicly disclosed Apple AI-related deal this year.
According to documents disclosed this month (the 10th month of 2026) in the EU Digital Markets Act transparency database, Apple has the right to extend employment offers to and hire specific Huxe employees. Apple has also obtained a non-exclusive license to Huxe's intellectual property.
This arrangement is an "acqui-hire" and does not represent Apple acquiring the Huxe company. The agreement allows Apple to bring in some employees and use the relevant intellectual property, but the deal did not include purchasing Huxe's business, and the report did not disclose the agreement amount.
IT之家 checked public sources:Huxe was founded by 3 former Google NotebookLM team members.Project lead Raiza Martin left Google in December 2024 and co-founded the company with designer Jason Spielman and engineer Stephen Hughes.
Huxe launched its same-named app in June 2025 on an invitation basis and opened it to the public in September of the same year, with the team announcing at that time that it had completed $4.6 million in funding.
The app can generate daily audio briefings based on users' email and calendar, and can also produce podcast-style conversations around topics; it additionally offers continuously updated audio content on topics such as news and sports. Huxe announced its shutdown in May 2026, with the service ending on May 28.
