Apple recruits NotebookLM creators: AI startup Huxe in an acqui-hire deal

Apple can hire employees from the shuttered AI audio startup Huxe and use its technology. The startup was founded by former developers of Google's NotebookLM (AI-generated).

Apple has secured the right to hire employees from AI startup Huxe and acquired a license to its technology. Huxe was founded by three former developers of Google's NotebookLM. The deal became public through the EU's DMA transparency list and is at least Apple's fourth AI deal of 2026.

Jan Gruber (translated by Jan Gruber), Published 10/10/2026 🇩🇪

Apple Business

Apple is once again turning to a startup for AI talent – this time a team you'd more likely expect at Google. According to the European Commission's Digital Markets Act transparency list, Apple has secured the right to make job offers to and hire certain employees of Huxe AI. On top of that comes a non-exclusive license to Huxe's intellectual property. Apple notified the EU back in June, but the deal only became public now, after 9to5Mac spotted the entry.

Anyone familiar with NotebookLM will recognize the idea behind Huxe. Raiza Martin, previously project lead of Google's AI research tool, now called Gemini Notebook, left Google in December 2024 and founded Huxe together with designer Jason Spielman and engineer Stephen Hughes, both also from the NotebookLM team. Their app generated personalized audio content: daily briefings from email and calendar, podcast-style conversations on specific topics and continuously updated feeds on subjects such as news and sports. After an invite-only launch in June 2025, Huxe opened to everyone in September and raised 4.6 million USD. It wasn't enough – the service shut down on May 28, 2026.

Not an acquisition, but an acqui-hire

Formally, Apple isn't buying Huxe. The model is called an acqui-hire: the larger company brings over the key people and gains access to the technology without purchasing the business itself. The entry doesn't mention a price, nor which employees will actually move to Apple. This very structure is under scrutiny in the US. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson announced in January that the agency would take a closer look at such deals, and in March the FTC and the Justice Department sought public comment on new reporting rules that could also cover acqui-hires and non-exclusive licenses.

What does Apple want with a failed audio startup?

Huxe is at least Apple's fourth AI-related deal this year, and the others point in one direction. In January, Apple bought the Israeli startup Q.ai, for close to 2 billion USD according to the Financial Times – its second-largest acquisition after Beats. Q.ai develops technology that reads whispered or merely mouthed speech from tiny movements of the facial skin. In May, Apple followed up with a talent and licensing deal with avatar startup Animato. Apple is clearly collecting teams that work on new ways of talking to devices.

Huxe fits that picture. A service that builds a personal audio briefing from your inbox and calendar every morning comes very close to what Apple promises for Siri AI: an assistant that knows its users' personal context. Whether that turns into a feature of its own, Apple isn't saying. Users in Europe would get it later anyway – Siri AI is still missing entirely on the iPhone in the EU.