From stealth to Apple: Q.ai’s $1.5 billion journey
Investors, founders, and partners reflect on a three-and-a-half-year path from secrecy to one of Apple’s largest acquisitions, highlighting technical audacity, human resilience, and ambition.
Apple has acquired Israeli AI startup Q.ai in a deal estimated at $1.5 billion, making it the company’s second-largest acquisition in history after Beats in 2014. Q.ai, founded in 2022 by Aviad Maizels, Yonatan Wexler, and Dr. Avi Barliya, has operated largely in stealth, developing machine learning technology aimed at transforming audio and communication experiences. Apple has not disclosed specific applications, but observers suggest the technology could enhance AirPods, the Vision Pro headset, and the Siri AI assistant.
For the startup’s investors, founders, and partners, the reaction was less about the headline figure and more about the improbable journey that led to it. “No fucking way,” wrote Eden Shochat, equal partner at Aleph, recalling in a Medium post his reaction when he realized Apple was acquiring the company. Aleph had backed Q.ai early, helping assemble a financing team that included Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Spark to ensure the startup had the runway to pursue its ambitious deep-tech goals.
Shochat reflected on the paradox of venture capital relationships: Aviad Maizels, he noted, initially did not pitch his close contacts, fearing he would “let them down” if the company failed. It was only through subtle signals and early proofs of concept that Aleph and its partners joined the journey.
Tom Hulme, managing partner at GV, co-led Q.ai’s Seed investment and followed the company through its Series A. He highlighted both technical audacity and human resilience, noting that roughly 30% of Q.ai’s employees were drafted into IDF military service following Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023. Weekly meetings were frequently interrupted by employees scrambling to bomb shelters. Yet, Hulme emphasized, “Not once did they complain; their energy was focused on supporting their community and making technical breakthroughs,” Hulme wrote on LinkedIn.
Hulme framed Q.ai’s work as part of a broader shift in computing: a move toward machines that understand humans naturally, rather than requiring humans to adapt to machines. “We’ve always wondered what happens when the computer finally ‘disappears’ into our daily lives,” he wrote. “Thanks to this team, we may find out very soon.”
For the founders, the acquisition represents the culmination of a three-and-a-half-year effort to turn science fiction into real-world capability. Wexler described the company’s work as spanning machine learning, physics, engineering, and human sciences. “We sped research that should have taken 20 years,” he wrote, expressing gratitude to the co-founders, team, and investors who helped make the vision possible.
For Maizels, this marks a second exit to Apple. In 2013, Apple acquired one of his previous startups, PrimeSense, in a deal estimated at $350 million.
Apple executives praised the team while remaining tight-lipped about the technology itself. Johny Srouji, senior vice president of hardware technologies and Apple’s most senior Israeli executive, called Q.ai “a remarkable company pioneering new and creative ways to use imaging and machine learning” and expressed excitement for what the future holds.
