Adept AI

In June 2024, Amazon hired Adept CEO David Luan and most of the 100-person team, licensing the company's technology. The deal left roughly 20 employees (20% of staff) in a "rump company" while investors who put $414 million into Adept reportedly recovered only roughly their principal. FTC opened inquiry into whether the arrangement circumvented merger notification rules. Lawmakers cited it as example of "acqui-hire" strategy to avoid antitrust scrutiny.

In June 2024, Amazon hired Adept AI co-founders David Luan, Augustus Odena, Maxwell Nye, and Erich Elsen—plus approximately 80% of its ~100-person team—in a deal that also licensed Adept's technology. The arrangement left roughly 20 employees to continue operating under new CEO Zach Brock. Investors who put $414M into the company reportedly recovered only roughly their principal from the deal.

In June 2024, Amazon hired Adept's co-founder and CEO David Luan along with four other co-founders (Augustus Odena, Maxwell Nye, Erich Elsen, Kelsey Szot) and licensed the company's technology. Adept had raised over $415M at a ~$1B valuation to build AI "agents" for software automation but struggled to bring products to market. The deal left Adept with only about 20 employees under new CEO Zach Brock. The FTC launched an inquiry into the arrangement in July 2024, investigating whether the deal structure was designed to avoid antitrust scrutiny—similar to Microsoft's earlier Inflection deal.