Humane, formerly one of Silicon Valley’s buzziest AI hardware startups, announced on Tuesday it was being partially acquired by HP for $116 million, less than half of the $240 million the startup raised in venture capital funding.
Tuesday may not have been a great day for some Humane investors, but it was especially chaotic for its roughly 200 employees, according to internal documents seen by TechCrunch and two sources who requested anonymity to discuss private matters.
Hours after the acquisition was announced, several Humane employees received job offers with pay increases of well over 30%, plus HP stock and a bonus plan, the sources revealed. Multiple employees who received offers worked on the company’s core software, though sources also indicated that not all of the people who worked on software got job offers.
Meanwhile, other Humane employees – especially those who worked closer to the AI Pin devices, including in quality assurance, automation, and hardware – were notified they were out of a job on Tuesday night, the sources said.
These job offers highlight HP’s interest in obtaining Humane’s pool of AI-focused software engineers as part of the acquisition. Engineers that can build around AI systems are some of the hottest commodities in Silicon Valley today. While Humane’s team wasn’t training AI foundation models from scratch – such as engineers at OpenAI, Google, and other AI labs – such employees are still highly sought after. This makes it difficult even for giant legacy players, such as HP, to hire.
The companies announced on Tuesday tha …