Axios

Jim VandeHei, Politico’s co-founder and former CEO, and Mike Allen, the longtime author of Politico’s Playbook newsletter, left Politico in 2016 and co-founded a new media company with Roy Schwartz, Politico’s former chief revenue officer. On November 30, 2016, they unveiled the company’s name, Axios, which is taken from Greek and means “worthy”; that day the site opened sign-ups for email, with the full launch set for late January of the following year, around the presidential inauguration.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1]

In late summer 2016, Axios secured $10 million in financing in a round led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, the venture capital firm involved in launching the Huffington Post and BuzzFeed; NBC News also invested and became a media partner, with its president, Andy Lack, joining the board. VandeHei wanted the company to focus on business, technology, politics, and media trends, and hoped it would eventually draw about half of its revenue from subscriptions.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

In January 2017, Axios officially launched, centered on covering fast-changing topics in a brief, focused way, and sending daily and weekly newsletters.⁠[2][3]

In November 2017, less than a year after its launch, Axios raised another $20 million in a round co-led by existing investors Greycroft Partners and Lerer Hippeau Ventures, with NBCUniversal, Emerson Collective, and Greg Penner investing again and WndrCo investing for the first time. At the time, the company had 89 employees and had generated more than $10 million in revenue in its first seven months after launch.⁠[3][3][3][3][3][3]

In August 2020, Axios national political correspondent Jonathan Swan interviewed then-President Trump on the HBO program Axios on HBO, repeatedly pressing him on his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the death toll; the interview spread widely. In September 2021, the episode won the award for outstanding edited interview at the 42nd News and Documentary Emmy Awards.⁠[4][4][4][4][4]

In December 2020, Axios acquired Charlotte Agenda, a local news site in Charlotte, North Carolina, for about $5 million (a reported figure), rebranding it Axios Charlotte and enlisting its co-founder, Ted Williams, to help expand its local news business, Axios Local. Within a few months, Axios Local had hired journalists in five additional markets, and another eight local newsletters launched by the end of 2021; each local newsroom consists of one to four journalists and an editor who covers multiple areas.⁠[5][6][6][6]

On August 8, 2022, Cox Enterprises, a family-owned business headquartered in Atlanta, announced the acquisition of Axios Media Inc., following an earlier investment by Cox in the fall of 2021. Terms were not released; reports valued the deal at $525 million, along with a $25 million investment to expand local and national coverage. The three co-founders kept substantial stakes and continued to lead editorial and day-to-day business decisions; Cox chairman and CEO Alex Taylor joined the Axios board. Cox said it would expand Axios into more cities, national topics, and niches for professionals; Cox’s newspapers, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Dayton Daily News, were not affected and continued to operate independently. The deal closed on September 1, 2022.⁠[2][2][2][2][7][6][2][2][2][2][5]

The deal also spun off Axios HQ, Axios’s corporate communications software business, as an independent company majority-owned by the founders, with Cox as the sole minority investor, VandeHei as chairman, and Schwartz as CEO. At the time of the acquisition, Axios had about 500 employees, most of them in its news operation; by September 2022, Axios Local was publishing 24 local newsletters across the United States.⁠[2][2][8][9][5]

In January 2025, VandeHei announced a three-year partnership with OpenAI: OpenAI would fund Axios Local newsletters in four cities—Pittsburgh; Kansas City, Missouri; Boulder, Colorado; and Huntsville, Alabama—and give Axios staff free credits for its enterprise-grade tools, while Axios would allow OpenAI to train its models on its free, published coverage. Neither side disclosed the amount OpenAI was paying. Critics argued that the arrangement let a Silicon Valley giant choose local journalism’s winners and losers; Axios chief operating officer Allison Murphy said there was no requirement to use AI in the reporting process and that it was a business partnership. Months before the partnership, Axios had laid off 10 percent of its staff.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][6][6]

In 2026, Axios and OpenAI added nine more local newsletters, bringing the number funded through the partnership to 13; Axios planned to be in 43 cities by the end of 2026, and VandeHei said he would like to someday be in 1,000. As of August 2026, Axios Local had more than 2 million subscribers but was not yet profitable; VandeHei said it would be “a great success” if each city turned a profit within five years. That year Axios cut another 11 jobs across its news, visual, and social media departments; its employees are not unionized.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][6]

On October 7, 2026, Axios reporter Maria Curi reported exclusively that Guardrails AllianceGuardrails AllianceGuardrails Alliance is a US super PAC (independent expenditure-only) that supports legislative regulation of artificial intelligence, publicly launched by Shaunna Thomas and Leah Hunt-Hendrix in June 2026. It treats Leading the Future, a super PAC funded by the AI industry, as its main opponent, running ads in the 2026 midterm elections for candidates who favor regulation and opposing candidates backed by Leading the Future.Open the full entry, a super PAC supporting AI regulation, would spend $1.2 million opposing three House candidates backed by Leading the FutureLeading the FutureLeading the Future (LTF) is a US network of super PACs funded by figures in the artificial intelligence industry, launched in August 2025 by backers including Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI president Greg Brockman to take part in the 2026 midterm elections.Open the full entry, a super PAC of the AI industry; the committee’s announcement was shared first with Axios.⁠[10][10][10][10]

Besides short news items and industry newsletters, Axios produces long-form journalism, podcasts, and an HBO series, and operates local newsrooms; its Axios Pro brand offers industry coverage on topics such as financial technology, health, and climate. The company is based in Arlington, Virginia.⁠[9][9][6]

Axios: Official website: https://www.axios.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[10]

Axios HQ: Official website: https://www.axioshq.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[8]