Aicha Evans

This woman sold her robotaxi startup to Amazon for $1.3B.

Born in Senegal and raised in Paris, Aicha Evans grew up idolizing Marie Curie.

She moved to the U.S. to study computer engineering at George Washington University.

Graduated in 1996. Married an American. Stayed.

She started her career in wireless tech.

First at Rockwell, Conexant, and Skyworks.

Then in 2006, she joined Intel.

She led everything from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to LTE and 5G.

Eventually, she ran a 7,000-person org as GM of Intel’s Communication & Devices Group.

In 2017, she became Chief Strategy Officer, driving Intel’s shift from PC-centric to data-centric.

But in 2019, she left the C-suite for a chaotic startup.

She became CEO of Zoox, an autonomous vehicle company building self-driving cars from scratch.

Not retrofitted Toyotas.

A full-stack robotaxi: bidirectional, electric, symmetrical, and driverless by design.

Evans was chosen by Zoox co-founder Jesse Levinson.

Six months in, she knew the truth: Zoox couldn’t raise another billion through VC.

So she picked up the phone.

In June 2020, she led the $1.3B acquisition of Zoox by Amazon.

She stayed on as CEO. Zoox stayed independent under Amazon Devices & Services.

Her bet? Amazon had the patience to build something world-changing.

Under her leadership, Zoox became the first company to test a purpose-built robotaxi on public roads.

It passed California DMV inspections.

Got a greenlight from Nevada.

And in 2025, won an official exemption from the NHTSA.

That made Zoox the first AV company allowed to legally operate vehicles that break the traditional car design.

And still, Evans refused to rush.

She built a culture of safety and transparency, where any employee can halt deployment.

Where five executives must co-sign every decision before she does.

Where the focus isn’t just on AI, but on accountability.

She’s also designing a new labor model.

Zoox vehicles still need charging, cleaning, depot maintenance, and teleoperations.

Evans is already hiring and training people for those jobs.