Alexa began with a multi-year speech-recognition project
Documentary product photograph of an Amazon Echo first-generation device, image dated 17 December 2014. Creator: Frmorrison (English Wikipedia). Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 3.0 (also offered under GFDL). Unaltered. Attribution: Frmorrison; link to license and indicate no changes. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amazon_Echo.jpg
In 2011, Amazon acquired speech-recognition startup Yap and brought its team into a secret project for a voice system in a smart speaker. According to the former research leader interviewed about the project, sponsors had hoped to finish in nine months, but development took three years; spending on voice technology alone was estimated at more than US$200 million. This is a retrospective estimate, not a financial figure published by Amazon. Echo with Alexa debuted in November 2014.