June 05, 2015
Interlune raises $5M for initiatives that go beyond mining the moon
September 16, 2026
An artist’s conception shows a mining operation on the moon, including harvesters and a solar power plant. (Interlune Illustration) Seattle-based Interlune has raised $5 million in fresh funding to support a business plan that involves building space infrastructure as well as mining the moon for...
Helion funding round grows to $500M amid uncertainty over fusion startup’s Microsoft timeline
September 15, 2026
An aerial view of Orion, Helion Energy’s planned fusion plant being built in Malaga, Wash. (Helion Photo) Helion Energy on Tuesday said that it added $35 million to a funding round initially announced in June. The Everett, Wash.-based fusion company originally shared news of a $465 million...
Terry Myerson retires as Truveta CEO, with co-founders stepping in to lead $1B health data startup
September 15, 2026
Terry Myerson, Truveta’s co-founder and CEO, will retire at the end of September. (Truveta Photo) Terry Myerson, the former Microsoft executive who co-founded Truveta during the pandemic, growing it to 500 employees and a valuation of more than $1 billion, is retiring as CEO of the Bellevue,...
Uncommon Thinkers 2026: Last call for nominations for Seattle’s boldest innovators
September 15, 2026
The 2025 “Uncommon Thinkers” award winners, from left: Anindya Roy, co-founder of Lila Biologics; Kiana Ehsani, co-founder of Vercept; Max Blumen of Tin Can representing winner Chet Kittleson, co-founder of Tin Can; Jeff Thornburg, co-founder of Portal Space Systems; Jay Graber of Bluesky; and...
Sen. Maria Cantwell warns of autonomous AI ‘swarms’ as she calls for federal guardrails
September 15, 2026
Pointing to recent security incidents where networked AI agents spontaneously formed “swarms” to hack computer systems, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) took to the Senate floor Monday to demand urgent federal guardrails and mandatory independent safety testing for frontier AI models before...
Goldman Sachs plants flag in Bellevue, opening hub for more than 125 AI and cloud engineers
September 15, 2026
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon Goldman Sachs is expanding its technology presence in the Seattle region, opening a new Bellevue engineering center that will accommodate more than 125 employees focused on artificial intelligence and cloud transformation. The New York-based financial giant...
Seattle’s Nuance Labs raises $50M to give AI models human expression and nuance
September 15, 2026
Nuance Labs co-founders, from left, Fangchang Ma, Edward Zhang, and Karren Yang. (Nuance Photo) Nuance Labs, a Seattle-based artificial intelligence startup developing a foundational AI model designed to perceive and respond to real-time human expression, raised $50 million in Series A...
Providence to receive $1.1B from Nike co-founder to build women’s health hospital in Oregon
September 15, 2026
Oregon’s first hospital focused on women’s health will be built on the campus of Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland. (Providence Illustration) Providence will receive $1.1 billion — one of the largest gifts ever pledged to a U.S. healthcare institution — from Nike co-founder Phil...
America’s machinists are retiring, and two startup founders in their 20s want to salvage what they know
September 15, 2026
Neuramill co-founders Nick Khormaei (COO) and Nistha Mitra (CEO) at the Reindustrialize summit in Detroit. (Photo courtesy of Neuramill) When machinists with decades of experience retire, everything they know about how metal behaves under a cutting tool — or anything else they learned through a...
BuyWander raises $21M as retail returns startup expands nationwide from new Seattle HQ
September 15, 2026
BuyWander co-founders Jordan Allen, left, and Brock Kowalchuk. (BuyWander Photo) BuyWander, an auction-based online marketplace for returned and overstocked retail items, announced Tuesday that it has raised $21 million in a Series A funding round led by Madrona Venture Group and Inspired...
Agility’s new Digit 5 robot lifts 50 pounds, works 20+ hours a day and operates alongside people
September 15, 2026
Two views of Agility Robotics’ new Digit 5, which is designed to work alongside people without safety barriers. (Agility Robotics Photo) Agility Robotics unveiled the next version of its Digit humanoid robot, which it says is designed to work safely alongside people in warehouses and factories...
Gates Foundation bets $1B on AI to boost global health, agriculture and education
September 15, 2026
“AI could be a great equalizer — or widen the gap,” Bill Gates writes in a new Gates Foundation report. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) The Gates Foundation is pledging to spend at least $1 billion over the next two years on artificial intelligence for health workers, farmers and teachers,...
‘The warning signs are flashing’: New regional partnership calls for cohesive Seattle-area tech strategy
September 15, 2026
“You should tax things you want to discourage, like cigarettes, not jobs.” Microsoft’s Brad Smith at Monday’s launch of the Partnership for a Competitive Puget Sound, with former Gov. Chris Gregoire at his left. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh each had their...
Monday-morning surprise: Valve Software suddenly launches its wireless VR headset Steam Frame for $1,059
September 14, 2026
Valve’s Steam Frame virtual reality gaming headset. (Valve Photo) In a sudden shadowdrop, Bellevue, Wash.-based Valve Software announced on Monday that it’s launched its new standalone virtual-reality headset the Steam Frame. Initially revealed in Nov. 2025 as part of the same initiative that...
Temporal raises $550M, hits $12.55B valuation as agentic AI wave fuels massive growth
September 14, 2026
Temporal co-founders Samar Abbas, left, CEO, and Maxim Fateev, CTO. (Temporal Photo) Temporal has raised $550 million in a Series E funding round that values the Bellevue, Wash.-based infrastructure startup at $12.55 billion, more than double its valuation from earlier this year as demand...
This software engineer is taking Google to the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify patent law
September 14, 2026
Jeff Kohler is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify patent law after courts sided with Google to invalidate his software patent. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Kohler) Jeff Kohler was working as a software engineer in 2005 when he started spending his nights and weekends on a side project: a web...
Tech Moves: Microsoft, Amazon and Kestra promotions; Gradial names CMO; Yoodli adds VP
September 14, 2026
Silvia Candiani. (LinkedIn Photo) — Silvia Candiani has been named corporate vice president of Worldwide Telco & Media within the Microsoft Frontier Company, a $2.5 billion initiative launched by the tech giant in July to embed engineers inside customers to build and run AI systems. In her new...
Microsoft floats rules for AI models as industry weighs slowdown
September 14, 2026
Satya Nadella says Microsoft welcomes the “deliberate pacing needed to get alignment right.” (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota) “People matter more than AI.” That’s the premise of a draft code of conduct Microsoft published Monday morning for the AI models it’s developing in-house. The...
Sophia Space and SLI set the terms for a $300M deal that will finance an orbital computing constellation
September 14, 2026
An artist’s conception shows several Sophia Space satellites in orbit. (Sophia Space Illustration) Sophia Space and SLI, an aerospace leasing venture based in Washington, D.C., say they’ve agreed on a $300 million asset-financing framework that will support the creation of a 10-satellite...
Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of Sept. 6, 2026
September 13, 2026
Get caught up on the latest technology and startup news from the past week. Here are the most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of Sept. 6, 2026. Sign up to receive these updates every Sunday in your inbox by subscribing to our GeekWire Weekly email newsletter. Most popular stories on...
Study warns Seattle over-relies on Big Tech; Seattle Times v. Microsoft; Apple’s iPhone Duo echoes the past
September 12, 2026
This week on the GeekWire Podcast: A study commissioned by the City of Seattle says the city is not in decline but is in danger — finding that 10 companies, nine of them in tech, pay three-quarters of the payroll tax on large employers, and that the tax structure uniquely penalizes the hiring...
Seattle VR studio Polyarc, creator of ‘Moss’ series, closes down after almost 12 years
September 12, 2026
(Polyarc games press image) The Seattle-based video game developer behind the award-winning virtual reality adventure Moss has closed its doors. The announcement was made via Polyarc Games’ LinkedIn page on Friday afternoon. No specific reason was offered for the studio’s closure. “After...
Microsoft comms chief Frank Shaw to exit after nearly three decades shaping the company’s message
September 11, 2026
Frank X. Shaw addresses the media at Microsoft on May 18, 2025, in advance of the Build conference. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) It’s the end of an era at Microsoft: Frank X. Shaw, the executive who oversaw the tech giant’s communications for nearly three decades, first at an external agency...
From OK grades to Dartmouth Hall of Fame: Remitly’s Matt Oppenheimer on his ‘strengths and shadows’
September 11, 2026
Matt Oppenheimer, second from right, at his Dartmouth College Entrepreneur Hall of Fame induction ceremony in San Francisco on Thursday. The Remitly co-founder is joined by school friends and dignitaries, from left, Jeff Crowe, Andrea Reisman Johnson, Trevor Jensen, Maia Josebachvili, Dartmouth...
Raiders star Ashton Jeanty backs Nukleus, a tech platform for athletes and their advisors
September 11, 2026
Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty, an investor in Nukleus and a spokesperson for the platform. (Nukleus Photo / Ben Miller) Hector Rivas spent a decade building ThriftBooks into one of the country’s largest used-book sellers, before an unlikely second act: co-founding a sports agency...
‘You cannot fund compassion from an empty treasury’: Seattle Chamber CEO frames economic growth as a civic imperative
September 11, 2026
Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce CEO Joe Nguyen speaks at the Westin Seattle on Thursday. (GeekWire photo) Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce CEO Joe Nguyen delivered a direct message to regional leaders at the organization’s 144th annual meeting on Thursday: Seattle’s progressive...
Top Seattle tech and business leaders demand 100-day public safety action plan from City Hall
September 11, 2026
Tents in a vacant lot in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) A roster of top Seattle business leaders and regional CEOs is demanding urgent action from City Hall on public safety, calling on Mayor Katie Wilson and the City Council to roll out a concrete 100-day...
Amazon expands its Quick AI assistant on mobile in challenge to Microsoft and Google
September 11, 2026
Amazon Quick’s new activity feed on mobile: the morning priority view, left, and the full feed. (Amazon Images) Amazon is adding the Activity Feed and other features from its Quick desktop app to the AI assistant’s mobile apps for iOS and Android. The Activity Feed is the signature feature of...
Spotlight: Startup vet launches Latch to liberate humanity ‘from doing work that owns us’
September 10, 2026
Latch co-founders Jared Kofron (left) and Stefan Kalb. (Photo via Latch) Seattle startup veteran Stefan Kalb is back with a fresh brand and an ambitious vision for enterprise automation in the AI era. Rebranded earlier this year from Super Labs, Kalb’s latest venture, Latch, is positioning...
Microsoft 2.5: EVP Pavan Davuluri wants to remake Windows for both human and agent users
September 10, 2026
Pavan Davuluri says Windows will keep serving human users while adding agentic workloads. (Microsoft Photo) GeekWire is profiling over the next few weeks some of the people and teams that are shaping the evolution of Microsoft in what we’re calling its “Microsoft 2.5” era. Just Don’t Call It...
Amazon updates its Luna gaming service to enable remote multiplayer sessions, add free games
September 10, 2026
(Amazon press image) The September update for Amazon’s cloud-based gaming service Luna comes with multiple new features, the most prominent of which is one that will allow up to 7 other players to remotely participate in the same gaming session. Since its aggressive relaunch earlier this...
Seattle biotech BrainChild Bio raises $116M to advance CAR T therapy for childhood brain cancer
September 10, 2026
Michael Jensen, left, and Steven Brugger are leading BrainChild Bio. (Photos via BrainChild Bio) Seattle biotech startup BrainChild Bio has raised $116 million to advance an experimental CAR T cell therapy for one of the deadliest forms of childhood brain cancer. The Series A financing will...
Seattle economic study finds strong tech assets, a risky concentration, and a tax that ‘penalizes’ hiring
September 10, 2026
A new report says Seattle’s economy “may not be in decline, but it is in danger.” (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) An independent study commissioned by the City of Seattle says the city’s tax structure is unique among its peers in the way it “specifically penalizes the hiring of senior,...
Prime-time AI: Microsoft Copilot gets a share of the spotlight during Seahawks’ season opener
September 10, 2026
A Microsoft Surface tablet running Copilot at Lumen Field in Seattle. (GeekWire File Photo / Kurt Schlosser) The Microsoft Surface tablets on NFL sidelines — a game-day fixture since 2014 — got a close-up on national television Wednesday night, with NBC highlighting new AI-powered workflows...
Amazon’s new board member is a cybersecurity founder who sold his last company to Google for $5.4B
September 10, 2026
New Amazon board member Kevin Mandia is a cybersecurity veteran. (Photo via Amazon) Amazon named cybersecurity veteran Kevin Mandia to its board of directors, adding new security expertise a few months after former NSA director Keith Alexander stepped down. Mandia founded Mandiant, the...
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