June 05, 2015
Microsoft’s big buyout, Amazon’s trillion-dollar future, and an AI wearable reviews our show
October 31, 2026
Microsoft is offering buyouts to about 60,000 employees, about a quarter of its workforce, including some execs. Unlike the retirement program Microsoft offered in the spring, this one has no age or tenure requirement, and business leaders decide whether their groups take part. On this...
Washington governor rips Microsoft over TV ad in leaked audio
October 31, 2026
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, speaking at an event in Olympia in June, called out Microsoft last week over a TV ad from a PAC the company has helped fund. (Office of the Governor Photo) Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson called out Microsoft for bankrolling a political action committee responsible for...
Madrona Prize goes to UW research on agents that shrink AI models to run on small chips
October 30, 2026
Madrona Prize honorees with representatives from Madrona at the Allen School Research Showcase. From left: Karan Mehandru, Chris Picardo and Joe Horseman of Madrona; Zhihan Zhang, Madrona Prize winner; Tanush Yadav, first runner-up; Jacob Morrison of Madrona and the Allen School; and Phoebe Riser...
Filing: Chip startup Powerlattice raises $86M to ease AI’s power crunch
October 30, 2026
Powerlattice founders, from left: Gang Ren, Peng Zou, and Sujith Dermal. (Powerlattice / Walden Kirsch Photo) Powerlattice, a Vancouver, Wash.-based startup developing chips that cut the power demands of AI processors, has raised $86 million, according to an SEC filing on Friday. The new...
Metal fabricator NIC Global to cut 103 jobs near Seattle, move production to Eastern Washington
October 30, 2026
NIC Global is closing its 100,000-square-foot manufacturing site in Woodinville, Wash., as demand shifts to Eastern Washington. (NIC Photo) Metal fabricator NIC Global plans to close its Woodinville, Wash., plant, eliminating 103 jobs. Declining business from local customers is prompting the...
Power outage takes down KEXP streaming for Seattle radio station’s worldwide audience
October 30, 2026
Seattle independent radio station KEXP, based in Lower Queen Anne, lost power early Friday morning. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) KEXP’s website and online streaming were down Friday morning after a power outage hit the Seattle radio station, though its over-the-air broadcast was back and...
Andy Jassy’s prediction: Amazon could have two $1 trillion businesses within a decade
October 30, 2026
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told analysts Thursday that “some folks are sleeping a bit” on how much progress the company’s stores business has made. (GeekWire File Photo) No company has ever had a business with $1 trillion in annual revenue. Andy Jassy says Amazon is on a path to have two. Amazon...
Tech Moves: Former Amazon execs depart Warner Bros. Discovery; Amazon leader returns to Microsoft
October 29, 2026
Avi Saxena, left, and Tyler Whitworth. (LinkedIn Photos) — Two former Amazon executives who helped build Discovery’s direct-to-consumer operation in Bellevue, Wash., are stepping down from their leadership roles following the company’s acquisition by Paramount Skydance. They will remain in...
AWS growth hits 39%, its fastest in nearly five years, as Amazon misses on earnings
October 29, 2026
AWS now brings in revenue at a $184 billion annual pace, and it’s closing in on Amazon’s third-party seller business as the company’s second-largest source of sales. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) Amazon Web Services revenue grew 39% to $46 billion in the third quarter, its fastest pace in...
Coding Dojo co-founder unveils ‘Idea to Launch,’ a 30-day program to help aspiring founders build with AI
October 29, 2026
Richard Wang says he gets inspiration from mentoring aspiring startup founders. (Idea to Launch Photo) Richard Wang, co-founder and former CEO of coding bootcamp Coding Dojo, is launching Idea to Launch, a 30-day program that helps would-be founders turn a startup idea into a working product...
Seattle-area startup Group14 raises $169M, plans battery materials factory in Spain
October 29, 2026
Group14’s silicon anode facility began manufacturing materials in 2024. (Group14 Photo) Next-generation battery materials startup Group14 Technologies today announced $169 million in new funding and plans to build a manufacturing facility in Spain, expanding a production network that includes...
Zillow agrees to pay $212.5M to settle investor lawsuit over failed home-flipping business
October 29, 2026
A for-sale sign on a home sold through Zillow Offers, the company’s home-flipping business, which Zillow shut down in 2021. The company has agreed to pay $212.5 million to settle an investor lawsuit over its statements about the business. (Zillow Photo) Zillow Group will pay $212.5 million to...
Bigger than Bing or Xbox: Microsoft’s OpenAI haul reaches $10B in quarterly revenue
October 29, 2026
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at OpenAI’s DevDay in November 2023. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) OpenAI generated $10 billion in revenue for Microsoft in the quarter ended Sept. 30, about 11% of the Redmond company’s total revenue, according to its quarterly filing...
Microsoft Azure revenue surges 48% to $33.2B, beating expectations as cloud and AI demand grows
October 28, 2026
Microsoft broke out Azure’s quarterly revenue for the first time in its new financial structure. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) Microsoft’s Azure cloud business brought in $33.2 billion in revenue in the September quarter, up 48% from a year earlier, blowing past the company’s own forecast...
Seattle farmworker payroll startup Ganaz acquired as CEO Hannah Freeman steps away
October 28, 2026
Hannah Freeman, co-founder of Ganaz. (LinkedIn Photo) Seattle startup Ganaz, which provides payroll and HR tech for agricultural workers and employers, has been acquired by Beacon Holdings. Ganaz co-founder and CEO Hannah Freeman announced the deal Wednesday on LinkedIn, saying the public...
F5 stock suffers worst day in more than a decade as AI spending shakes investors
October 28, 2026
F5’s logo at the entrance to F5 Tower in downtown Seattle. The company’s stock fell about 20% Wednesday after it forecast slower growth and lower margins, along with more spending on AI security. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Shares of F5 fell about 20% on Wednesday, a day after the...
PicoBrew’s patents are back on the market, six years after the Seattle homebrew startup’s collapse
October 28, 2026
Seattle-based PicoBrew set out to revolutionize home beer brewing with a line of machines it initially sold on Kickstarter. (PicoBrew File Photo) The patents behind PicoBrew, the Seattle startup that once promised to do for home beer what Keurig did for coffee, are up for sale again — six years...
Former T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert exits board of directors, wraps up his run at the wireless giant
October 28, 2026
Mike Sievert in 2017 when he was serving as T-Mobile’s COO before rising to CEO in 2020. (GeekWire File Photo/Kevin Lisota) Former T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert is hanging up his magenta hat, leaving the wireless giant’s board of directors and vice chair role effective Nov. 1. Sievert will also...
Blue Origin leases former Bartell Drugs warehouse south of Seattle for new manufacturing site
October 28, 2026
The Prologis Park SeaTac 3 industrial building in Des Moines, Wash. (Prologis Photo) Blue Origin is taking over an industrial building in Des Moines, Wash., where the Jeff Bezos-founded space company plans a mix of lab, development and light production work, the company confirmed to...
Amazon earnings preview: AWS is booked up, and Wall Street wants to know what comes next
October 28, 2026
Andy Jassy says Amazon “could invest a lot more” in AI infrastructure “and it wouldn’t be a bad use of capital.” (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) Amazon reports third-quarter earnings Thursday afternoon with more demand for its cloud services than it can serve, driven by AI labs such as...
A new pal for Pluto? Rubin Observatory finds its first dwarf planet candidate
October 28, 2026
A visualization shows the orbital path of the dwarf planet candidate 2026 ED138 in relation to the orbits of the solar system’s larger planets. Click on the image for a larger version. (Credit: NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory / NOIRLab / SLAC /AURA / R. Proctor) Astronomers sorting through...
Etzioni on AI: Is Anthropic worth $2 trillion? Do the napkin math with this handy calculator
October 28, 2026
Anthropic filed to go public on Monday under the ticker ANT, and you may end up owning the stock soon even if you never buy it directly, because index funds and ETFs will be required to buy it within weeks of its debut. Anthropic’s bankers are reportedly valuing Anthropic between $1.5 trillion...
Tech Moves: Xbox COO’s sudden departure; SeekOut leadership shakeup; Fred Hutch names VP
October 27, 2026
Helen Chiang. (LinkedIn Photo) — Xbox Chief Operating Officer Helen Chiang has suddenly left Microsoft after 21 years with the company, just months after landing the role in July. Her past roles include leading Mojang and the Minecraft franchise. Verge first reported the news on Friday,...
Microsoft earnings preview: Employee buyouts, AI spending and a new financial scorecard
October 27, 2026
Satya Nadella & Co. report quarterly earnings under a new financial structure Wednesday. (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota) Update, 10/28: Microsoft’s Azure cloud business brought in $33.2 billion in revenue in the September quarter, up 48% from a year earlier, blowing past the company’s own...
Seattle’s Kivo Health raises $10M to bring lung disease rehab into patients’ homes
October 27, 2026
Kivo Health co-founders from left: CEO Victor Sadauskas and Chief Technology Officer Vaughn Koch. (Kivo Photos) Seattle-based Kivo Health today announced $10 million in funding to help increase access to its services, which target older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)....
Seattle startup Avante raises $30M to bring AI agents to corporate benefits teams
October 27, 2026
Avante CEO Rohan D’Souza in a video announcing his startup’s new funding. (Avante via LinkedIn) Avante, the maker of an AI platform to help companies manage employee health care and other benefits, has landed a $30 million Series A round. Frist Cressey Ventures led the round, with...
Nuclear power at sea: Seattle startup targets Norway for ships and floating power plants
October 27, 2026
Part of the Emerald Nuclear team, from left: Erlend Haugsbø, head of engineering and testing; Hallgeir Juliebø, co-founder and chief commercial officer; and Wesley Deason, co-founder and CEO. (Emerald Nuclear Photo) Emerald Nuclear today announced a $2.1 million award from The Research Council...
Who’s getting Anthropic’s compute spending? IPO filing shows where the tech giants really stand
October 27, 2026
Chris Jones, director of Seller Assistant at Amazon, left, and Eric Burns of Anthropic’s Applied AI team on stage at Amazon Accelerate in Seattle in September. Anthropic’s IPO filing shows Google getting a bigger share of the AI company’s computing spending than Amazon, one of its largest...
AI optimism meets data center backlash as protesters disrupt Seattle AI Week kickoff
October 27, 2026
A protester interrupts a panel on AI and economic growth at Seattle AI Week at AI House on Monday, as a security guard approaches from across the room, and moderator Randa Minkarah of WTIA tries to regain control of the session. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) The Washington Technology Industry...
Stoke Space lines up $150M Pentagon loan for a second launch pad in Florida
October 26, 2026
Stoke Space’s existing Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida. (Stoke Space Photo) Kent, Wash.-based Stoke Space has secured a conditional commitment for a $150 million loan from the Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital to build a second launch pad at Cape Canaveral for a larger...
Former GitHub CEO launches rival platform built for AI coding agents
October 26, 2026
Entire CEO Thomas Dohmke, speaking last month at Madrona’s IA40 Summit in Seattle, says AI agents have made code review a much bigger bottleneck for developers. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) A startup led by former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke is introducing its own platform for storing, reviewing...
Microsoft makes new ‘voluntary exit’ offer to about a quarter of its workforce, including some execs
October 26, 2026
Microsoft’s new buyout offer comes six months after its first-ever voluntary retirement program. (Photo by Dasharath Sunar on Unsplash) Microsoft is making a new buyout offer to a much broader group of employees, this time including some executives — signaling that it’s not done shrinking its...
‘Not a new AI center’: Seattle Children’s launches $10M pediatric innovation institute
October 26, 2026
Seattle Children’s researchers. (Seattle Children’s Photo) Seattle Children’s is announcing today the launch of its Institute for Pediatric Innovation, a $10 million initiative with eight focus areas and a chief innovation officer yet to be named. The hospital is positioning the institute as the...
T-Mobile’s new ‘T-Mix’ plans let customers trade phone deals for Netflix, ESPN and other perks
October 26, 2026
T-Mobile’s new T-Mix plans let customers spend “Picks” on perks or a new phone. (Photo by appshunter.io on Unsplash) T-Mobile is introducing new wireless plans that change how customers get perks and phone deals, giving them a set number of “Picks” to spend on a new phone or an expanded menu of...
Etzioni on AI: $137M spent on AI-generated midterm ads, and most voters can’t spot the fakes
October 25, 2026
AI-generated images from 2026 political ads targeting James Talarico, Mike Mazzei, Peggy Flanagan, Kathy Hochul and Zohran Mamdani. (NRSC; Make Oklahoma Great Again PAC via Oklahoma PBS; North Star Dawn PAC via KSTP; Blakeman for Governor) The midterm elections are around the corner, and...
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