June 05, 2015
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) Microsoft’s earnings report Wednesday will come two days after the company offered buyouts to about 60,000 people, roughly a quarter of its employees. The call gives...
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 27, 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...
Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of Oct. 18, 2026
October 25, 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 Oct. 18, 2026. Sign up to receive these updates every Sunday in your inbox by subscribing to our GeekWire Weekly email newsletter. Most popular stories on...
Exit interview: Microsoft’s comms chief on CEOs, reporters, what he got wrong, and stories that stuck
October 24, 2026
Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft’s longtime communications chief, in the GeekWire studio. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) The name Frank X. Shaw isn’t as well known outside the company as those of Microsoft’s other senior leaders, and that’s the nature of the job. But behind the scenes, the company’s...
Amazon ends its six-year legal fight with former AWS managers over alleged data center kickbacks
October 24, 2026
GeekWire File Photo Two former Amazon real estate managers acknowledged receiving personal payments tied to data center deals they handled for the company, under a settlement that resolves the company’s claims against them in a six-year lawsuit. Carl Nelson and Casey Kirschner “regret their...
The Garage never should have existed: Why Microsoft’s grassroots innovation lab worked for so long
October 23, 2026
Posters from Microsoft Garage science fairs and hack events, many funded by the Microsoft groups that hosted them, as seen in 2016. (Photo courtesy of Quinn Hawkins) I saw the news via GeekWire that after 17 years, the Microsoft Garage, which I co-founded, is coming to an...
New facility at Washington national lab will give researchers free access to automated tools
October 23, 2026
PNNL Director Deb Gracio, third from left, at a groundbreaking for the Microbial Molecular Phenotyping Capability in Richland, Wash. (PNNL Photo / Eric Francavilla) A first-of-its-kind autonomous research facility is taking shape in central Washington that will provide free access to scientists...
Watching fruit ripen pays off: Seattle ag-tech startup Strella lands $4.25M
October 23, 2026
Katherine Sizov, CEO and co-founder of Strella, was recognized as a 30 Under 30 leader by Forbes. (Photo courtesy of Sizov) Seattle-based ag-tech startup Strella has landed $4.25 million to expand the reach of its technology that monitors produce to prevent spoilage and food waste. The...
Icertis veterans reunite as AI startup HumanTronik acquires tech consultancy CloudMoyo
October 23, 2026
From left: HumanTronik co-founder Kabir Narang, CloudMoyo co-founder and CEO Manish Kedia and fellow HumanTronik co-founder Monish Darda. HumanTronik, an AI startup co-founded by Icertis co-founder Monish Darda, has acquired CloudMoyo, the Bellevue tech services firm that Darda helped spin out...
Data farmers: Ag-tech startup Aigen grows AI-generated weeds to train its solar-powered farm robots
October 23, 2026
Aigen’s autonomous, solar-powered robot Element. (Aigen Photo) For years, Aigen has been building and tweaking solar-powered robots designed to pull weeds on farms. But the Redmond, Wash., startup is also raising a crop of its own: a growing, AI-generated collection of digital weeds and plants...
Startup Spotlight: Ex-Amazon duo finds the right fit for indie artists with apparel marketplace
October 22, 2026
Two of Loomerang’s co-founders: Vijay Roy, left, and Matt Koyama. (Loomerang Photo) Loomerang made its first sale less than 12 hours after it went live in June. A customer in Houston bought a shirt designed by Joe, an independent artist in Japan. Four months later, the Seattle-based...
Fusion startup Helion lines up potential $175M CHIPS award to develop advanced semiconductors
October 22, 2026
Helion’s Orion fusion plant is under construction in Malaga, Wash., with plans to start operating the facility in 2028. (Helion Photo) Helion Energy, the Everett, Wash., startup racing to build the world’s first fusion plant, is expanding its semiconductor development and manufacturing efforts....
Ex-Marine and Microsoft vets launch Watchtower Labs with $35M to bring AI to military logistics
October 22, 2026
Watchtower Labs co-founders, from left, Souren Aghajanyan, John Morman, and Akhil Iyer. (Watchtower Labs Photo) Watchtower Labs, a Bellevue, Wash.-based defense tech startup, emerged from stealth Wednesday with $35 million to build AI software that helps military planners make faster decisions...
Tech Moves: 2 Microsoft execs depart; Kymeta hires former CIA leader; Alaska Air names CITO
October 22, 2026
Elizabeth Kimber. (LinkedIn Photo) — Kymeta has appointed former CIA Deputy Director Elizabeth Kimber as chief growth officer. Kymeta, a Redmond, Wash.-based mobile satellite communications company, is working to increase sales with the Department of Defense, the intelligence community and...
Microsoft taps Stripe co-founder John Collison for its board as two longtime directors depart
October 22, 2026
Stripe co-founder and President John Collison has been nominated to join Microsoft’s board of directors. (Stripe Photo) When Stripe co-founder John Collison interviewed Satya Nadella on his company’s podcast last fall, he asked the Microsoft CEO for advice on building a platform business....
Endurance Energy hits a brief milestone in its quest for undersea geothermal power
October 21, 2026
Endurance Energy prepping to test its geothermal system off the coast of Oregon. (Endurance Photo via LinkedIn) Endurance Energy says its prototype marine geothermal power system generated more electricity than it consumed during a recent deployment 300 miles off the Oregon coast — though the...
Portal Space Systems reaches orbit for the second time this year with Starburst-1 launch
October 21, 2026
Portal Space Systems’ Starburst-1 spacecraft is shown in orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket prior to deployment. (SpaceX Webcast Image) Portal Space Systems has reached Earth orbit for the second time this year, successfully launching the startup’s first free-flying spacecraft, Starburst-1,...
UW protein institute led by Nobel winner unveils its first AI model co-developed with Nvidia
October 21, 2026
Structural models of two enzymes created using models developed at the UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design. (IPD Image / Benedicte Rossi) The UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design (IPD) today released a new open-source model for creating proteins with specific functions, called...
New fuel, same planes: Inside the bid to clean up air travel with cooking oil and captured carbon
October 21, 2026
Alaska Air Group is a proponent of sustainable aviation fuel as the most affordable and practical near-term solution for cutting the sector’s climate impacts given that it can be used in existing aircraft. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Subscribe to Positive Charge: Apple Podcasts,...
‘Difficult relationship’: UW task force proposes splitting Allen School from College of Engineering
October 21, 2026
The Paul G. Allen Center on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus, home to the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, which a university task force has recommended separating from the College of Engineering. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) University of Washington leaders are...
Cleveland’s big lesson for Seattle: A city’s job is to attract people
October 21, 2026
Charles Fitzgerald at an abandoned Westinghouse light bulb and fixture factory in Cleveland. (GeekWire Photo / John Cook) Editor’s note: GeekWire has been examining the economic challenges facing Seattle and the lessons the region can learn from Cleveland’s industrial decline and ongoing...
Microsoft shuts the door on The Garage, the central program behind its hackathon and maker spaces
October 20, 2026
Employees work on a soldering project during a workshop in a Microsoft Garage space. Microsoft is winding down The Garage as a companywide program, and some spaces could be restricted as early as this week. (Microsoft Photo) Microsoft is winding down The Garage as a companywide program, ending a...
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