GEEK News

June 05, 2015 - 03:04 PM
What a longtime Google AI leader told UW computer science students at their graduation

What a longtime Google AI leader told UW computer science students at their graduation

June 13, 2026

Jeff Dean, Google’s chief scientist and a UW alum, addresses Allen School graduates Friday at Alaska Airlines Arena. (UW Photo / Matt Hagen) Jeff Dean was a University of Washington graduate student in the 1990s, optimizing software compilers for object-oriented programming languages in a...

Following through in Cleveland: A GeekWire trip report, plus data center ‘theater’ and the SpaceX IPO

Following through in Cleveland: A GeekWire trip report, plus data center ‘theater’ and the SpaceX IPO

June 13, 2026

Scenes from GeekWire’s visit to Cleveland, where John Cook and Charles Fitzgerald spent several days reporting on the city’s comeback, including a stop at the abandoned Westinghouse light bulb factory where they recorded this week’s podcast. (Charles Fitzgerald and John Cook Photos) John Cook...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Xbox: ‘We have to turn this into a sustainable business’

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Xbox: ‘We have to turn this into a sustainable business’

June 12, 2026

Microsoft has spent years subsidizing Xbox rather than profiting from it, CEO Satya Nadella acknowledged this week, as he addressed the gaming division’s need for a new approach. His comments came during a Wednesday evening taping of The New York Times’ “Hard Fork” podcast, released...

Tech Moves: Microsoft exec departs Azure; Xealth gets first CRO; Slalom names Pacific NW leader

Tech Moves: Microsoft exec departs Azure; Xealth gets first CRO; Slalom names Pacific NW leader

June 12, 2026

Marcus Fontoura, Microsoft technical fellow and CTO for Azure Core, with his new book, A Platform Mindset, during a recent conversation at the company’s Redmond campus. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) — Microsoft technical fellow Marcus Fontoura is leaving the company after serving as Azure...

Oregon data center battery maker ZincFive to go public via SPAC deal valued at $600 million

Oregon data center battery maker ZincFive to go public via SPAC deal valued at $600 million

June 12, 2026

One of ZincFive’s stacked battery units. (ZincFive Photo) ZincFive, an Oregon company providing nickel-zinc batteries for data centers, announced Thursday that it’s partnering with SparkLabs Group to go public through a SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company). The deal is valued at $600...

As graduates push back on AI, UW’s Nobel-winning commencement speaker takes different approach

As graduates push back on AI, UW’s Nobel-winning commencement speaker takes different approach

June 12, 2026

Mary E. Brunkow, Nobel Prize-winning scientist and the UW’s 2026 commencement speaker. (Institute for Systems Biology Photo) This year’s University of Washington commencement speaker has decades of experience in a field that increasingly benefits from AI and machine learning — but unlike some of...

Opinion: SpaceX is no Tesla

Opinion: SpaceX is no Tesla

June 12, 2026

Elon Musk rings the opening bell for the SpaceX IPO on Friday morning. Imagine missing the Tesla IPO. I understand the pull to invest in SpaceX (SPCX). But SpaceX at a $1.75 trillion valuation is a different ball game. Tesla went public at a valuation a thousand times smaller. And the Musk...

What we learned in Cleveland about Seattle’s future: Advice from a Rust Belt city on the rise

What we learned in Cleveland about Seattle’s future: Advice from a Rust Belt city on the rise

June 12, 2026

Some of the Cleveland leaders who shared their advice during GeekWire’s visit to northeast Ohio. (GeekWire Photos / John Cook) CLEVELAND, Ohio — A century ago, this city was booming. By 1920, it was the fifth-largest metropolis in the United States, fueled by manufacturing, immigration,...

With $54M and a SpaceX playbook, Seattle’s Endurance races to tap deep-sea volcanic power

With $54M and a SpaceX playbook, Seattle’s Endurance races to tap deep-sea volcanic power

June 11, 2026

A geothermal energy demo device built by Seattle startup Endurance being tested in the Mariana Islands. (Endurance photo via LinkedIn) Endurance Energy, a Seattle-based startup developing technology to extract energy from the heat beneath the ocean floor, has raised $54 million. The team —...

Amperity founders take on co-CEO roles, say they’ll carry the ‘soul’ of the startup forward

Amperity founders take on co-CEO roles, say they’ll carry the ‘soul’ of the startup forward

June 11, 2026

Amperity co-founders and co-CEOs Kabir Shahani (left) and Derek Slager. (Amperity photo). Amperity is putting its founders back in charge. The Seattle-based customer data startup announced this week that co-founders Derek Slager and Kabir Shahani will serve as co-CEOs, taking over leadership...

Bezos’ AI startup Prometheus raises $12B at $41B valuation, and the CEOs explain what they’re doing

Bezos’ AI startup Prometheus raises $12B at $41B valuation, and the CEOs explain what they’re doing

June 11, 2026

Prometheus co-CEOs Vik Bajaj and Jeff Bezos speak with CNBC’s David Faber in San Francisco on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Jeff Bezos has bankrolled his Blue Origin space venture on his own, selling shares of Amazon stock to get the company to orbit and beyond, but others are chipping in for his...

Inside Lime’s Seattle warehouse, where 15,000 bikes and scooters are prepped for a World Cup surge

Inside Lime’s Seattle warehouse, where 15,000 bikes and scooters are prepped for a World Cup surge

June 11, 2026

Rows of Lime’s new LimeBike electric bicycles are ready to be deployed in Seattle from the company’s warehouse in Georgetown on Wednesday. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) As Seattle is set to welcome the world this month for FIFA World Cup matches, the city’s sole micromobility operator is...

Former AWS CEO Adam Selipsky to lead new $10B AI data center venture

Former AWS CEO Adam Selipsky to lead new $10B AI data center venture

June 11, 2026

Adam Selipsky is now CEO of Helix Digital Infrastructure. (GeekWire photo) Former Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky is returning to the world of cloud infrastructure as co-founder and CEO of Helix Digital Infrastructure, a newly-launched company backed by more than $10 billion. The...

Amazon claims data centers are 7-times more water-efficient than rivals as Seattle pauses new builds

Amazon claims data centers are 7-times more water-efficient than rivals as Seattle pauses new builds

June 11, 2026

Pipes carrying reclaimed water for cooling at an Amazon Web Services data center. (AWS Photo) Amazon Web Services on Thursday announced that efforts to curb water use at its data centers have made it seven times more water-efficient than the industry average. The company says it’s 75% of the...

How the SpaceX IPO effect could send the Seattle area’s space industry to a higher orbit

How the SpaceX IPO effect could send the Seattle area’s space industry to a higher orbit

June 11, 2026

SpaceX’s Seattle connection dates back to 2015, when CEO Elon Musk announced at Seattle Center that the company’s satellite operation would be based in the region. “What this represents is the official opening of SpaceX Seattle,” he said at the time. (GeekWire File Photo) SpaceX’s initial public...

‘This cannot continue’: Microsoft Xbox CEO calls for reset amid reports of looming job cuts

‘This cannot continue’: Microsoft Xbox CEO calls for reset amid reports of looming job cuts

June 11, 2026

Microsoft’s restyled Xbox logo. (Microsoft Image) Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, roughly 100 days into her tenure, delivered a blunt assessment of Microsoft’s gaming business in a memo to employees Wednesday, saying that heavy spending with thin profit margins and declining revenue “cannot continue.”...

Silicon Valley venture capitalist and LA billionaire reportedly weighing Seahawks bids

Silicon Valley venture capitalist and LA billionaire reportedly weighing Seahawks bids

June 11, 2026

Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla speaks in Seattle in 2025. (GeekWire File Photo) The list of potential buyers for the Seattle Seahawks is starting to look like an NFL Pro Bowl roster of billionaires, venture capitalists and global business leaders. Billionaire financier Todd Boehly is the...

Two-hour learning? AI-powered Alpha School lands in Seattle region

Two-hour learning? AI-powered Alpha School lands in Seattle region

June 11, 2026

Alpha School has leased space in this building in Kirkland for its first Seattle-area school. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Alpha School, an AI-driven private school chain that promises to teach kids core academics in two hours a day, plans to open a Seattle-area location in Kirkland this fall...

Tumbler tussle: Seattle’s MiiR sues Tesla, alleging copied cup design

Tumbler tussle: Seattle’s MiiR sues Tesla, alleging copied cup design

June 10, 2026

The beverage tumblers from MiiR, left, and Tesla that are being compared in a lawsuit. (MiiR, Tesla Images, GeekWire Composite Image) MiiR, the Seattle-based maker of drinkware and other accessories, is suing Tesla, alleging the Elon Musk-led company copied its tumbler lid design and...

Bill Gates goes to Capitol Hill in Epstein case as his ventures feel the effects

Bill Gates goes to Capitol Hill in Epstein case as his ventures feel the effects

June 10, 2026

Bill Gates appeared voluntarily behind closed doors before House Oversight Committee investigators on Wednesday to answer questions about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, part of a larger turn in his image that has been rippling through the Seattle-area institutions he built and funds. In a...

Microsoft’s Brad Smith: Graduates jeering AI are ‘telling us what we need to hear’

Microsoft’s Brad Smith: Graduates jeering AI are ‘telling us what we need to hear’

June 10, 2026

Brad Smith speaks at a Microsoft Elevate event at Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry in 2025. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) The interests of Microsoft and graduates rebelling against AI are actually aligned. That was one takeaway for Brad Smith, Microsoft president and vice chair,...

Ex-Icertis executives raise $7.5M for Rivvun, a startup that recovers lost corporate cash

Ex-Icertis executives raise $7.5M for Rivvun, a startup that recovers lost corporate cash

June 10, 2026

Rivvun co-founders Anand Veerkar, Niranjan Umarane, and Patrick Linton. Photos via Rivvun, composite image by GeekWire Two former executives from enterprise software giant Icertis have teamed up to launch a new Seattle startup aimed at a multi-trillion-dollar corporate headache. Rivvun AI,...

‘This is Seattle’s position on AI’: City Council votes unanimously to pause big new data centers

‘This is Seattle’s position on AI’: City Council votes unanimously to pause big new data centers

June 10, 2026

Supporters of a permanent data center ban, including members of Kshama Sawant’s congressional campaign, hold signs reading “Stop the Data Centers & AI Layoffs” during public comment at Tuesday’s Seattle City Council meeting. (Screenshot via Seattle Channel) The city that gave the world cloud...

Founders on the frontiers of space and robotics show off their gadgets and tell the stories behind them

Founders on the frontiers of space and robotics show off their gadgets and tell the stories behind them

June 10, 2026

Carbon Robotics CEO Paul Mikesell talks about his company’s LaserWeeder system with a model of Starfish Space’s Otter Pup spacecraft sitting on the table in the foreground. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) Four founders of companies on the tech frontier got together this week at a Seattle...

‘City at your fingertips’: Seattle powers up first digital wayfinding kiosk near tourist hot-spot

‘City at your fingertips’: Seattle powers up first digital wayfinding kiosk near tourist hot-spot

June 09, 2026

Jon Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association, cuts the ceremonial ribbon on an IKE Smart City digital kiosk at First Avenue and Pike Street in Seattle on Tuesday, alongside current and former officials from the city, DSA and Orange Barrel Media. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt...

After lagging behind, Gov. Ferguson pushes for statewide school cellphone ban in Washington

After lagging behind, Gov. Ferguson pushes for statewide school cellphone ban in Washington

June 09, 2026

(BigStock Photo) Washington state Gov. Bob Ferguson on Tuesday announced that banning cellphone use in kindergarten through 12th grade throughout the school day will be one of his top priorities when lawmakers convene in January. “More than half of states across the country are moving in one...

Seattle slips in ranking of best U.S. cities for foreign investment, fueling concerns about business climate

Seattle slips in ranking of best U.S. cities for foreign investment, fueling concerns about business climate

June 09, 2026

The Seattle skyline. (GeekWire File Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Seattle declined in a new ranking of the best places in the U.S. to attract foreign businesses and investment, drawing fresh concern and criticism in the ongoing debate about the business climate in both the city and Washington...

Golden Analytics lands $14M seed extension and opens AI platform to public beta

Golden Analytics lands $14M seed extension and opens AI platform to public beta

June 09, 2026

Francois Ajenstat, Golden Analytics founder and CEO. Golden Analytics, the AI-native analytics startup founded by former Tableau product chief Francois Ajenstat, added $14 million to its seed financing round just two months after emerging from stealth, bringing its total seed funding to $21...

Meet ArchAstro: Ex-Stripe, Microsoft and Meta vets assemble powerhouse team for cross-company AI agents

Meet ArchAstro: Ex-Stripe, Microsoft and Meta vets assemble powerhouse team for cross-company AI agents

June 09, 2026

Vivek Sharma, Rob Masson, Tore Hanssen and Calvin Grunewald of ArchAstro (ArchAstro photo) ArchAstro just emerged from stealth with an artificial intelligence network designed to automate complex, cross-company software deployments and integrations. Founded earlier this year by a team of...

Expeditors cuts 230 tech jobs in Seattle region, ending decades-long policy against layoffs

Expeditors cuts 230 tech jobs in Seattle region, ending decades-long policy against layoffs

June 09, 2026

Expeditors had previously been expanding its technology staff, according to its financial reports. (Alamy Photo / JHVEPhoto) Updated below with confirmation via a state filing by the company. Expeditors International, the Seattle-area logistics company known for never laying off employees,...

Ai2’s Skylight project launches ‘Shippy,’ an AI agent that dives into ocean data

Ai2’s Skylight project launches ‘Shippy,’ an AI agent that dives into ocean data

June 08, 2026

Skylight’s new Shippy AI agent answers a plain-language question about vessels in Seattle’s harbor, showing a breakdown of vessel types alongside a map of the area. (Skylight Image) Skylight, the free ocean-monitoring platform built by Seattle’s Allen Institute for AI (Ai2), launched an AI agent...

Hydrogen aviation startup ZeroAvia retreats from Seattle area as it scales back ambitions

Hydrogen aviation startup ZeroAvia retreats from Seattle area as it scales back ambitions

June 08, 2026

The nose of ZeroAvia’s Q400. The company in 2023 announced a partnering with Alaska Airlines to retrofit the aircraft with ZeroAvia’s powertrain. (GeekWire Photo / Lisa Stiffler) ZeroAvia was flying high. After launching in California in 2017, the clean aviation startup was expanding,...

FCC gives Amazon Leo more leeway on its satellite deployment schedule

FCC gives Amazon Leo more leeway on its satellite deployment schedule

June 08, 2026

Amazon Leo satellites are folded up in their dispenser, ready for deployment in low Earth orbit. (Amazon Photo) The Federal Communications Commission has freed Amazon from a requirement to deploy the first 1,616 satellites in its Amazon Leo broadband internet constellation by July 30. The...

This is bold … and italic and more: Microsoft Azure CTO vibe codes a text formatter for LinkedIn posts

This is bold … and italic and more: Microsoft Azure CTO vibe codes a text formatter for LinkedIn posts

June 08, 2026

Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich at the GeekWire Cloud Tech Summit in 2018. (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota) Mark Russinovich writes a lot of LinkedIn posts. Going forward it appears he’ll be formatting the text for those posts in a new tool he built. In a LinkedIn post on Sunday —...

Zillow co-founder and Seattle tech icon Rich Barton takes up residence in Las Vegas

Zillow co-founder and Seattle tech icon Rich Barton takes up residence in Las Vegas

June 08, 2026

Zillow Group co-founder Rich Barton. (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota) The man who helped revolutionize how Americans buy and sell homes has a new residence. Seattle entrepreneur Rich Barton, who co-founded Zillow Group in Seattle 20 years ago and remains its co-executive chairman,...

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