June 05, 2015
GeekWire Awards: The machines of the future, from self-driving earthmovers to space robots
April 14, 2026
The finalists for Hardware/Robotics/Physical AI of the Year at the 2026 GeekWire Awards. Clockwise from top left: AIM Intelligent Machines; Brinc’s Guardian drone; Starfish Space’s Otter spacecraft; Orbital Robotics; and Augmodo’s Smartbadge. (Company Photos) An emerging class of startups is...
AI-powered hiring startup Humanly acquires Anthill to boost employee engagement
April 14, 2026
(Image via Humanly) Bellevue, Wash.-based Humanly, a startup that makes AI-powered interviewing tools for employers, announced it has acquired Anthill, a platform that uses AI to help companies connect with and support frontline employees. It’s the latest acquisition for Humanly, which...
Seattle startup Ambassador acquires ad platform Humming, eyes more deals amid AI shakeout
April 14, 2026
Ambassador leaders, from left: COO Mark Steffler, CEO Geoff McDonald, and Chief Strategy Officer John Larson. (Ambassador Photos) Seattle customer engagement startup Ambassador has acquired the operating assets of Tacoma-based programmatic ad platform Humming, part of a roll-up strategy that...
These fifth graders vibe coded a real-world Braille tool — and wowed their Microsoft teacher
April 14, 2026
Fifth graders who worked on the Braille 3D Generator at Global Idea School in Redmond, Wash., from left: Valentin, Grayson, Ella, Hunter and Julian. (Photo courtesy of Juan Lavista Ferres) As the head of Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, Juan Lavista Ferres and his researchers can spend months...
Opinion: Make Democracy capitalist again
April 14, 2026
Washington state’s Legislative Building, which houses the Legislature. (GeekWire Photo / Brent Roraback) Longtime Seattle investor and entrepreneur Chris DeVore is managing partner of Founders’ Co-op. I have a confession to make. I’m a Democrat. And a capitalist. Both, at the same...
Amazon and Apple vs. Starlink: Globalstar satellite acquisition comes with a big iPhone bonus
April 14, 2026
Amazon announced an agreement Tuesday to acquire Globalstar, adding the satellite operator’s fleet, spectrum, and Apple partnership to its growing Amazon Leo network. (Amazon Image) Amazon isn’t just buying Globalstar — it’s inheriting Apple’s satellite roadmap. The Seattle-based company’s...
Does AI even know you exist? Seattle startup Parsnipp helps brands find out, and do something about it
April 14, 2026
Parsnipp co-founders Awad Sayeed, CTO (left) and Andrew Higgins, CEO. (Parsnipp Photo) Seattle startup Parsnipp today launched its platform to help brands ensure that the likes of Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini know them well enough to casually drop their names in conversation. The company,...
Can AI revive democracy? Former Amazon product manager builds tool to spark civic engagement
April 13, 2026
Julien Clayton of Next30Days, with one of the flyers promoting his civic engagement app. (Photo courtesy of Julien Clayton) Julien Clayton spent six years as an engineer working on propulsion systems for submarines. He got an MBA from Harvard. He worked as a product manager at Amazon, building...
There’s a tech week for that: Seattle’s ever-growing calendar of events for AI, space, oceans, energy and more
April 13, 2026
(Google Gemini Illustration) Keeping track of the days of the week is exhausting enough. Managing a calendar full of various “tech weeks” in Seattle and elsewhere feels like a full-time job. There are now weeks dedicated to AI, energy, deep tech, regular tech, women in tech, tech for the...
OpenAI sees ‘staggering’ demand for Amazon offering, says Microsoft partnership held it back
April 13, 2026
An new OpenAI memo touts the Amazon partnership as a key enterprise growth driver. (GeekWire File Photos) OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft helped launch the generative AI era. Now Amazon is bringing the ChatGPT maker further into the booming market for enterprise AI. That’s the takeaway...
Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of April 5, 2026
April 12, 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 April 5, 2026. Sign up to receive these updates every Sunday in your inbox by subscribing to our GeekWire Weekly email newsletter. Most popular stories on...
Riding the rails — over a floating bridge: GeekWire Podcast takes the train across the lake to Microsoft
April 11, 2026
GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop, left, and John Cook on Sound Transit’s 2 Line. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) This week on the GeekWire Podcast: we take the show on the road — or rather, on the rails — recording on Sound Transit’s 2 Line as we ride the world’s first light rail on a floating...
Artemis 2 crew makes triumphant splashdown at the end of humanity’s first trip around the moon since 1972
April 11, 2026
NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashes into the Pacific Ocean, as seen in an overhead view. (NASA via YouTube) Four astronauts and their Orion space capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean today, bringing the first crewed trip around the moon and back since 1972 to a successful end. “What a...
Cry til you laugh: Chris Pirillo vibe codes his job-search frustrations into brutally honest apps
April 11, 2026
Chris Pirillo tears up one of his fake rejection letters. (Photo courtesy of Chris Pirillo) At a time when finding a job in tech has turned into a frustrating cycle of rejections, ghostings or worse, Chris Pirillo‘s work speaks for itself — in that it makes a mockery of the whole...
Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft Windows’ new lease on life — why now?
April 10, 2026
A display of Microsoft Surface laptops at the company’s Build 2025 developer conference. (GeekWire File Photo) For the past few years, it felt as if Microsoft’s Windows org was on autopilot. (No, not THAT Autopilot.) Microsoft leadership seemed content to let Windows run its course as long as...
Tech Moves: Syndio names 7 execs; avante and Tanium add to C-suite; Amazon leaders depart
April 10, 2026
Syndio’s new leadership, top row from left: Erik Darby, Shonna Waters, Devin Luquist. Bottom row: Erin McClintock, Elizabeth Temples, Manuj Bahl and Meredith Conroy. (LinkedIn Photos) — Syndio, a Seattle startup that helps companies analyze and address pay equity, announced seven new additions...
Non-compete ban stirs optimism and uncertainty in Washington state — here’s what it means for tech
April 10, 2026
Gov. Bob Ferguson shakes hands with Rep. Liz Berry (D-Seattle), sponsor of the bill, after signing House Bill 1155, which bans nearly all non-compete agreements in Washington state. (Washington State Photo / Ian Couch) A new Washington law wiping out nearly all non-compete agreements across the...
Artemis 2’s trip around the moon enters the home stretch — here’s how to watch the splashdown
April 10, 2026
A view from a camera mounted on one of the Orion spacecraft’s solar array wings shows Orion’s engines and thrusters in the foreground, and Earth in the background. (NASA via YouTube) The crew of NASA’s round-the-moon test mission crossed the halfway point between the moon and Earth today on...
Flush with cash: Washington startup lands up to $500M to deploy facilities treating sewage, dairy waste
April 09, 2026
Dairy cows at the Puyallup Fair, now called the Washington State Fair. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Wastewater treatment startup Sedron Technologies — a Washington company that once served Bill Gates a glass of water purified from sewage — announced it’s being acquired by Ara Partners. The...
GeekWire Awards: AI Innovation of the Year finalists transform HR, retail, biotech and more
April 09, 2026
The 2026 GeekWire Awards AI Innovation of the Year finalists, clockwise from top left: Avante CEO Rohan D’Souza; ConverzAI CEO Ashwarya Poddar; Envive AI CEO Aniket Deosthali; Synthesize Bio co-founders Jeff Leek (left) and Robert Bradley; and Spangle AI co-founders Maju Kuruvilla (left) and Fei...
Microsoft 365 Copilot and the end of the single-model era in enterprise AI
April 09, 2026
Steve Gustavson, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for design and research. (Microsoft Photo) [Editor’s Note: Agents of Transformation is an independent GeekWire series, underwritten by Accenture, exploring the adoption and impact of AI and agents. See coverage of our related event.] Using...
Opinion: How to read with AI
April 09, 2026
(Licensed via marketoonist.com) This is a follow-up to my recent piece “AI Coach or AI Ghostwriter? The Choice Is Yours,” which argued that AI can either sharpen your thinking or replace it. That piece was about writing. This one is about the other side of the coin: reading. The practical...
Portal Space Systems raises $50M as it gets set to launch its first orbital vehicle made for rapid maneuvers
April 09, 2026
An artist’s conception shows Portal’s Starburst spacecraft in the foreground with its Supernova space vehicle and three more Starbursts (plus Earth) in the background. (Portal Space Systems Illustration) Bothell, Wash.-based Portal Space Systems has raised $50 million in a funding round aimed at...
‘Not on a hunch’: Andy Jassy defends Amazon’s $200B spending spree
April 09, 2026
“It’s hard to overstate my optimism for what’s ahead,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy writes in his new shareholder letter. (GeekWire File Photo) Andy Jassy’s new letter to Amazon shareholders is a data-heavy defense of the tech giant’s biggest bets — from AI and custom chips to satellite internet and...
Seattle startups combine: Inflection.io acquires Keyplay, reuniting longtime entrepreneurs
April 09, 2026
Inflection.io CEO Aaron Bird, left, and new CMO Adam Schoenfeld at the company’s office in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. (Inflection.io Photo) Two Seattle startups with intertwined histories are joining forces. Inflection.io, a B2B marketing automation company, announced Wednesday that it has...
Microsoft Moves: Longtime exec Julia Liuson to retire; new accessibility chief; and other changes
April 09, 2026
Julia Liuson presenting at a conference in 2019. (Microsoft Photo) Big tech moves today from Microsoft: Longtime executive Julia Liuson is retiring, Neil Barnett is the company’s new chief accessibility officer, and Nanda Ramachandran has been named chief marketing officer for Windows &...
Avalanche Energy lands share of $5.2M DOD award to develop long-lasting ‘nuclear batteries’
April 08, 2026
An early prototype of Avalanche Energy’s radiovoltaic converter for the DARPA Rads to Watts program is exposed to high-energy ion-beam irradiation. (Avalanche Photo) Seattle fusion startup Avalanche Energy was awarded a share of a $5.2 million contract announced Wednesday from the U.S....
Defense giant Anduril is quietly building autonomous warships on Seattle’s historic ship canal
April 08, 2026
The old Foss Shipyard on Seattle’s Lake Washington Ship Canal, where defense giant Anduril Industries is building a new class of autonomous warships. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) There was no noticeable activity at the old Foss Shipyard in Seattle when I visited last week. No signs, and no...
Humanly raises $25M to put AI to work for job seekers, not just the companies hiring them
April 08, 2026
Humanly’s job seeker-facing product offers AI-powered coaching on interview preparation, resume writing, salary negotiation and more. (Humanly Image) The market for recruiting software — tools that help companies find and screen candidates — is worth $14 billion. The market for actually placing...
Opinion: Everyone is asking AI better questions — nobody is asking themselves better ones
April 08, 2026
(BigStock Illustration) Alonda Williams is the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound. Last year, a peer CEO told me she’d been using AI for eight months and still couldn’t explain to her board how she benefitted beyond saving time writing. She wasn’t an outlier. Surveys suggest that...
Golf star Bryson DeChambeau leads acquisition of Seattle-area startup Sportsbox AI
April 08, 2026
Bryson DeChambeau swings while the Sportsbox AI app captures his motion on a smartphone. (Sportsbox AI Photo) First Bryson DeChambeau used Sportsbox AI to win a major. Then he invested in the Bellevue, Wash.-based startup. Now he’s taking a swing at the entire company. DeChambeau, the...
Amazon revamps S3 cloud storage for the AI era, removing a key barrier for apps and agents
April 07, 2026
Amazon Web Services is making it possible to access data stored in its S3 cloud storage service as a traditional file system, bridging a divide between two types of storage that has frustrated developers and data scientists for nearly two decades. The new capability, called Amazon S3...
Earthset and eclipse, oh my! NASA releases magnificent images from Artemis mission’s moon flyby
April 07, 2026
A crescent Earth sinks behind the moon’s disk in a wide-angle version of the Artemis 2 crew’s “Earthset” picture. (NASA Photo) A day after the Artemis 2 mission’s historic lunar flyby, NASA has released a stunning set of high-resolution images documenting Earthset and Earthrise, a solar eclipse...
From Pokémon GO to physical AI: Niantic Spatial unveils its global 3D mapping platform
April 07, 2026
Niantic Spatial’s Scaniverse app captures physical spaces, reconstructs them as 3D models and enables precise localization within them. (Niantic Spatial Images) Niantic Spatial, the company spun out of Pokémon GO maker Niantic, is launching a revamped version of its Scaniverse platform for...
Tech Moves: Microsoft leader jumps to Anthropic; Tagboard gets new CEO; Expedia names tech VP
April 07, 2026
Eric Boyd. (LinkedIn Photo) — Longtime Microsoft leader Eric Boyd announced today that he has joined Anthropic to lead its infrastructure team. “I’ve been privileged to have a front row seat to the explosion of LLMs, and the team at Anthropic is truly special,” Boyd said on LinkedIn. “The...
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