Enduring Planet’s co-founders, from left: Chief Technology Officer Joshua Krafchin, CEO Dimitry Gershenson, and Chief Operating Officer Erin Davis. (Enduring Planet Photo) Enduring Planet, a fintech company with Pacific Northwest roots, on Wednesday announced it has closed its second fund at...
BioBead won the top prize at the Demsey Startup Competition, awarded by Trish Held (left), manager of philanthropy at the BECU Foundation, and received by BioBead’s Jared Espinosa and Renee Davis. (UW Photo) The big winner at the University of Washington’s 29th annual Dempsey Startup Competition...
From industrial gears to healthcare products to luxury goods, Alitheon’s FeaturePrint provides a link between physical objects and digital traceability without tags, labels, or stickers. (Alitheon Photo) Bellevue, Wash.-based Alitheon raised $8 million in new funding to expand its FeaturePrint...
An Amazon delivery van parked in front of the company’s headquarters campus and The Spheres in Seattle. (GeekWire File Photo / Kurt Schlosser) For the first time in 13 years, the Fortune 500 has a new No. 1— and it’s Amazon. The Seattle-based e-commerce and cloud giant knocked Walmart from...
Stoke Space has its 168,000-square-foot headquarters in Kent, Wash., where Mount Rainier can be seen on a good day. (Stoke Space Photo) Space Northwest, a nonprofit association serving the Pacific Northwest’s space industry ecosystem, says it’s partnering with the Commercial Space Federation to...
(Official PlayStation image) This week marks one of the biggest events on the modern video game calendar, as studios from around the world bring their newest projects to the annual Summer Game Fest event in California. This includes a new look at Amazon Game Studios’ impending reboot of the...
The SkySat satellite image at left shows Blue Origin’s launch pad in Florida on May 20, before the New Glenn rocket explosion. The satellite image at right shows the pad on May 31, three days after the blast. Click on the image for a larger version. (Credit: Planet Labs PBC) Jeff Bezos’ Blue...
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella teases the coming Copilot “Super App” during the Build keynote, telling the audience that Chat, Cowork and Code will come together in one app this summer. Despite the rumors, Microsoft didn’t demo the app itself. (Screenshot via webcast) The token-hungry developers...
Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman presents seven new in-house MAI models at the company’s Build developer conference. (Via webcast) Microsoft has based much of its AI business on models from OpenAI, before expanding more recently to Anthropic. On Tuesday, the company showed how it plans to rely...
Founders participating in the WTIA Founder Cohort Accelerator, a program designed to support emerging entrepreneurs and strengthen Washington state’s innovation ecosystem. (WTIA Photo) The Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) named the 21 startups that will be participating in its...
Stevie Bathiche, Microsoft CVP and technical fellow, presents Project Solara during a briefing in Redmond. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) [Editor’s Note: Agents of Transformation is an independent GeekWire series, underwritten by Accenture, exploring the adoption and impact of AI and agents. See...
Bill Watkins. (LinkedIn Photo) — Expedia Group appointed Bill Watkins as senior vice president and general manager of global advertising within its marketing organization. He will focus on helping outside advertisers across Expedia’s portfolio of sites engage with consumers planning...
Boris Wertz and Angela Tran Kingyens, partners at Version One Ventures. (Version One Ventures Photo) Version One Ventures, the Vancouver, B.C.-based early stage venture firm led by Boris Wertz, has raised $108 million across two new funds. The firm announced Tuesday that it closed Version One...
Ed Lein, left, who leads the Allen Institute’s new Brain Health Accelerator, with scientist Aaron Garcia. (Allen Institute Photo / Erik Dinnel) Editor’s note: This story has been updated with new figures, partners and details announced by the Allen Institute after the initiative’s launch Tuesday...
The rise of AI has been changing the focus of Code.org for the past two years. On Tuesday, the Seattle-based computer science education platform acknowledged the shift and rebranded as CodeAI. “In the past, the focus of computer science was coding,” co-founder Hadi Partovi said in a video...
Melinda French Gates, left, and Samatha Holloway, One Roof Sports and Entertainment majority owner and managing partner, in the Seattle Kraken locker room at Climate Pledge Arena. (One Roof Sports and Entertainment Photo) Seattle Kraken fans, Melinda French Gates is ready to “see you in the...
Philips designs and builds its ultrasound systems, including this premium imaging platform, at its Bothell campus. (Philips Photo) Philips plans to put its Bothell, Wash., campus up for sale, marking a significant moment for Washington state’s medical device industry and for a site that helped...
Mark Zuckerberg’s superyacht Launchpad in Elliott Bay on Sunday, after leaving Lake Union. (GeekWire Reader Photo) The Zuckerboat is at bay. After several days on Seattle’s Lake Union — drawing onlookers, hecklers, and even some flaming protest art — Mark Zuckerberg’s superyacht quietly...
The Seattle-based social gaming platform Rec Room is shutting down today (Rec Room Image) It’s the last day of school for Rec Room, and there’s no next year. The social gaming platform, set on a virtual college campus where 150 million players built worlds and friendships over the past...
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 May 24, 2026. Sign up to receive these updates every Sunday in your inbox by subscribing to our GeekWire Weekly email newsletter. Most popular stories on...
(BigStock Illustration) How can the U.S. bond market, where the world’s smartest money lives, reconcile $36 trillion in national debt with less than 2.5% expected annual inflation over the next decade? The answer may consist of two letters: A and I. Four forces are pushing inflation...
Onlookers gather along the Lake Union waterfront to take in Mark Zuckerberg’s 387-foot superyacht. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Mark Zuckerberg’s 387-foot superyacht arrives in Seattle, cruising through the Ballard Locks and mooring on Lake Union just a short...
One day after Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded on its launch pad during a static-fire test, United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 successfully sent 29 Amazon Leo satellites into low Earth orbit. (ULA via YouTube) Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is still assessing the damage from this...
Microsoft hosted a community party in Quincy, Wash., on Thursday celebrating the opening of its first data center there 20 years ago. (Microsoft Photo) As data center backlash builds nationwide, Microsoft is pointing to Quincy, Wash., as Exhibit A in making the case that it’s a company...
One Bellevue Center in downtown Bellevue, Wash. (CBRE Photo) Bellevue’s AI frenzy continues as CoreWeave recently doubled its footprint to 36,000 square feet at One Bellevue Center, according to a report in the Puget Sound Business Journal. Livingston, N.J.-based CoreWeave, which rents...
F5 CEO François Locoh-Donou (center) and members of the company’s leadership team with Nasdaq’s Jeff Thomas (in front of F5 logo) at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square on Friday, marking F5’s 30th anniversary by ringing the opening bell. (Screenshot via webcast) Nearly 27 years ago, in June...
An explosion at Blue Origin’s launch pad lights up the skies over Florida. (Spaceflight Now Video) Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded today during a hotfire test on its launch pad in Florida — dealing heavy damage to the pad, and dealing a heavy blow to Jeff Bezos’ space venture. “All...
Shannon Smith. (LinkedIn Photo) Shannon Smith, an experienced public-sector technology executive, will be the City of Seattle’s next chief technology officer. A city spokesperson confirmed to GeekWire that Mayor Katie Wilson made the selection, which has not been announced publicly. Smith’s...
The superyacht support vessel Wingman is seen docked at the Smith Cove Cruise Terminal at Pier 91 at the northern end of Seattle’s waterfront this week. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Mark Zuckerberg — or whoever is traveling aboard his superyacht in Seattle this week — brought a...
Neil Lindsay, left, and Dr. Roy Schoenberg. (Amazon Photos) Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, is leaving his post after five years — capping a 15-year tenure at the tech giant. As the head of Amazon’s healthcare business, Lindsay oversaw divisions including Amazon...
Possible co-founders Prasad Mahendra, Tyler Conant, and Tony Huang in an early photo, left, and at the 2026 GeekWire Awards. Possible Finance CEO Tony Huang describes the startup’s history as “a tale of three chapters.” They could be summed up as a rocket launch, a survival test, and a comeback...
“Incorruptible” author Eric Ries, left, with GeekWire’s Todd Bishop at Seattle Flow Startup Day 2026. (Photo by Dan DeLong for Seattle Flow) Eric Ries wants to retire the word “profit,” or at least the way we usually define it. In his new book, “Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and...
Two people in a dinghy get a c loser look at Launchpad, the superyacht docked in Seattle on Lake Union on Wednesday. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) People saw it on Facebook. And they saw it on Instagram. But many had to come see it up close and in person. Social media scrollers turned...
New Glenn rockets are being processed inside Blue Origin’s Florida facility. (Blue Origin Photo) Five weeks after experiencing its first launch failure, Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin is getting ready to put its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket back in service to launch 48 satellites into low Earth...
Snowflake’s office in Bellevue’s Spring District, where it expanded its regional presence last year. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Snowflake on Wednesday committed to spend $6 billion on Amazon Web Services over five years, adding to the cloud giant’s growing roster of AI infrastructure...