GEEK News
Your digital photos and posts are scattered everywhere: This startup ties them all together
Bilkay Rose is a co-founder of Eluum, which is looking to bring digital memories together into a common story. Photo via Eluum Eluum is taking aim at a problem created by the explosion of digital life: We chronicle our lives everywhere, but a single home for our most meaningful memories is hard to come by. The Seattle startup’s new app brings together photos, videos, social posts, locations...
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Microsoft responds to White House immigration crackdown as Trump honors Nadella
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella receives the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Trump on Thursday at the “Science: A New Golden Age” summit in Washington, D.C. (White House video screenshot) The Trump administration suspended Microsoft from the federal program the company uses to help foreign workers stay in the U.S. permanently, accusing the tech giant of abusing the...
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Rocket fuel: Seattle-area startups raise a record $3.5B as national VC funding cools
Q3 2026 VC deal activity by U.S. metro area. Note: PitchBook’s map uses broader regional boundaries than the metro-area figures in this story (PitchBook-NVCA Graphic, click to enlarge.) Seattle-area startups raised $3.5 billion in venture capital in the third quarter, the most in any quarter going back at least a decade, led by big rounds for Kent-based rocket maker Stoke...
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UW protein institute run by Nobel winner lands giant AI cloud grant from Nvidia CEO’s foundation
A large, symmetrical protein created by researchers at the UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design. (IPD / Benedicte Rossi Image) The UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design (IPD) has announced a giant grant of computing power from the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation, supercharging its research into new protein discovery. “We have made more rapid progress on methods development than...
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Fast-growing AI startup Nscale doubles Bellevue office footprint to 46K square feet
AI infrastructure startup Nscale is doubling down on its new Seattle-area presence before even opening the doors. After initially leasing a single floor at The Eighttower in downtown Bellevue earlier this year, the London-based company has expanded by an additional floor, bringing its total footprint in the new development to approximately 46,000 rentable square feet, according to a report...
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Overland AI unveils IBEX, a new autonomous ground vehicle selected by the Marine Corps
Overland AI’s IBEX vehicle at the company’s proving grounds. (Overland AI Photo) Seattle defense startup Overland AI has unveiled IBEX, a new fully autonomous ground vehicle selected by the U.S. Marine Corps to support counter-drone air defense operations and execute high-risk frontline missions, including resupply, breaching, and electronic warfare. IBEX was developed under a Department of...
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Shield AI lands $150M Navy contract to advance AI-piloted fighter jet that will be built south of Seattle
Shield AI’s new X-BAT autonomous fighter jet is designed to take off and land vertically. Photo via Shield AI. Defense technology startup Shield AI has secured a $150 million contract from the U.S. Navy to advance development of its X-BAT autonomous fighter jet — providing fresh federal backing for the program as the company establishes its first major manufacturing footprint south of...
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Amazon unveils Alexa Tablets running Android with Google Play, including a Pro model aimed at work
The Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro with the $89.99 Pro Pen, which Amazon designed exclusively for the 12 Pro. (Amazon Photo) After more than a decade of focusing on low-cost devices, Amazon is taking its tablets upmarket and moving them to Android, setting up a more direct challenge to Apple’s iPad. The company on Thursday unveiled Amazon Alexa Tablets, a new line of aluminum tablets with full...
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Amazon confirms job cuts impacting hundreds of employees in retail unit
Amazon’s latest job cuts are mainly in its Stores business, which runs its main e-commerce site. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) Amazon laid off hundreds of employees this week in its Stores business, which runs the company’s main e-commerce site — the latest in a series of smaller job cuts in recent months. Customer service, selling partner support and retail engineering teams were...
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Microsoft plays the Windows card in the AI game, with help from Nvidia
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, left, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang shake hands in front of new RTX Spark laptops at Microsoft’s Windows and Surface event in San Francisco on Wednesday. (Photo by Ken Yeung for GeekWire) Microsoft is turning to an old friend and a familiar advantage in search of a new edge in AI. The company and its longtime partner Nvidia on Wednesday started taking orders for a...
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In effort to diversify economy and build resilience, Seattle Mayor names 18 leaders to new task force
City of Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson set up a new task force to bolster the economy. (Photo via Katie Wilson for Mayor) Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is bringing together leaders from Amazon, Spotify, the Port of Seattle, organized labor, technology, cleantech, small business and other sectors as part of a new task force focused on rebuilding and diversifying the city’s economy. Wilson on...
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Opinion: Washington’s new state income tax must be repealed
The Legislative Building in Olympia, where Washington lawmakers passed a 9.9% tax on household income above $1 million earlier this year. Initiative 645 on the November ballot would repeal it. (Photo by Nils Huenerfuerst via Unsplash) Editor’s note: GeekWire publishes guest opinions to highlight a range of perspectives on issues shaping the tech and startup community. To submit a guest column,...
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Sen. Maria Cantwell outlines six-point plan to regulate frontier AI as concerns escalate
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell at the GeekWire Summit in 2022. (GeekWire Photo / Dan DeLong) With President Donald Trump, states and tech giants taking varied and largely uncoordinated steps to put guardrails on artificial intelligence as the technology speeds ahead, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has outlined a comprehensive AI governance framework. “To manage risks from advanced AI systems...
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Walmart prepares to take off in Amazon’s backyard with Seattle-area drone delivery in 2027
Walmart and Wing are partnering on drone delivery service that is expanding across the U.S. (Walmart Photo) Walmart looks like it might beat Amazon to the skies over the Seattle area as the retail giant announced this week that it plans to bring automated drone delivery to the region in 2027. The move is part of a broader nationwide push by Walmart and drone operator Wing — a subsidiary of...
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Ring’s first smart lock ditches the key and adds a dial to revive a dead battery
The new Ring Smart Lock, right, next to one of the company’s video doorbells. (Ring Image) Ring is moving from the doorbell to the deadbolt. The Amazon-owned company on Wednesday announced its first smart lock, a $249 deadbolt with no keyhole and a dial that recharges a dead battery by hand. Jamie Siminoff, Ring’s founder and chief inventor, said the dial solves the...
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Yoodli’s next act: AI that can teach workers almost any job skill
A portion of the Yoodli team gathers for a photo this week inside the company’s new headquarters on Seattle’s Pier 70, under a neon version of the startup’s logo. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Yoodli, the Seattle startup that offers AI to help people practice speeches, sales pitches and job interviews, is expanding to pursue a larger vision: AI that can teach people almost any...
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Fast-growing Temporal hires team from NYC startup Oso to build AI agent security controls
Temporal co-founders Maxim Fateev, CTO (left), and Samar Abbas, CEO. (Temporal Photo) Bellevue, Wash.-based Temporal is expanding its security capabilities for AI agents following a $550 million funding round last month that valued the enterprise infrastructure company at $12.55 billion. In an announcement Tuesday, Temporal revealed that team members from Oso, a New York-based startup...
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Tech Moves: Microsoft CVP retires; former Amazon SVP to lead Boston Dynamics; Qualtrics, Overland AI, Fred Hutch name execs
Ravi Vedula. (LinkedIn Photo) — Ravi Vedula, a corporate vice president at Microsoft, is leaving the company after 26 years. Vedula, who is based in the Seattle area, led an organization of more than 1,000 people that runs the data and analytics platform behind Microsoft 365 and Copilot. “26 years. It’s time,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “Goodbye and thank you, Microsoft. It’s been a privilege. I...
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Superhuman opens new Seattle office, joining wave of AI companies expanding in the region
A rendering of the reception area at Superhuman’s new Seattle office in South Lake Union. (Superhuman Image) Superhuman, the San Francisco company formerly known as Grammarly, opened a 13,501-square-foot office in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood on Tuesday, moving out of a coworking space and giving itself room to hire. The office, at 1000 Dexter Ave. N., is opening with 50...
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Beyond co-working: Former tech leader launches new hub for Seattle’s women founders
The SWELL hosts a weekly open house for entrepreneurs, including non-members, to meet up. Sally Revell, The SWELL founder, at lower center. (The SWELL Photo) A new hub for women entrepreneurs is taking shape in Seattle and will host its official launch party tonight. Less than 10 weeks after opening, The SWELL has 53 members and quickly evolving programming that includes an accelerator, its...
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AI founders for hire: Startup hub Foundations launches service to connect businesses with builders
Founders and guests mingle at the opening of Foundations’ San Francisco hub earlier this year. (Foundations Photo) Foundations, the startup community with hubs in Seattle and San Francisco, launched a service Tuesday that lets businesses contract with its members — many of them technical founders building companies of their own — to plan, develop and implement AI systems and...
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Seattle startup Chiplytics lands $4.5M to catch fake and flawed chips before they hit the market
The Chiplytics team, including Connor Dempsey, CTO (far left); Stephen DiBartolomeo, president and co-founder (center); and Steven Dourmashkin, CEO and co-founder (far right). (Chiplytics Photo) Seattle startup Chiplytics today announced $4.5 million in funding to support the deployment of its microelectronics verification technology and the opening of an inspection facility in Bellport,...
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Amazon hires a veteran Microsoft AI leader to help build its tools for coding and work
Pedram Rezaei, a 20-year Microsoft veteran, is joining Amazon Web Services as a distinguished engineer. (Amazon Photo) A longtime Microsoft engineering leader who was previously a Copilot chief technology officer is joining Amazon Web Services to work on its competing AI tools for coding and workplace productivity. Pedram Rezaei, a nearly 20-year Microsoft veteran who was most recently a...
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Seattle’s tax burden shifted to business as jobs slipped away, new report finds
Taxes have outpaced population, employment and other other factors in Seattle (Image via ECOnorthwest) Seattle’s tax collections have nearly tripled over the past decade, soaring from $900 million in 2013 to a projected $2.8 billion in 2026. But who pays those taxes, and how the tax revenue is collected, looks vastly different today than a decade ago. A new report released by ECOnorthwest,...
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Orbital Robotics gets set to send up a pair of arms for International Space Station’s robots
An illustration shows an Astrobee free-flying robot equipped with Orbital Robotics’ arms, at left. NASA astronaut Megan McArthur shows off three Astrobees aboard the International Space Station, at right. (Credits: Orbital Robotics for illustration at left, NASA for photo at right) A free-flying NASA robot aboard the International Space Station will soon demonstrate a system for capturing and...
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Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of Sept. 27, 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 Sept. 27, 2026. Sign up to receive these updates every Sunday in your inbox by subscribing to our GeekWire Weekly email newsletter. Most popular stories on GeekWire X-BAT at a Glance: Measuring 26 feet long with a 1,000-nautical-mile combat radius, Shield...
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Washington climate tech founders score funding as AI boom drains investor cash
From left: Allison Arnold, co-director of the Opalene Climate Challenge; David Gory, co-founder and CEO of AirBuild; and Aina Abiodun, president and executive director of VertueLab. (Opalene Photo) Some climate tech startups tied to the AI boom are still attracting investors, but deals are fewer overall and times are tougher for companies addressing sustainability issues that don’t align with...
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Seattle and San Francisco: Big tech, political backlash and the AI boom
Historian Margaret O’Mara, journalist Jonathan Weber, and GeekWire’s John Cook at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle, recording a joint episode of the GeekWire and Blue City Blues podcasts with David Hyde and Sandeep Kaushik. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Tech remade Seattle and San Francisco over the past three decades, bringing jobs and wealth along with soaring housing costs and a...
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The biggest unresolved question in AI right now, and more takeaways from Madrona’s IA40 Summit
Madrona Managing Director Matt McIlwain speaks at the IA40 Summit in Seattle on Wednesday. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Executives from companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Anthropic and Stripe agreed on a lot this week about where AI is headed. But one big question was left unresolved: who keeps the relationship with the customer, and the data that comes from it, once an AI agent is in the...
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Seattle voice AI startup Ultravox, formerly known as Fixie, acquired by Inworld
The co-founders of Ultravox, which launched in 2022 as Fixie, from left: Hessam Bagherinezhad, Matt Welsh, Justin Uberti and Zach Koch. (Fixie Photo) Seattle voice AI startup Ultravox, which launched as Fixie, has been acquired by Inworld for an undisclosed sum. Ultravox was founded in 2022 by Google and Apple veterans to build a speech model for real-time, natural-sounding AI voice...
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Seattle Space Week shines a light on eight problems and prospects for pioneers on the final frontier
Dale Goulding, chief operating officer at Forge Digital, chats with Michael Reilly, chief strategy officer at Varda Space Industries, at the Space Northwest Symposium in Federal Way, Wash. One of Varda’s orbital capsules is on display in front of them. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) How high can Washington state’s space industry rise? Preliminary findings suggest that the economic impact of...
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Seattle software engineer turned general contractor built an AI guide to the patchwork of permit rules
A 3D rendering of the buildable envelope for a property in Seattle is part of the information displayed by Pascal Matta’s permitting information tool. (Screengrab via kolmo.io/permits) Pascal Matta has a background building software for tech giants like Google and T-Mobile. But when he wanted to have a deck added to his Seattle home, he discovered that municipal code was far trickier than...
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Amazon pledges $1B to data center communities, warns that local opposition threatens U.S. AI lead
Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman, shown at AWS re:Invent in 2025, says local opposition to data centers threatens the U.S. position in the AI race. (Amazon Photo / Noah Berger) Amazon says it will spend more than $1 billion over five years in the U.S. communities where it builds and operates data centers, responding to a growing backlash across the country against the tech industry’s...
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SpaceX’s rideshare launch kicks off milestone mission for Starfish Space’s first Otter space vehicle
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket rises from its California launch pad, sending 130 payloads into orbit. (Credit: SpaceX via X) Starfish Space’s first full-scale Otter satellite servicing vehicle went into orbit today, marking a major milestone for the Tukwila, Wash.-based startup. The Otter spacecraft was among 130 payloads launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX...
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Startup Spotlight: Porchlight uses AI to help foster human connection in senior care
Porchlight founder Patrick Donahue’s parents worked in medicine, and hospice care was part of his family’s life. (Photo courtesy of Donahue) When a new caregiver walks into an assisted living room for a shift, they usually hold a chart with a room number and a list of medical needs — and almost no background about the human being in the bed. They might be caring for a former machinist, a...
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