Published by GeekWire
GeekWire brings you the week's latest technology news, trends and insights, covering the world of technology from our home base in Seattle. Our regular news podcast features commentary and analysis from our editors and reporters, plus interviews with special guests.
Listen on Apple PodcastsThis week: Microsoft and Amazon both reported quarterly numbers, and both stocks rose on cloud results that beat expectations. Is AI spending is paying off in real business? And in related news, Microsoft sees a rare annual headcount decline, hitting product R&D hardest. Plus: Satya Nadella builds a Power BI dashboard out of an analyst's research report, and touts it on the earnings call to make a bigger point. Jeff Bezos names Amazon's chips business as the long-awaited fourth pillar. And AI House managing director Jacob Colker delivers a much-needed pep talk for Seattle tech, calling on the region to recognize and build on its strengths. With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Related stories and links: Microsoft and Amazon earnings Microsoft Azure tops $100B in annual revenue as record AI spending cuts into cash flow AWS is 'booming,' but Amazon's free cash flow turns negative on record AI spending Microsoft R&D jobs drop for second straight year as total headcount falls for first time in a decade Which Microsoft businesses are growing and shrinking, according to obscure table in regulatory filing Amazon's fourth pillar Jeff Bezos says this business is becoming Amazon's next 'pillar' A rallying cry for Seattle tech Watch: A venture capitalist's passionate speech, a rallying cry, really, about Seattle Seattle's AI2 Incubator rebrands as AI House, and adds key investor as managing director 'I'm tired of that narrative': Seattle VC pushes back on tech exodus talk The Washington tech ecosystem New map traces Washington state's tech 'universe' to a few key hubs, and shows what's at risk After hiring AWS exec and raising $107M seed round, Virginia startup plants flag in Seattle area GeekWire's Seattle engineering centers list See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On this special mid-week episode, we're sharing a remarkable installment of GeekWire’s new podcast, Positive Charge , which is all about finding slivers of hope in climate and sustainability. In their latest show, reporter Lisa Stiffler and producer Laura Scott find that hope in an unexpected place: an innovative alternative to traditional burial and cremation. It might not be the topic you were planning to delve into today, but we think you'll find it enlightening and inspiring. You can follow and subscribe for more at geekwire.com/positivecharge . John Cook and Todd Bishop will be back this weekend with the regular weekly show. What if the greenest thing you ever do is die? This episode of Positive Charge digs into human composting — the process, also called natural organic reduction, that turns a body into clean soil instead of ash or embalmed remains. It's the end-of-life option Martha Stewart says she wants, and a Seattle entrepreneur is the reason it exists. Katrina Spade set out to build a climate-friendly alternative to cremation and burial while still a graduate student in architecture, drawing on a practice farmers have long used to compost livestock. Turning that idea into a business meant clearing two enormous hurdles: engineering a process that safely breaks a body down into soil in a matter of weeks, and rewriting laws that made the practice illegal in all 50 states. We go inside Recompose, her Seattle facility, where bodies rest in stainless steel vessels and naturally occurring microbes generate all the heat that does the work. Then the episode turns to the people signing up. Interest cuts across the political map, with as many customers coming from conservative Eastern Washington as from Seattle, and a surprising share of them are young. Tune in to hear why composting is catching on as death care, how the science actually works, and what it means to choose becoming soil. Sources and references Interviews: Katrina Spade , founder and CEO of Recompose Micah Truman , founder and CEO of Return Home Elyssa Tappero , customer of Recompose and tsunami program manager for the Washington Emergency Management Division Additional sources: Lynne Carpenter-Boggs , chair of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at Washington State University Inside Recompose, where the human composting startup is ready to grow its formula beyond Seattle ( GeekWire ) 50+ & Unfiltered with Shawn Killinger, Episode 124 with Martha Stewart The environmental toll of cremating the dead ( National Geographic ) The Potential of Our Decay: Cemeteries That Save the American Landscape ( Smithsonian ) This episode was hosted by Lisa Stiffler and Laura Scott, and edited and produced by Laura Scott, with editorial assistance from Todd Bishop. Sponsored by Amazon Sustainability. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Seattle startup funding drops 40% in the first half of the year while AI money floods everywhere else. We dig into the numbers and the implications for the region. Plus: a Seattle judge deals Kalshi a setback , Impinj marks a decade on the Nasdaq after a 26-year climb, and nearly 40 Seattleites trade their smartphones for flip phones for five weeks. Related Stories Venture funding drops in Seattle area as AI boom reshapes startup world Helion raises $465M at $15.5B valuation as it aims to commercialize fusion UK data center startup Nscale bets big on Bellevue for U.S. engineering hub Anthropic expands in Seattle as AI boom offers hope for struggling office market Seattle judge deals blow to Kalshi, rejects prediction market's federal defense How Impinj has survived 26 years in a market that's 'just getting going' Ditch your smartphone for a flip phone for a month? With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: Silicon Valley legend Vinod Khosla's family is leading a group that's buying the Seattle Seahawks for a record $9.6 billion . We dug into hours of his talks and interviews to answer the big questions: Who is this guy, why does he want an NFL team, and what does his track record tell us about the kind of owner he'll be? Plus, the blind spot that could get him into trouble. Featuring highlights from his 2015 talk at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Also: A mystery trove of aerospace artifacts is rescued from a Seattle-area electronics recycler , and we want to hear about your coolest tech history find. Send your comments, voice memos and photos to todd@geekwire.com . With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On this week's show, we're out on the GeekWire deck for our annual founder open house, where we dig into Microsoft's latest round of layoffs — including a major Xbox shakeup — and the surprising rise of hardware companies on the GeekWire 200. Then we sit down with four guests to talk about how AI is reshaping how they build: Jana Schuster of StackIQ , whose AI-native platform helps companies find redundancy in their software spending — like Rocket Money, but for business — with a small team. Blake Resnick and David Benowitz of Brinc Drones , whose mechanical engineers are now vibe coding their own prototypes; Boaz Ashkenazy of Shift AI , who's setting up always-on agents and rethinking how we interact with AI tools. Finally, the GeekWire Trivia Challenge: how a longtime T-Mobile executive got his start in the wireless business, and the star-studded history of T-Mobile celebrity endorsers. Stories mentioned: Microsoft cuts 4,800 jobs, about 2% globally, revamps salesforce and launches massive Xbox overhaul GeekWire 200 update: New unicorns and a hardware surge remake our list of top Pacific NW startups Former GitHub CEO's startup Entire unveils its answer to the crush of AI coding agents Chicago software company plants flag in Seattle area as new leadership team seeks AI talent T-Mobile exec Mike Katz exits after 28 years, as carrier reshuffles top ranks and taps ex-AT&T leader With Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the show, we're sharing the debut of Positive Charge , a new GeekWire podcast from reporter Lisa Stiffler and producer Laura Scott about the innovations that could help save the planet. In this episode, they dig into the high-stakes race to harness the power of the sun and make fusion energy real, visiting two Seattle-area startups chasing this dream, and asking whether limitless clean power is finally within reach. Also out this week: their debut episode on the "forever chemicals" in our water and the companies figuring out how to destroy them. Follow Positive Charge wherever you get your podcasts, or at geekwire.com/positivecharge . Positive Charge is presented with support from Amazon Sustainability. Sources and references David Kirtley , Helion Energy, CEO and co-founder Manav Singh , Helion Energy, director of electrical engineering Matthew Thompson , Zap Energy, senior vice president of fission technology and former vice president of systems engineering and pulsed power Laura Berzak Hopkins , Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, associate laboratory director for Strategy and Partnerships, and deputy chief research officer GeekWire’s related coverage: Helion gives behind-the-scenes tour of secretive 60-foot fusion prototype as it races to deployment Helion makes big bet on ‘Tiny Merge’ fusion testbed to meet aggressive Microsoft timeline Inside Zap: Fusion pioneer tries to build ‘a star in a jar’ to unlock abundant clean energy Zap Energy’s nuclear double play: Fusion startup adds traditional fission to its lineup, in industry first See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: F5 turns 30 years old this year , and the Seattle company has reinvented itself repeatedly to get here — starting, improbably, as a group of University of Washington students trying to build online video games. On this week's GeekWire Podcast, recorded on location at F5 Tower, the company's chairman, president and CEO François Locoh-Donou joins us to trace that journey, from a 1990s internet load-balancing startup to a company that helps keep many of the world's biggest apps running and secure. Today F5 is a publicly traded company with about 6,500 employees and more than $3 billion in annual revenue, and it counts over 80% of the Fortune 500 among its customers. Locoh-Donou discusses F5's expansion into AI security, including its acquisition of SurePath AI this week, and the company's broader M&A strategy. On a personal note, he reflects on his path from Togo to Seattle, his leadership philosophy, and his message to high school students from underrepresented backgrounds who visited F5 Tower before the company took them to a World Cup match. Plus: his World Cup predictions, and a GeekWire trivia question that stumps the room. With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop. Edited by Curt Milton. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Anthropic takes its most powerful models offline after a U.S. order, with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reportedly contributing to the concerns that helped trigger it. Todd and John dig into the Amazon-Anthropic dynamic, how agentic AI is upending Amazon's "working backwards" tradition , an AI-driven school arriving soon in the Seattle area , and the sensor-packed World Cup ball . With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop; edited by Curt Milton. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In February, Seattle angel investor Charles Fitzgerald warned the region not to become the next Cleveland , prompting Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb to join the podcast and make the case for his city's comeback. This week we close the loop: Fitzgerald and GeekWire co-founder John Cook call in from an abandoned Westinghouse factory in Cleveland, where days of meeting entrepreneurs, civic leaders, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine left them struck by a city hustling and aligned around jobs in ways Seattle no longer is. Back home, we dig into Seattle's unanimous one-year moratorium on new large data centers, which Fitzgerald calls political theater, and he explains why he's sitting out the SpaceX IPO. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Microsoft's Build conference was a firehose: in-house AI models, agent-first devices, new coding tools, and a Copilot "super app" that got teased but never shown. Todd Bishop and Mary Jo Foley sort through what's real and what's not quite fully baked, from Project Solara and the Scout agentic assistant to Microsoft's push for AI self-sufficiency and the mounting pressure on GitHub. Related Stories: Inside Microsoft’s Project Solara: A new platform for devices that run AI agents instead of apps Microsoft unveils seven homegrown AI models in new bid for ‘long term self-sufficiency’ Mary Jo Foley: No Copilot ‘Super App’ at Microsoft Build, but plenty of agentic fodder Microsoft’s OpenClaw team takes on the personal assistant challenge Edited by Curt Milton. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the show: Mark Zuckerberg's superyacht arrives in Seattle the same day Meta discloses nearly 1,400 local layoffs , robot pizza startup Picnic flames out and sells to a mystery buyer , and corporate America confronts the rising cost of AI , including the leaderboard-gaming practice known as "tokenmaxxing." And we return to the theme of billionaire yachts for our trivia challenge. With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On this special episode, Eric Ries, author of the 2011 bestseller "The Lean Startup," discusses his new book, " Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great. " Ries explains why he's redefining profit as the maximization of human flourishing, reveals his role advising Anthropic's founders on their corporate structure, and makes the case that the era of shareholder primacy is already over. He also discusses the fall of Whole Foods, the Musk v. OpenAI trial, and why he believes mission-controlled companies dramatically outperform. GeekWire's Todd Bishop recorded this conversation with Ries after interviewing him on stage at Seattle Flow Startup Day on May 15. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on a supersized Memorial Day Weekend edition of the GeekWire Podcast: A massive IPO filing from SpaceX includes new details about Elon Musk's Starlink business and its satellite factory in Redmond. Jeff Bezos talks about wealth, inequality and eventually tech in an hour-long CNBC appearance. John goes to World Cup ticketing hell and turns to ChatGPT and Gemini when FIFA's support falls short. And a special Sam Altman/Seattle startup edition of GeekWire Trivia. With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Related Links: SpaceX is churning out 70 Starlink satellites a week in Redmond, and other tidbits from its IPO filing From the archives: SpaceX founder Elon Musk reveals new $10B 'Space Internet' plan at private Seattle event CNBC: Jeff Bezos blasts New York City school spending: It doesn’t get better outcomes Jeff Bezos describes his $38B startup Prometheus for the first time: ‘Nothing to do with robotics’ Expedia at 30, the inside story: Online travel giant navigates its third tech disruption Seattle, we've got an image problem The view from Bellevue: Seattle has the foundation for future growth — if it can fix its taxes Former Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has a new gig — startup CEO Why this Seattle-area startup is putting its name on the front of an English Premier League soccer team CEO of Paul Allen’s $3.1B science and tech fund steps down less than a year after launch Award-winning Business Journal photographer Anthony Bolante dies at 58 'Soma' Somasegar, 1966-2026: Microsoft and Madrona leader was a champion of developers and startups See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Brian Evergreen worked in AI at Microsoft from 2016 to 2023, including a role helping Fortune 500 executives develop their AI strategies. He kept seeing the same pattern: most of those projects were failing. He set out to figure out why, and the answer became his book, Autonomous Transformation . In this live recording for GeekWire's Agents of Transformation series , presented by Accenture , Evergreen explains what companies keep getting wrong, and why vision matters more than technology. With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Edited by Curt Milton. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: As the Musk v. OpenAI trial heads to the jury, we dig into what Microsoft's internal board memos and executive testimony revealed about the origins of the company's massive bet on AI, and why this case matters beyond the billionaire drama. Plus, Howard Schultz, a former Washington governor, and the tech community weigh in on whether Seattle is squandering its edge as an innovation capital. And Todd owes John and the United Kingdom an apology. RELATED STORIES AND LINKS Microsoft's CTO testifies about email at the heart of Elon Musk's allegations against the tech giant OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's stake in Helion Energy draws scrutiny in Musk trial and on Capitol Hill 'Strong, strong no': New filing reveals who Microsoft favored — and opposed — for OpenAI's board Musk v. Altman: Satya Nadella was worried about Microsoft being 'the next IBM' in OpenAI deal Are we on a Road to Nowhere? Seattle's growth masks deeper anxieties about its future Microsoft's multi-agent AI system tops Anthropic's Mythos on cybersecurity benchmark Seattle Turns Hostile to the Great Businesses It Made (Wall Street Journal, by Howard Schultz) Association of Washington Business 2026 Spring Summit (TVW, featuring former Gov. Chris Gregoire and former AG Rob McKenna) With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the show: Conversations with finalists and special guests at the annual GeekWire Awards about AI, innovation, startups, and the forces reshaping their industries, plus a special trivia challenge marking GeekWire's 15th year hosting the event. Guests include: Luis Poggi, CEO of HouseWhisper AI , winner of CEO of the Year Tracy Drinkwater, founder of the Seattle Universal Math Museum , STEM Educator of the Year honoree Ryan James, CEO of Dopl Technologies , finalist for Startup of the Year Laura Ruderman, CEO of the Technology Alliance Ross Finman, CEO of Augmodo , finalist for Hardware/Robotics/Physical AI of the Year Mohammad Rastegari, CEO of ElastixAI , finalist for Startup of the Year Related stories 2026 GeekWire Awards revealed: Big winners — and big love for Seattle — at annual tech celebration Photos: Inside the 2026 GeekWire Awards With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the show: Todd reports from inside the Oakland federal courthouse where Elon Musk is suing OpenAI, Sam Altman, and Microsoft, with jury selection revealing just how hard it is to find anyone neutral about Musk these days. Meanwhile, Microsoft and OpenAI restructured their partnership the same morning the trial began — and less than 24 hours later, OpenAI's models landed on Amazon's cloud . Then, Microsoft and Amazon both dropped blockbuster earnings, with Azure up 40%, AWS posting its fastest growth in 15 quarters, and the two companies combining for nearly $400 billion in capital spending this year alone. We also discuss a wild Semafor story about a serial entrepreneur who handed his entire life over to an AI agent that now emails people as him, sets up meetings without his knowledge, and even ordered him a computer. Plus, John tells the story of how Seattle's Flying Fish Partners — a VC firm with less than $250 million under management — hustled its way into a $1.1 billion seed round alongside Sequoia, Google, and Nvidia. And we tackle the quickly debunked rumor that Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook might buy the Seahawks. And finally, the return of the GeekWire Trivia Challenge. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bill Hilf has spent decades enterprise tech, open-source technologies, and AI, from IBM and Microsoft to running Paul Allen's portfolio as the CEO of Vulcan. He now chairs the Allen Institute for AI and American Prairie . His debut sci-fi novel, "The Disruption," imagines AI gone very wrong, and implicitly challenges the industry to think differently about how it's building our real future today. With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Edited by Curt Milton. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Microsoft is offering a voluntary retirement program for the first time in its history, with thousands of U.S. employees eligible. GeekWire's Todd Bishop joins KIRO Newsradio hosts Angela Poe Russell and Mike Lewis to break down the details, what makes this so unusual in the tech industry, and what it says about the company's approach to managing costs in the AI era. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the GeekWire Podcast , a week of Seattle-area startup news shows how the AI era is reshaping the regional tech scene. Q1 venture numbers reveal bigger checks going to fewer companies, with Seattle slipping behind the likes of Austin and Miami on deal volume. And yet the distributed nature of modern startups is complicating what it even means to be a regional tech hub. (Does a mailbox in Pioneer Square really count as a Seattle headquarters?) Founders and CEOs are navigating the shakeout in different ways. Those with enough cash in the bank are eyeing strategic acquisitions , including opportunities to absorb startups caught up in the AI shakeout . Meanwhile, many startup leaders are completely rethinking how they hire and expand. More than a third of the GeekWire 200 , our ranking of the top Pacific Northwest startups, saw year-over-year employment declines, as agents boost individual productivity and start to reshape the workforce. Plus: Andy Jassy's shareholder letter signals Amazon is making bets again, in areas including chips and robotics. Driving home the point, the tech giant's ambitious Globalstar acquisition effectively means it's inheriting Apple's satellite roadmap. And of course we have to talk about Allbirds. The sustainable shoe brand, which once challenged Amazon over knock-off sneakers, pivoted to AI infrastructure and saw its stock soar. In our final segment , a trivia challenge on the No. 1 companies in GeekWire 200 history. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apple Podcasts rankings supplied by Mato Topic Intelligence Platform.
Observed July 30, 2026.
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