Tech News

June 29, 2024
Jeff Bezos unloads $3B worth of Amazon stock in latest sale

Jeff Bezos unloads $3B worth of Amazon stock in latest sale

November 01, 2024

(Bezos Earth Fund Photo) Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is selling more than $3 billion worth of Amazon shares, according to a new regulatory filing revealed Friday, in his latest stock sale this year. Bezos had already sold more than $13 billion worth of Amazon stock in 2024. The latest sale...

Want a house in a neighborhood that matches your politics? Flyhomes releases tool sharing voting info

Want a house in a neighborhood that matches your politics? Flyhomes releases tool sharing voting info

November 01, 2024

If this house in Richland, Wash., appeared to be your dream home, could the politics of the neighborhood still affect whether or not you wanted it? (Flyhomes Screenshot) Seattle real estate startup Flyhomes has released a feature called NeighborVote that lets house hunters add...

No harsh mandates: Tech leaders on what’s working with their hybrid return-to-office policies

No harsh mandates: Tech leaders on what’s working with their hybrid return-to-office policies

November 01, 2024

A “Future of Work” panel hosted by GeekWire and Calgary Economic Development on Oct. 30, 2024 in Seattle. From left: Rasha El-Malki, chief of staff and chief operating officer for Morgan Stanley at Work Tech; Matt Oppenheimer, CEO of Remitly; and GeekWire co-founder John Cook. (GeekWire Photo /...

Report: Benioff in talks to sell Time; Salesforce CEO has called media ‘much harder’ than tech

Report: Benioff in talks to sell Time; Salesforce CEO has called media ‘much harder’ than tech

November 01, 2024

Marc Benioff, Salesforce co-founder and CEO, at Dreamforce 2017. (Salesforce Photo by Jakub Mosur Photography) Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is in talks to sell Time to Greek media company Antenna Group, CNBC reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. A Time spokesperson said...

Ultra Safe Nuclear files for bankruptcy in a procedure aimed at facilitating its sale

Ultra Safe Nuclear files for bankruptcy in a procedure aimed at facilitating its sale

November 01, 2024

An artist’s conception shows a cutaway view of a Micro Modular Reactor system. (USNC Illustration) Seattle-based Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. says it has filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition as part of a court-supervised process that will lead to its purchase through a public auction. The...

The winning ideas at the UW computer science school annual research showcase

The winning ideas at the UW computer science school annual research showcase

November 01, 2024

From left: Magdalena Balazinska, professor and director of the Allen School; Jon Turow, partner, Madrona; Vidya Srinivas, Ph.D. student, Allen School; Chris Picardo, partner, Madrona; Ruotong Wang, Ph.D. student, Allen School; Tim Porter, managing director, Madrona; Chu Li, Ph.D....

Amazon corporate headcount drops year-over-year as tech giant aims for efficiency

Amazon corporate headcount drops year-over-year as tech giant aims for efficiency

October 31, 2024

Amazon’s Spheres at the company’s HQ in Seattle. (GeekWire File Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Amazon continues to take a cautious hiring approach with its corporate workforce, following years of huge headcount growth. The company’s corporate headcount is “down slightly year-over-year,” according to...

AWS tops $10B in quarterly operating profits as Jassy cites ‘reacceleration’ of cloud business

AWS tops $10B in quarterly operating profits as Jassy cites ‘reacceleration’ of cloud business

October 31, 2024

Amazon Web Services accounted for more than 60% of Amazon’s overall operating profits. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) Amazon’s cloud business isn’t done growing yet. Amazon Web Services posted $10.4 billion in operating income in the third quarter, up 50% from a year ago, surpassing $10...

Amazon stock jumps 6%; Q3 revenue up 11% to $158.9B; profits hit $15.3B; AWS sales up 19%

Amazon stock jumps 6%; Q3 revenue up 11% to $158.9B; profits hit $15.3B; AWS sales up 19%

October 31, 2024

(GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper) Amazon topped estimates for its third quarter earnings, reporting $158.9 billion in revenue, up 11% year-over-year, and earnings per share of $1.43. Profits jumped to $15.3 billion, from $9.9 billion in the year-ago period. Analysts expected revenue of $157...

Microsoft vet who founded beer delivery app ID’d as Melinda French Gates’ new boyfriend

Microsoft vet who founded beer delivery app ID’d as Melinda French Gates’ new boyfriend

October 31, 2024

Melinda French Gates. (Jason Bell Photo) The New York gossip sites are abuzz over Melinda French Gates’ love life this week, as the billionaire Seattle philanthropist was spotted holding hands with her new entrepreneur boyfriend. Page Six published photos of French Gates with Philip Vaughn...

Ex-Zipwhip leaders back Ambassador, a ‘conversational commerce’ software startup

Ex-Zipwhip leaders back Ambassador, a ‘conversational commerce’ software startup

October 31, 2024

(Ambassador Image) Ambassador, a Seattle startup that helps brands acquire customers via “conversational commerce” software, recently added former Zipwhip leaders to its team to fuel growth. Ambassador targets brands who use its software to offer customer referral and rewards...

AI overwhelmingly prefers white and male job candidates in new test of resume-screening bias

AI overwhelmingly prefers white and male job candidates in new test of resume-screening bias

October 31, 2024

Kyra Wilson, left, University of Washington doctoral student in the Information School and Aylin Caliskan, a UW assistant professor in the iSchool. (UW Photos) As employers increasingly use digital tools to process job applications, a new study from the University of Washington highlights the...

OpenAI’s ChatGPT search engine challenges Google and Microsoft, and further upends the web

OpenAI’s ChatGPT search engine challenges Google and Microsoft, and further upends the web

October 31, 2024

OpenAI launched a new ChatGPT search engine on Thursday. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) Artificial intelligence pioneer OpenAI launched its own ChatGPT search engine on Thursday, positioning itself as a challenger to search titan Google and a direct competitor to the Bing search engine from...

Rover acquires cat-sitting marketplace to further expand its growth across Europe

Rover acquires cat-sitting marketplace to further expand its growth across Europe

October 31, 2024

(Rover Photo) Rover has gotten its paws on another pet-sitting marketplace. The Seattle-based pet-care company announced the acquisition Thursday of Cat in a Flat, a cat-sitting community for friends of felines that will help Rover expand its European footprint. Founded in London in 2014,...

Microsoft tries to whittle down its carbon footprint by building data centers with engineered timber

Microsoft tries to whittle down its carbon footprint by building data centers with engineered timber

October 31, 2024

Rendering of a data center that Microsoft is building using cross-laminated timber for its floors and ceilings in order to reduce the amount of steel and concrete used, which have a bigger carbon impact. The wood will be encased in a thin layer of concrete for waterproofing and durability....

Starfish Space wins contract to help NRO advance capabilities for orbital operations

Starfish Space wins contract to help NRO advance capabilities for orbital operations

October 30, 2024

An artist’s conception shows Starfish Space’s Otter spacecraft in orbit with another satellite in the background. (Starfish Space Illustration) Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space and two other companies have won contracts from the National Reconnaissance Office, America’s spy satellite agency,...

Amazon earnings preview: Analysts watching AWS growth, retail margins, Project Kuiper

Amazon earnings preview: Analysts watching AWS growth, retail margins, Project Kuiper

October 30, 2024

(GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper) Follow-up: Amazon stock jumps 6%; Q3 revenue up 11% to $158.9B; profits hit $15.3B; AWS sales up 19% Analysts will be eyeing revenue growth for Amazon’s cloud computing unit and margins in its retail segment when the company reports third quarter earnings...

Microsoft’s financial disclosures show how OpenAI is fueling growth — and taking a toll on profits

Microsoft’s financial disclosures show how OpenAI is fueling growth — and taking a toll on profits

October 30, 2024

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott at the Microsoft Build developer conference in Seattle earlier this year. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) Microsoft disclosed the size of its OpenAI investment for the first time, acknowledging in its quarterly regulatory filing Wednesday...

On first earnings call, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol details plan to ‘bring order’ to mobile ordering

On first earnings call, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol details plan to ‘bring order’ to mobile ordering

October 30, 2024

(GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper) Improving the mobile ordering experience at Starbucks is high on Brian Niccol’s to-do list as he takes the CEO reins at the Seattle coffee giant. The former Chipotle CEO joined Starbucks last month to help lead a turnaround of a slumping business that reported...

Seattle home-inspection services startup Inspectify raises $5.3M

Seattle home-inspection services startup Inspectify raises $5.3M

October 30, 2024

Inspectify co-founders Josh Jensen , left, and Denis Bellavance. (Inspectify Photo) Seattle-based home-inspection services startup Inspectify raised $5.3 million in new funding. Founded in 2019, the company provides inspection software and a booking platform for home, property, and rental...

Remitly stock spikes 19% after first profitable quarter; revenue up 39%

Remitly stock spikes 19% after first profitable quarter; revenue up 39%

October 30, 2024

Shares of Remitly surged in after-hours trading as the Seattle-based digital remittance company reported its first profitable quarter. Remitly beat analyst estimates with $336.5 million in revenue, up 39% year-over-year. Net income came in at $1.9 million, compared to a net loss of $35.7...

Microsoft beats expectations with nearly $25B in quarterly profits, as AI revenue boosts cloud growth

Microsoft beats expectations with nearly $25B in quarterly profits, as AI revenue boosts cloud growth

October 30, 2024

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Microsoft beat Wall Street’s expectations across its key financial metrics for its first quarter of fiscal 2025, as artificial intelligence contributed 12 percentage points, a new high, to a 33% increase in the company’s Azure cloud...

Univ. of Washington selected for new federally funded Northwest innovation training hub

Univ. of Washington selected for new federally funded Northwest innovation training hub

October 30, 2024

The University of Washington’s Condon Hall, which houses the CoMotion offices as well as Startup Hall. (GeekWire Photo / Lisa Stiffler) The University of Washington is part of a new federally selected Northwest Region Hub to support the commercialization and deployment of technologies in fields...

Hands-on with the new Kindle Colorsoft: Is Amazon’s color e-reader worth the premium price?

Hands-on with the new Kindle Colorsoft: Is Amazon’s color e-reader worth the premium price?

October 30, 2024

“Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild” by Dave Pilkey, on Kindle Colorsoft. The ability to read kids’ books in color might be the biggest justification for some Kindle users to pay the premium for the new device. Click to enlarge. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) It’s the Kindle Paperwhite,...

Podcast: Amazon devices chief Panos Panay on the color Kindle, AI, and his first year on the job

Podcast: Amazon devices chief Panos Panay on the color Kindle, AI, and his first year on the job

October 30, 2024

Panos Panay, Amazon’s senior vice president of Devices and Services, introduces the new Kindle Colorsoft at a recent Amazon media event. (Amazon Photo) Our guest on this special mid-week episode of the GeekWire Podcast is Panos Panay, Amazon’s senior vice president of Devices and Services, a...

Archon Biosciences emerges from stealth with $20M to create tiny ‘Antibody Cages’

Archon Biosciences emerges from stealth with $20M to create tiny ‘Antibody Cages’

October 30, 2024

Archon Biosciences’ co-founders, James Lazarovits and George Ueda, lead a tour through their Seattle lab. Ueda is holding an expandable toy that he uses to demonstrate how the company’s computationally designed Antibody Cages work. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) Three weeks after University of...

How AI is reshaping the University of Washington computer science school

How AI is reshaping the University of Washington computer science school

October 29, 2024

The Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, right, and the Gates Center at the University of Washington on Tuesday in Seattle. (GeekWire Photos / Taylor Soper) Artificial intelligence is taking center stage at the University of Washington’s computer science school. The Paul G....

Seattle Public Schools issues statement explaining its stance on grade-viewing app

Seattle Public Schools issues statement explaining its stance on grade-viewing app

October 29, 2024

GradePro acquired the app “The Source: SPS” and migrated users to its GradePro app. (GradePro Image) Seattle Public Schools responded Monday night to GeekWire’s request for more information about the message it sent last week informing families and staff that a grade-viewing app for iOS was not...

F5 confirms new round of job cuts, continuing annual pattern of workforce reductions

F5 confirms new round of job cuts, continuing annual pattern of workforce reductions

October 29, 2024

The F5 Tower in downtown Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) F5 continued its practice of trimming its workforce after the completion of its fiscal year, confirming Tuesday that it has made job cuts impacting roles across several teams inside the company. The workforce reduction...

Pizza robot maker Picnic raises $5M as Seattle investor Andy Liu joins board

Pizza robot maker Picnic raises $5M as Seattle investor Andy Liu joins board

October 29, 2024

Cheese and pepperoni are added to pizzas making their way through a Picnic Pizza Station at Moto Pizza in Seattle. (GeekWire File Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Picnic, the food automation startup known for its pizza-making robot, has raised $5 million and attracted backing from Unlock Venture...

Sony shutting down Seattle-area game developer Firewalk Studios

Sony shutting down Seattle-area game developer Firewalk Studios

October 29, 2024

(Firewalk Studios Image) Sony on Tuesday announced the closure of Firewalk Studios, 18 months after acquiring the Bellevue, Wash.-based game developer. Firewalk’s first and only project was Concord, a multiplayer action game for Windows and PlayStation 5 that released on Aug. 23. In a...

Microsoft earnings preview: All eyes on AI — here are the numbers to watch for MSFT Q1-FY25

Microsoft earnings preview: All eyes on AI — here are the numbers to watch for MSFT Q1-FY25

October 29, 2024

AI will be in the spotlight when Microsoft reports earnings this week. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) FOLLOW-UP: Microsoft beats expectations with nearly $25B in quarterly profits, as AI revenue boosts cloud growth Investors and analysts will be watching Microsoft’s results closely this week...

‘I really want to fix this’: Microsoft vet launches Seattle startup to transform work visa applications

‘I really want to fix this’: Microsoft vet launches Seattle startup to transform work visa applications

October 29, 2024

Priyanka Kulkarni, CEO and founder of Casium. (Casium Photo) Priyanka Kulkarni loved her decade working at Microsoft. She believed she was contributing to meaningful projects, but they weren’t hers. So when the folks at AI2 Incubator heard she had an entrepreneurial yen and offered her a spot at...

Amazon to shut down Kindle Vella serial book platform, saying it ‘hasn’t caught on as we’d hoped’

Amazon to shut down Kindle Vella serial book platform, saying it ‘hasn’t caught on as we’d hoped’

October 29, 2024

Amazon’s Kindle Vella tested the demand for episodic written content. (Amazon Photo) Amazon announced Tuesday morning that it will shut down its Kindle Vella platform for serial and episodic stories and books in February 2025, acknowledging for the first time that the service didn’t live up to...

Inside the ‘Stranger Things’ house that a Seattle real estate startup bought and turned into an Airbnb

Inside the ‘Stranger Things’ house that a Seattle real estate startup bought and turned into an Airbnb

October 29, 2024

Bret Neuman, left, and Alejandro Chouza of Arrived Homes sit in front of a recreation of the famed Christmas lights/alphabet wall in the Byers house near Atlanta that their company now owns. (Arrived Homes Photo) Want to spend a few nights in Hawkins, Ind., circa 1983? You can get there via the...