GEEK News
June 05, 2015 - 01:04 PM
Ex-Marine and Microsoft vets launch Watchtower Labs with $35M to bring AI to military logistics
Watchtower Labs co-founders, from left, Souren Aghajanyan, John Morman, and Akhil Iyer. (Watchtower Labs Photo) Watchtower Labs, a Bellevue, Wash.-based defense tech startup, emerged from stealth Wednesday with $35 million to build AI software that helps military planners make faster decisions about logistics and operations. Shield Capital and Conviction co-led the seed round, with...
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Tech Moves: 2 Microsoft execs depart; Kymeta hires former CIA leader; Alaska Air names CITO
Elizabeth Kimber. (LinkedIn Photo) — Kymeta has appointed former CIA Deputy Director Elizabeth Kimber as chief growth officer. Kymeta, a Redmond, Wash.-based mobile satellite communications company, is working to increase sales with the Department of Defense, the intelligence community and other organizations in national security. Kimber had a 37-year career with the CIA, departing in...
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Microsoft taps Stripe co-founder John Collison for its board as two longtime directors depart
Stripe co-founder and President John Collison has been nominated to join Microsoft’s board of directors. (Stripe Photo) When Stripe co-founder John Collison interviewed Satya Nadella on his company’s podcast last fall, he asked the Microsoft CEO for advice on building a platform business. Collison will soon get to see how Microsoft does it up close. Collison, 36, the co-founder and...
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Endurance Energy hits a brief milestone in its quest for undersea geothermal power
Endurance Energy prepping to test its geothermal system off the coast of Oregon. (Endurance Photo via LinkedIn) Endurance Energy says its prototype marine geothermal power system generated more electricity than it consumed during a recent deployment 300 miles off the Oregon coast — though the milestone lasted just 8.7 seconds. The Seattle-based startup landed its 3-ton power plant on the...
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Portal Space Systems reaches orbit for the second time this year with Starburst-1 launch
Portal Space Systems’ Starburst-1 spacecraft is shown in orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket prior to deployment. (SpaceX Webcast Image) Portal Space Systems has reached Earth orbit for the second time this year, successfully launching the startup’s first free-flying spacecraft, Starburst-1, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Portal’s Starburst-1 lifted off Tuesday at 7:04 a.m. EDT from...
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UW protein institute led by Nobel winner unveils its first AI model co-developed with Nvidia
Structural models of two enzymes created using models developed at the UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design. (IPD Image / Benedicte Rossi) The UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design (IPD) today released a new open-source model for creating proteins with specific functions, called RFD4-Proteina. It is the first AI protein model the University of Washington has co-developed with...
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New fuel, same planes: Inside the bid to clean up air travel with cooking oil and captured carbon
Alaska Air Group is a proponent of sustainable aviation fuel as the most affordable and practical near-term solution for cutting the sector’s climate impacts given that it can be used in existing aircraft. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Subscribe to Positive Charge: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, All Episodes Taylor Swift was pilloried online over the climate...
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‘Difficult relationship’: UW task force proposes splitting Allen School from College of Engineering
The Paul G. Allen Center on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus, home to the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, which a university task force has recommended separating from the College of Engineering. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) University of Washington leaders are weighing whether to separate the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering from the broader...
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Cleveland’s big lesson for Seattle: A city’s job is to attract people
Charles Fitzgerald at an abandoned Westinghouse light bulb and fixture factory in Cleveland. (GeekWire Photo / John Cook) Editor’s note: GeekWire has been examining the economic challenges facing Seattle and the lessons the region can learn from Cleveland’s industrial decline and ongoing comeback. This three-part series from GeekWire columnist and angel investor Charles Fitzgerald explores how...
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Microsoft shuts the door on The Garage, the central program behind its hackathon and maker spaces
Employees work on a soldering project during a workshop in a Microsoft Garage space. Microsoft is winding down The Garage as a companywide program, and some spaces could be restricted as early as this week. (Microsoft Photo) Microsoft is winding down The Garage as a companywide program, ending a 17-year run for the effort that gave employees space and tools for side projects and ran the...
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Autonomous flight startup Reliable Robotics opens Seattle area radar hub as valuation tops $1 billion
Reliable’s automated Cessna 208B Grand Cavan conducts autonomous operations in Mojave, Calif. (Reliable Robotics Photo) Aviation startup Reliable Robotics is opening a new engineering hub in the Seattle area, establishing a radar research and development center in Bothell. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company also announced Tuesday that it has raised $115 million, pushing its valuation...
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Amazon plans record 300k holiday hires as the rest of retail pulls back
Amazon’s holiday hiring plans for its operations network are the biggest in its history. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) Amazon says it plans to hire more than 300,000 people for seasonal, part-time and full-time roles across its U.S. operations this holiday season, an increase of 20% from last year and its largest holiday hiring target on record. The increase reflects a mix of factors,...
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From dishes to diapers: Seattle home-help startup Rosie raises $7M, eyes Austin and S.F. in 2027
Rosie COO Karthika Shankar, left, and CEO Mitra Raman started out doing the work themselves — watching kids, folding laundry and organizing garages for the company’s first customers — learning and building the business as they went. (Rosie Photo) Mitra Raman was making dinner one night, watching her young son play with the babysitter, when she realized she wanted to trade places. “I’m his...
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Seattle ag-tech startup Carbon Robotics reduces workforce, citing economic conditions
The LaserWeeder G2 from Carbon Robotics is pulled behind a tractor to detect and zap weeds on a farm. (Carbon Robotics Photo) Carbon Robotics, the Seattle-based agricultural technology startup known for its AI-powered, laser-weeding farm implements, has trimmed its workforce. The company did not disclose the total number of layoffs, but confirmed to GeekWire on Monday that the cuts affected...
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‘Don’t wait for somebody else to fix it’: T-Mobile exec Deeanne King on cutting CO2 and costs
T-Mobile’s Deeanne King, right, enjoying the Pacific Northwest with family. (Photo courtesy of King) When Deeanne King came to the Pacific Northwest in 2020 — relocating from Kansas after Sprint merged with Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile — she fell in love with the region’s natural beauty. In her role as executive vice president and chief people officer, she also helps lead sustainability...
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Amazon challenges Nvidia’s software advantage with new tool for its own AI chips
Amazon’s TorchNeuron sits between PyTorch and the company’s Trainium chips, supporting developers’ existing code. (Amazon Image) A new software tool from Amazon aims to make switching from Nvidia to the company’s own AI chips about as simple as changing a setting. The software, dubbed TorchNeuron, runs code written in PyTorch, the open-source framework used by many AI developers, on...
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Microsoft unveils tools to monitor and corral rogue AI agents
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, shown speaking at a past Microsoft event, argued this month that companies should rely on outside controls rather than trusting AI models themselves. (GeekWire File Photo) Microsoft is coming out with new security tools that treat AI agents as potential insider threats, continuously assessing their risk and restricting their access when something changes. The...
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Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of Oct. 11, 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 Oct. 11, 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 Peter Lee, the longtime Microsoft Research leader, plans to join the Mercedes Formula 1 team in...
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Amazon’s AI wearable, Booking’s return to Expedia’s backyard, and LinkedIn’s not-so-Seattle startup list
This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we start by opening the listener mailbag, highlighting some recent comments that set a new standard for critical feedback, in different ways. We discuss Vayo, the AI travel venture Booking Holdings is launching in Seattle, home of its biggest rival, Expedia. Led by recent guest Mike Fridgen, Vayo uses AI agents to manage your trips. It’s an example of the...
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Amazon’s new Bee AI devices have a bystander problem, says former AWS security engineer
Amazon Bee’s recording light is easy to miss, says a former AWS security engineer. (Amazon Image) Amazon’s new Bee AI devices ask the wrong person for consent, according to a privacy and security veteran who previously worked as a senior principal security engineer at Amazon Web Services. In a LinkedIn article, Jeff Williams writes that Bee’s consent safeguards are aimed at the wearer,...
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Etzioni on AI: The colorful and cranky language of the AI era, from slop to slap
The AI slap: forwarding AI-generated text without reading it. (GeekWire Illustration / GPT-6) We’ve all encountered the phrase AI slop, but what’s an AI slap? A meat proxy? Chatfishing? Or agentsomnia? Following up on my glossary of AI, which demystified AI jargon, Prof. Dan Weld is joining me to shine a light on the nontechnical lingo of the AI era. We also sneak in a few phrases that should...
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Traffic data pioneer Inrix to be acquired by Allstate’s Arity after more than two decades
Inrix co-founder and CEO Bryan Mistele above rush-hour traffic on Interstate 5 in Seattle in 2011. After more than two decades of turning traffic data into a business, Inrix has agreed to sell substantially all of its assets to Arity, a subsidiary of Allstate. (GeekWire File Photo / Annie Laurie Malarkey) Inrix, the Bellevue, Wash.-based traffic data company that spun out of Microsoft in 2004...
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Retro tech meets modern AI: Inside an Amazon developer’s garage turned working computer museum
Darko Mesaros, a distinguished developer advocate for Amazon Web Services, is surrounded by vintage computer equipment in the garage of his Maple Valley, Wash., home. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Darko Mesaros used to park a car in the garage of his Maple Valley, Wash., home. These days, it’s wall-to-wall computers. A towering server rack glows with red LEDs. CRT monitors are stacked...
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Amazon’s NBA coverage adds Prime 360 — AI replays that ‘fly the camera through’ the action
A Prime 360 replay shows a Lakers-Pacers play from a court-level angle. (Amazon Image) Amazon is bringing a new AI-powered camera system to the court as the tech giant gets ready to tip off its second season of basketball coverage on Prime Video. Called Prime 360, the technology uses an array of high-resolution cameras positioned around the arena to capture plays from multiple angles....
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A two-person Seattle startup lands $1M to reinvent energy-hungry chips suitable for space
TriMagnetix co-founders Madison Hanberry, left, and Lucas Hahn at the Plug and Play Semiconductor Accelerator kickoff. (Plug and Play Photo) Seattle-based TriMagnetix has landed new funding and commitments totaling $1 million to continue developing a semiconductor chip that, according to initial lab testing, consumes 800 times less energy than a traditional chip to process the same amount of...
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Leaked list shows what Microsoft, Amazon and other tech giants are giving for the White House ballroom
President Trump at the White House ballroom construction site in May. Microsoft, Amazon and T-Mobile have committed $20 million to the project, according to the Washington Post. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian) Microsoft committed $10 million to President Trump’s White House ballroom project, and Amazon and T-Mobile each chipped in $5 million, according to an internal donor...
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Microsoft’s Brad Smith pushes back on Vice President JD Vance’s visa fraud accusations
Microsoft President Brad Smith, shown speaking at a Microsoft event last year, told Politico this week that the Trump administration’s claims about the company’s foreign workers were “completely off base.” (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) Microsoft President Brad Smith says someone apparently “failed to inform the vice president accurately about our numbers” before the Trump administration...
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Startup Spotlight: Zeacon aims to turn website visitors into buyers with AI-powered video
Zeacon co-founders Kris Naidu, left, and Jay Gounder. (Zeacon Photo) Businesses spend heavily to attract visitors to their websites, but traffic doesn’t necessarily translate into sales. Bellevue, Wash.-based Zeacon is building AI tools to help companies connect their marketing content with customer behavior and understand what actually drives conversions. Co-founded by Kris Naidu and Jay...
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Lime tops 10.5M Seattle rides in 2026, rolling past last year’s e-bike and scooter total two months early
Hundreds of Lime e-bikes and scooters staged in a parking lot in the Pioneer Square neighborhood during the FIFA World Cup match between USA and Australia in Seattle this summer. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Lime riders in Seattle have already outpaced last year’s entire ridership numbers, logging more than 10.5 million trips into October — surpassing the city’s 2025 full-year total more...
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Seattle-area innovators shine on Time’s ‘Best Inventions’ list, from tactile tablets to ultrasonic knives
Innovations from Seattle startups that made Time’s Best Inventions list, clockwise from top left: Tin Can’s landline-style phone; OneCourt’s tactile tablet for low-vision sports fans; Seattle Ultrasonics chef’s knife; Yoodli’s “Create” tool. (Images via Tin Can, OneCourt, Seattle Ultrasonics, Yoodli) Seattle-area innovators made a strong showing on Time’s 2026 Best Inventions list released...
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Space propulsion startup Agile Space opens Seattle-area engineering office to tap regional talent
The M4 Thruster from Agile Space Industries is designed to provide position control for small spacecraft. (Agile Photo) Space propulsion company Agile Space Industries is expanding its footprint to the Pacific Northwest, signing a sublease for a new engineering office in Bellevue, Wash. Situated in the Sunset North office complex along Interstate 90, the nearly 5,740-square-foot space will...
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Amazon’s new AI devices can listen to conversations and suggest things to buy — if you opt in
Amazon’s new Bee Frontier wristbands, front, and Bee Eclipse devices, which attach magnetically to the back of a phone. (Amazon Image) Bee, the AI wearables startup Amazon acquired last year, makes devices that remember what people say in everyday conversations. A new update, announced Thursday morning, includes a feature that turns those passing remarks into shopping suggestions on...
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Institute led by UW Nobel winner uses AI to build molecular scissors targeting disease proteins
Anqi Chen, left, and Hojae Choi, are lead authors on two Nature papers from UW Medicine’s Institute for Protein Design. (IPD Photos) Researchers at UW Medicine’s Institute for Protein Design (IPD) have created new proteins that act like molecular scissors, chopping up targets associated with Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s...
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LinkedIn just released its list of the top 10 Seattle startups: One problem, nearly half aren’t based in the region
Image via LinkedIn Every so often, we get sucked into a list touting the top regional startups or the most robust entrepreneurial ecosystems. Well, a startup list released today from Microsoft-owned LinkedIn — titled “The 10 companies on the rise in Seattle” — grabbed our attention, for all of the wrong reasons. Let’s just say: We know a thing or two about Seattle-area startups around...
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‘What is fusion?’ Helion Energy harnesses the power of television with a ‘Jeopardy!’ mention
“What is fusion?” was the correct question for this answer on “Jeopardy” on Tuesday, tied to Everett, Wash.-based Helion Energy. (ABC) Replicating the power of the sun to generate clean energy is hard enough, but Helion Energy just achieved another rare feat: making it onto the iconic “Jeopardy!” clue board. During Tuesday evening’s episode, the $800 clue was featured in a category titled...
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