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June 05, 2015 - 02:04 PM
Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of May 24, 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 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 GeekWire The Meta CEO’s 387-foot Launchpad passed through the Ballard Locks toward Lake Union on Tuesday,...
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Etzioni on AI: Wall Street is quietly betting on AI to beat inflation
(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 up: The debt keeps growing as a fraction of GDP and neither political party has a credible plan to...
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Zuckerberg’s yacht, Meta’s layoffs, a robot pizza flameout, and a reality check on AI expenses
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 walk from Meta’s engineering center, just as it discloses nearly 1,400 layoffs in the Seattle area,...
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Blue Origin’s rocket blowup could cause big problems for NASA — and a satellite slowdown for Amazon Leo
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 week’s catastrophic New Glenn rocket explosion on the company’s Florida launch pad, but it’s already...
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Microsoft holds up rural Washington as data centers ‘gone right,’ but does the model still work?
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 communities can trust. But it’s not clear whether the conditions that made things work 20 years ago in the...
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Bellevue’s AI boom: CoreWeave doubles down on office space
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 infrastructure to companies training and running large-scale artificial intelligence models, is expanding...
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Still ringing a bell: F5 marks its 30th year in business
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 1999, a 3-year-old Seattle-based internet traffic-management company called F5 Networks Inc. went...
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Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explodes on pad during test; Jeff Bezos vows to rebuild
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 personnel are accounted for and safe,” Bezos said in a post to X. “It’s too early to know the root...
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City of Seattle selects new CTO: Shannon Smith is longtime public-sector tech executive
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 first day will be June 8. Smith is currently a Seattle-based director at CAI, a global IT and...
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Zuckerberg brought a ‘Wingman’: Meta CEO’s $100M yacht support vessel is also docked in Seattle
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 Wingman. While the Meta founder and CEO’s 387-foot yacht Launchpad is attracting attention with its travels...
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Tech Moves: Amazon’s healthcare business gets new leader; Scott McFarlane leaves helm of Avalara
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 Pharmacy, One Medical, Health AI and Health Benefits Connector, growing them from experimental...
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Possible Finance rebounds, rebuilds, and reaches profitability as founders reunite for a new chapter
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 story. These days, it’s also feeling like a reunion. The Seattle-based fintech startup, which...
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How ‘Lean Startup’ author Eric Ries redefines profit in his new book
“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 How Great Companies Stay Great,” the “Lean Startup” author redefines profit as the maximization of...
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Who gives a Zuck? Seattle does, apparently: Meta CEO’s giant yacht brings gawkers to Lake Union
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 into real-life gawkers on Wednesday as a steady stream of onlookers paused along the western shore of...
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Blue Origin readies New Glenn rocket to launch 48 Amazon Leo satellites after FAA clearance
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 orbit for the growing Amazon Leo constellation. The mission, designated as NG-4 for the rocket and...
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Snowflake commits $6B to Amazon Web Services over 5 years in latest AI infrastructure deal
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 deals. Snowflake, which sells cloud-based data warehousing and AI tools to big businesses, said the...
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Seattle teens to take on real-world ocean science challenges in underwater robotics championship
The Triton Robotics team, back row from left: Griffin Fisher, Tenzin Larkin, Thomas Gust, Simon Hajduk, Theo Lipson. Front row from left: Miles Lipson, Emi Enoki. (Triton Robotics Photo) A team of Seattle high schoolers will compete against underwater robotics teams from around the world during the MATE ROV World Championships in Canada next month. Triton Robotics is making its third...
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CodeIntegrity raises $5M to put permanent guardrails on unpredictable AI agents
CodeIntegrity’s co-founders are CEO Steven Jung, left, and CTO Abi Raghuram. (CodeIntegrity Photo) The computer security startup CodeIntegrity on Wednesday announced a $5 million seed round to support its efforts to build meaningful protections for agentic AI applications. The San Francisco-based company made a splash last year when it demonstrated how easy it was to trick AI models from...
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Eli Lilly to acquire Seattle-area biotech in $1.5 billion bet on next-generation shingles vaccine
Curevo CEO George Simeon. (Curevo Photo) Eli Lilly has agreed to acquire Curevo Vaccine in a deal centered on a next-generation shingles vaccine aimed at improving tolerability and boosting vaccination rates among older adults. The deal includes up to $1.5 billion in cash for the Bothell, Wash.-based biotech, consisting of an upfront payment and a contingent milestone payment. At the...
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Amazon offers its AI shopping tech to outside retailers in new phase of agentic commerce race
A demo of the AWS Agentic Shopping Assistant: an AI-powered style advisor operating on a retailer’s mobile site. (AWS Photo) Amazon’s cloud division announced an AI shopping assistant for retailers, following the company’s broader blueprint of turning its internal technology into products for others. The new tool from Amazon Web Services, the AWS Agentic Shopping Assistant, is built on the...
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Watch: Zuckerberg’s superyacht arrives in Seattle just as Meta cuts 1,400 local jobs
Mark Zuckerberg’s 387-foot superyacht Launchpad passes through Seattle’s Ballard Locks on Tuesday. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Mark Zuckerberg’s $300 million superyacht passed through Seattle’s Ballard Locks on Tuesday, the same day Meta disclosed plans to cut nearly 1,400 jobs in Washington state. The 387-foot Launchpad, built by Dutch shipbuilder Feadship, traveled from Shilshole Bay...
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NASA taps Blue Origin to deliver lunar rovers for Moon Base initiative
An artist’s conception shows Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander lowering an Astrolab rover to the lunar surface. (NASA Illustration) Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has won NASA’s nod to deliver crew-carrying rovers to the lunar surface as part of the space agency’s decade-long plan to create a base near the moon’s south pole. “America is returning to the moon,” NASA Administrator...
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Etzioni on AI: The Pope can talk, but only we can walk
On May 25, Pope Leo XIV released Magnifica Humanitas — “Magnificent Humanity”— the first encyclical of his papacy, subtitled “On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.” There’s something incongruous about turning to the Catholic Church for moral guidance on AI. This is an ancient institution with a deeply complex history, still reckoning with its own moral...
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Meta cuts nearly 1,400 jobs in Seattle area, 20% of local workforce, in sweeping AI revamp
One of Meta’s buildings in Bellevue’s Spring District, where nearly 700 jobs are being cut. (GeekWire File Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Facebook parent company Meta is cutting 1,395 jobs in Washington state, about 20% of its local workforce, as part of a companywide effort eliminating about 8,000 positions as part of an aggressive push into artificial intelligence. Details of the Seattle-area...
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No dirt, no tractor, no problem: Canopii aims to tuck robotic farms into tennis court-sized urban spaces
Canopii’s team among its robotic system and basil plants. CEO and co-founder David Ashton is tossing greens. (Canopii Photo / Bryan Aulick) A running joke in the agricultural field is the average age of a U.S. farmer is 58 today, but that will tick up by one next year. The trouble is, it’s not so funny when the people who grow our food are aging out with no one to replace them. An Oregon...
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Climate progress at 30,000 feet: Alaska Airlines’ Ryan Spies on the flight path to sustainable aviation
Ryan Spies, Alaska Airlines’ managing director of sustainability. (Photo courtesy of Spies) Ryan Spies, Alaska Airlines’ managing director of sustainability, isn’t a climate perfectionist. Yes, he drives an EV — but he also eats a relatively carbon-intensive cheeseburger now and then. What matters more, he says, is when people work to drive larger-scale change: engaging in collective...
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New tune for Code.org’s Hadi Partovi: CEO of piano education venture with unique method and big ambitions
Hadi Partovi, founder of Code.org and new CEO of Payam Music, speaking at a Microsoft event in July 2025. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Hadi Partovi helped kids around the world learn to code. Next on the playlist: piano. The Code.org founder, who earlier this year handed off the CEO role at the nonprofit, announced this weekend that he is the new CEO of Payam Music, a Bothell, Wash.-based...
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Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of May 17, 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 May 17, 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 Friends and colleagues remembered S. “Soma” Somasegar, the longtime Microsoft developer leader...
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Etzioni on AI: The Virgin Unicorns
Illustration generated by Google Gemini Twelve AI labs have a combined valuation larger than Ford and GM. None of them sell anything. I call them the Virgin Unicorns — valued above a billion dollars, but innocent of product or revenue. OpenAI proved that an AI research lab with the right product could become one of the most valuable companies on earth. A dozen other AI labs are trying to...
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SpaceX IPO filing reveals Starlink’s impact, Bezos sounds off on CNBC, and Gemini owes John a beer
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...
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Robot pizza startup runs out of dough: Picnic shuts down, sells assets to mystery buyer
Freshly sliced pepperoni is delivered via conveyer belt onto a pizza being assembled by a Picnic pizza-making robot. (GeekWire File Photo) Picnic, the 10-year-old Seattle food automation startup that set out to revolutionize the production of pizza with robotics, has shut down and liquidated its assets. According to legal documents and an email to creditors and investors, Picnic was unable...
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What’s next for Bungie? Rumored layoffs and end of ‘Destiny 2’ updates raise questions about studio’s future
(Bungie press image) Thursday abruptly became a big news day for fans of Bellevue, Wash.-based video game developer Bungie, which announced that it plans to cease development on its popular online shooter Destiny 2. Eight hours after Bungie’s announcement, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier released a piece that alleges Bungie plans “a significant number of layoffs” once Destiny 2 is brought to a...
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Tech Moves: Xbox names CTO; Smartsheet gets first AI chief; Amazon VP departs for DoorDash
Scott Van Vliet. (LinkedIn Photo) — Microsoft’s Xbox promoted Scott Van Vliet to the role of chief technology officer. Van Vliet, based in the Los Angeles area, has been with the company across two stints totaling more than seven years, with work on Teams and Azure Communication Services. “I’ve been a gamer my whole life and an Xbox fan since day one, so this is a rare opportunity to bring...
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Bellevue teens targeting salmon die-offs and mental health win big at international science fair
Lakshmi Agrawal, left, and Anusha Arora, both of Bellevue, Wash., hold their prizes at the Society for Science’s Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair earlier this month. (Lisa Fryklund / Licensed by Society for Science) Two teenagers from Bellevue, Wash., took home a combined $125,000 at the world’s largest high school science competition this month — one for a low-cost filter...
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The view from Bellevue: Seattle has the foundation for future growth — if it can fix its taxes
Participants at the Bellevue Chamber’s Seattle-focused luncheon, from left: Joe Nguyen, Seattle Metro Chamber; Tiffini Connell, West Coast Commercial Realty; Jon Scholes, Downtown Seattle Association; and moderator Joe Fain, Bellevue Chamber. (GeekWire Photo / Lisa Stiffler) BELLEVUE, Wash. — The foundational pieces that tee a city up for economic success are well established: an educated...
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