Todd and John unpack takeaways from the GeekWire AI Summit, from token budgets and the surprising cost of vibe-coding to OpenAI shutting down Sora and why the chat era may be over. Plus: light rail trivia. Read More
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown is suing prediction market platform Kalshi, alleging the company violates state gambling and consumer protection laws by operating an online betting service where users can wager on sports, elections, wars and other events. Read More
Qumulo is opening a new R&D and customer success hub in Cork, Ireland, expected to create 50 jobs over the next three years as the Seattle-based data management firm bets on AI-driven demand for global-scale data infrastructure. Read More
This award recognizes companies with an exceptional workplace environment. The finalists this year are Allen Institute for AI (Ai2), Carbon Robotics, DAT Freight & Analytics, Humanly, and Yoodli. Read More
Software giant Smartsheet makes four C-suite changes, all with ties to its CEO, while Armoire names a machine learning lead, plus other tech moves. Read More
The new cafe in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood draws on Chinese cafe culture for its menu and aesthetic while leaning into the “third place” and serving as a deliberate departure from the corporate world both founders left behind. Read More
A preview of the Crosslake Connection, the region’s newest mass transit milestone, featured a trip between South Bellevue and new stations at Mercer Island and Judkins Park. The public will get to ride between Seattle and its Eastside neighbors starting on Saturday. Read More
Washington state may have everything it needs to become a global AI hub. The problem is, it hasn’t figured out how to tell the world. At a roundtable convened by the Washington Technology Industry Association, civic and industry leaders debated what it will take to stop playing catch-up with Silicon Valley and start leading. Read More
After a CEO’s departure, layoffs, an indefinite delay, and the failure of a similar Sony title, Bungie’s online shooter looked like it was headed for disaster. Instead, it’s become one of this year’s unexpected gaming successes. Read More
The Mariners enabled a “channel finder” on their website that lets fans search by zip code to find available providers and channel information in their area. Read More
Edo spent five years building tech to turn commercial buildings into virtual power plants, and with the grid buckling under data center demand and extreme weather, utilities and building operators are taking notice. Read More
Software in the age of AI agents is becoming something anyone can create on the fly — which could have major implications in the way “applications” are designed, built, and used. Read More
Ideas from Pay-i, Cascade, Autessa and GemaTEG were pitched to the crowd and a panel of judges, with Pay-i founder David Tepper emerging as winner and most impressive under pressure. Read More
The finalists for Innovation of the Year are Alpenglow Biosciences; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; RevealDx; Starcloud; and VerAvanti. Read More
More than 1,500 FedEx Office locations are now accepting box-free Amazon returns, expanding a partnership rekindled last year after a six-year split. Read More
The debate over whether AI will transform industries is over. At GeekWire’s Agents of Transformation summit in Seattle, founders, executives and others had moved on to harder questions — what’s working, what isn’t, and how fast everything is moving. Read More
The startup. os building what it calls a “skills operating system” aimed at helping workers translate their real-world experience into language employers can use. Read More
Lamanna’s comments at GeekWire’s Agents of Transformation event reflect how access to AI models is becoming as fundamental as salary in compensation negotiations. Read More
Guardian is the world’s first Starlink-connected drone. It pairs with a robotic charging nest that automatically swaps batteries and helps the drone quickly redeploy. Read More
Ten founders pitched VCs at B.E.L.L.E’s Seattle AI Startup Showcase, covering everything from property management and housing development to fraud prevention and R&D compliance. Read More
Meet Katherine Sizov, a former budding neuroscientist who ditched the lab, cornered a grocery employee about peaches, and built a $22 million startup called Strella that’s revolutionizing how food gets from farm to shelf. Read More
The Allen Institute for AI is releasing MolmoWeb, an open-source web agent that navigates browsers by interpreting screenshots, offering a transparent alternative to closed systems from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. Read More
Microsoft is hiring former Ai2 CEO Ali Farhadi, along with Hanna Hajishirzi and Ranjay Krishna from the Allen Institute for AI to join Mustafa Suleyman’s Superintelligence team, GeekWire has learned. Former Ai2 COO Sophie Lebrecht is also making the move. Read More
