Articles from 2026 – Page 5 of 45

BuyWander raises $21M as retail returns startup expands nationwide from new Seattle HQ

BuyWander’s expansion is backed by rapid operational momentum, hitting 400% year-over-year growth. The platform now counts 50,000 active and winning customers who have saved a cumulative $200 million Read More

Agility’s new Digit 5 robot lifts 50 pounds, works 20+ hours a day and operates alongside people

Agility Robotics, which is preparing to go public through a SPAC merger, unveiled Digit 5, a humanoid robot it says can work safely alongside people in warehouses and factories. The company says the new robot can lift 50 pounds, reach shelves 7.2 feet high and work more than 20 hours a day. Read More

Gates Foundation bets $1B on AI to boost global health, agriculture and education

The Gates Foundation is committing at least $1 billion over the next two years to AI tools for health workers, farmers and teachers. CEO Mark Suzman told GeekWire he expects the figure to grow, but said AI efficiencies cannot make up for the billions governments have cut from global health. Read More

‘The warning signs are flashing’: New regional partnership calls for cohesive Seattle-area tech strategy

Regional leaders from four counties launched the Partnership for a Competitive Puget Sound, a 20-point plan responding to the loss of nearly 7,000 jobs last year. The group’s report says the Seattle area’s technology industry has no coordinated strategy of its own. Read More

Monday-morning surprise: Valve Software suddenly launches its wireless VR headset Steam Frame for $1,059

Initially revealed in Nov. 2025 as part of the same initiative that brought us the new Steam Machine, the Steam Frame is a new entry into the VR hardware space. Read More

Temporal raises $550M, hits $12.55B valuation as agentic AI wave fuels massive growth

It caps a significant growth stretch for the Bellevue-based open-source platform, whose annualized revenue run rate recently surpassed $250 million — growing over 200% year-over-year. Read More

This software engineer is taking Google to the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify patent law

Software engineer Jeff Kohler is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify the Alice patent standard after courts invalidated his patent and dismissed his infringement case against Google without examining the C++ source code he submitted. IP law experts and federal judges have called for the Supreme Court to revisit how the standard is applied to software inventions. Read More

Tech Moves: Microsoft, Amazon and Kestra promotions; Gradial names CMO; Yoodli adds VP

Silvia Candiani has been promoted to CVP of the recently launched Microsoft Frontier Company, while Microsoft Elevate has hired a former UNICEF leader as VP. Amazon Web Services has promoted Alexis Bateman to director of global sustainability. Gradial has added a CMO, and Yoodli and Kestra have each named a VP. Read More

Microsoft floats rules for AI models as industry weighs slowdown

Microsoft published a draft code of conduct for its in-house AI models, barring them from resisting shutdown or hiding their reasoning — as Anthropic, OpenAI and Elon Musk call for slowing AI development. Read More

Illustration: Sophia Space satellites flying in orbital formation

Sophia Space and SLI set the terms for a $300M deal that will finance an orbital computing constellation

Satellite maker and leasing venture team up on an unusual plan to support the creation of a data-processing satellite network through a long-term operating lease. Read More

Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of Sept. 6, 2026

See the technology stories that people were reading on GeekWire for the week of Sept. 6, 2026. Read More

Podcast

Study warns Seattle over-relies on Big Tech; Seattle Times v. Microsoft; Apple’s iPhone Duo echoes the past

This week on the GeekWire Podcast: A study commissioned by the City of Seattle says the city is not in… Read More

Seattle VR studio Polyarc, creator of ‘Moss’ series, closes down after almost 12 years

The Seattle-based video game developer behind the award-winning virtual reality adventure Moss has closed its doors. Read More

Microsoft comms chief Frank Shaw to exit after nearly three decades shaping the company’s message

It’s the end of an era at Microsoft: Frank X. Shaw, the executive who oversaw the tech giant’s communications for nearly three decades, first at an external agency and for the last 17 years as one of its senior leaders, is leaving at the end of the year. Read More

From OK grades to Dartmouth Hall of Fame: Remitly’s Matt Oppenheimer on his ‘strengths and shadows’

The co-founder and chairman of the Seattle fintech giant was inducted into the Ivy League school’s Entrepreneur Hall of Fame, which honors alumni who have made lasting positive impacts through their ventures. Read More

Raiders star Ashton Jeanty backs Nukleus, a tech platform for athletes and their advisors

Nukleus, a startup building software for athletes and the agents, lawyers and accountants who manage their careers, has signed Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty as an investor and its public face. The company’s other backers include a Microsoft finance executive, WaFd Bank’s CEO and a former Vulcan Capital investor. Read More

‘You cannot fund compassion from an empty treasury’: Seattle Chamber CEO frames economic growth as a civic imperative

Speaking at the Seattle Chamber’s 144th annual meeting, CEO Joe Nguyen framed local business growth as an essential prerequisite for progressive civic priorities—warning regional leaders that public services, housing, and transit cannot be funded without protecting the region’s $600 billion economic engine. Read More

Top Seattle tech and business leaders demand 100-day public safety action plan from City Hall

In a letter sent Thursday, executives from major area employers — including Microsoft, Starbucks, Costco, F5, Alaska Airlines, Zillow, and others — urged city leaders to protect and expand public safety funding amid growing skepticism that the city currently has an effective strategy to address crime and homelessness. Read More

Amazon expands its Quick AI assistant on mobile in challenge to Microsoft and Google

Amazon is adding the Activity Feed from its Quick desktop app to the AI assistant’s iPhone and Android apps, combining email, Slack messages, calendar invites and CRM updates into one prioritized list. The desktop version, released in preview in April, is now generally available on Windows and macOS. Read More

Spotlight: Startup vet launches Latch to liberate humanity ‘from doing work that owns us’

Serial founder Stefan Kalb has launched Latch, an $8M FUSE-backed enterprise AI startup built alongside a PSL alum to map real-world workflows and liberate employees from the routine tasks that hold them back. Read More

Microsoft 2.5: EVP Pavan Davuluri wants to remake Windows for both human and agent users

Pavan Davuluri, who runs Windows and Surface at Microsoft, is rebuilding the operating system so AI agents can run on it alongside people. In the latest installment of GeekWire’s Microsoft 2.5 series, he talks with Mary Jo Foley about the vision for Windows and his commitment to improving quality and reliability. Read More

Amazon updates its Luna gaming service to enable remote multiplayer sessions, add free games

The September update for Amazon’s cloud-based gaming service Luna comes with multiple new features, the most prominent of which is one that will allow up to 7 other players to remotely participate in the same gaming session. Read More

Seattle biotech BrainChild Bio raises $116M to advance CAR T therapy for childhood brain cancer

Seattle biotech BrainChild Bio has raised $116 million to advance an experimental CAR T cell therapy for DIPG, a rare and deadly brain tumor that primarily affects young children. The company is building on technology developed at Seattle Children’s and is also developing CAR T therapies for other pediatric and adult brain tumors. Read More

Seattle economic study finds strong tech assets, a risky concentration, and a tax that ‘penalizes’ hiring

An independent study commissioned by the City of Seattle says the city should protect the big tech employers it has while building a more diverse economy on top of them. The 127-page report also says Seattle’s tax structure is unique among its peers in penalizing the hiring of senior, high-compensation workers. Read More

Prime-time AI: Microsoft Copilot gets a share of the spotlight during Seahawks’ season opener

During the broadcast, NBC play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico pointed out the new Microsoft Surface devices — clad in action green cases, no less — in the Seattle’s coaches’ box above Lumen Field. Read More

Amazon’s new board member is a cybersecurity founder who sold his last company to Google for $5.4B

Amazon has named Kevin Mandia, the founder of breach-investigation firm Mandiant, to its board of directors, adding security expertise a few months after former NSA director Keith Alexander stepped down. Mandia now runs Armadin, a startup that uses AI to run attacks against corporate networks as a way of testing their defenses. Read More

Opinion: It’s time for Seattle to believe in Seattle

Jacob Colker argues that Seattle has a branding problem, not a lack of talent, ambition or accomplishments. He lays out a five-step plan for the region’s tech community to start telling its own story. Read More

General Motors to open downtown Seattle office to bring together remote technical talent

The 43,000-square-foot space at West8 in the Denny Triangle neighborhood will bring together employees across digital products, AV, IT, HR, marketing, and other teams. Read More

NLM Photonics adds key investors in quest to reduce the power needed to move data between chips

The Seattle startup’s materials sit on top of silicon chips and imprint data onto a beam of light using less power. Mitsubishi Chemical’s venture arm and Pangaea Ventures joined a $13 million round. Read More

General Robotics, led by Microsoft vets, says its AI has cut robot setup from a month to hours

A Redmond startup founded by former Microsoft researchers says its GRID platform now automates much of the engineering that keeps robots stuck in pilot projects. CEO Ashish Kapoor says the company has roughly a dozen customers and revenue in the millions of dollars. Read More