Articles by Todd Bishop

Todd Bishop is GeekWire's editor and co-founder, a longtime business and technology journalist who covers beats including Microsoft, Amazon, AI, and startups, in addition to hosting GeekWire's weekly podcast. A native of Orland, Calif., he has worked as a reporter for publications including The Philadelphia Inquirer, Puget Sound Business Journal and the Seattle P-I.

Supply chain startup Auger, led by ex-Amazon operations chief, raises $50M and lands big customers

‘Digit’ maker Agility Robotics to go public in $2.5B deal — here’s what the filings say about its finances
Two pizzas and a prototype: How agentic AI is rewiring Amazon’s teams and upending its traditions
Expeditors cuts 230 tech jobs in Seattle region, ending decades-long policy against layoffs

Latest from Todd Bishop

Satya Nadella’s new metaphor for the AI Age: We are becoming ‘managers of infinite minds’

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella riffed on some famous lines from tech leaders past this week in an appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and offered up his own trippy candidate to join the canon of computing metaphors. Read More

The Microsoft-OpenAI Files: Internal documents reveal the realities of AI’s defining alliance

Internal emails, texts, slide decks, and deposition testimony show how Microsoft went from being sidelined at OpenAI’s founding to wielding decisive influence over the AI lab that launched the generative AI era — and how that power is now being tested as OpenAI emerges as a platform company with leverage of its own. Read More

Vega Cloud enters receivership, with millions in debt, in surprise turn for Spokane tech standout

Once a fast-growing cloud management startup with millions in revenue, Vega Cloud has entered receivership, saying it can no longer pay its debts. In the tight-knit Spokane tech community, Vega Cloud had been seen as a startup with the potential to make it big. Read More

Podcast

Amazon fixes Alexa ordering bug, Microsoft rethinks AI data centers, and cameras capture every fan

Amazon fixes an Alexa voice-ordering bug after a listener spotted a misleading comment on the GeekWire Podcast. We dig into the limits of voice commerce, Microsoft’s new “community first” approach to AI data centers, and what it says about growing backlash over power and water use. Read More

What Microsoft has learned about housing, and why it’s urging the state to unlock commercial land

Microsoft is supporting a Washington state bill to open up underused commercial land for housing, asserting that the larger crisis is solvable only if lawmakers unlock land faster, streamline permitting, and treat housing as a connected system rather than a series of one-off projects. Read More

Microsoft campus library closes in broader shift to AI-powered ‘digital learning experiences’

Microsoft is closing its traditional employee libraries, including the longtime Redmond facility where authors gave talks and employees browsed books. The company calls it a shift to AI-powered learning. Read More

GeekWire’s new AI summit will explore how agents are transforming business and work

We’re excited to announce a new GeekWire event for 2026: “Agents of Transformation: Inside the AI Shift.” This half-day summit… Read More

Amazon supersizes its Walmart rivalry with new big-box retail concept

The e-commerce giant plans to test a new big-box retail concept outside Chicago that mirrors the scale of a Walmart superstore, while layering in Amazon-style technology that blends in-store shopping with app-based ordering. Read More

Microsoft responds to AI data center revolt, vowing to cover full power costs and reject local tax breaks

The tech giant’s new “community first” initiative includes pledges to pay full power costs, reject local tax breaks, and replenish more water than it uses — a response to growing backlash against AI infrastructure expansion. Read More

Podcast

GeekWire Podcast: Alexa’s next act, Microsoft’s retail play, Google’s AI Inbox, and a smart bird feeder fail

Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are racing to redefine consumer AI — from Alexa’s next act as a generative home assistant to Microsoft’s bid to bring shopping into AI chat, and Google’s plan for an “AI Inbox” in Gmail. Plus: a smart bird feeder fail, early impressions of PC-based AI automation, and reflections on investigative journalism in the age of AI. Read More

Ex-Expedia employee gets 4 years for planting spy cameras across Seattle campus in voyeurism case

A former Expedia Group employee who secretly recorded women by hiding spy cameras throughout the company’s Seattle headquarters — including in bathrooms — was sentenced Friday to four years in prison. Prosecutors described the scope of the case as “staggering.” Read More

Bill Gates says there’s ‘no upper limit’ on AI, citing opportunity and risk

Bill Gates says there’s “no upper limit” on how intelligent AI systems will become, and warns the world needs to prepare now for the disruptions ahead. Read More

Microsoft debuts Copilot Checkout, joining AI shopping race vs. Amazon, Google and OpenAI

Microsoft is rolling out a new “Copilot Checkout” feature that lets shoppers complete purchases directly inside its AI chatbot, betting that its enterprise ties and retailer relationships can help it compete with OpenAI, Google and Amazon in the race toward AI-driven commerce. Read More

Ring around the parking lot: Amazon’s security company unveils a $5,000 surveillance trailer

Amazon’s Ring is taking its home-security technology into the parking lot with a $5,000 solar-powered surveillance trailer aimed at construction sites, retail centers, and outdoor events — a move that puts the doorbell maker into more direct competition with commercial security providers. Read More

Desney Tan leaves Microsoft after 21 years leading key research and healthcare initiatives

Microsoft Research leader Desney Tan is leaving the company after 21 years, closing a career that spanned breakthrough work in human-computer interaction, health “moonshots,” and products including Xbox Kinect and Microsoft Band. Read More

Amazon’s AI on the web, wrist, and phone: Tech giant chases consumer rivals with latest moves

Amazon is pushing Alexa+ beyond the smart speaker, bringing its upgraded AI assistant to the web, a redesigned mobile app, and new hardware initiatives. The moves, timed to CES, reflect the company’s effort to close the gap with consumer AI rivals such as ChatGPT and Gemini. Read More

Podcast

GeekWire Podcast: Silver lining for Seattle in DJI ban, and a verdict on the 2007 Camry tech retrofit

This week on the GeekWire Podcast: The FCC’s decision to add foreign-made drones to its national security “Covered List” could upend the U.S. drone market — and create an unexpected opening for Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. Read More

Coinme to resume WA state operations after reaching interim deal with regulators

Seattle cryptocurrency company Coinme has reached an interim deal with Washington state regulators allowing it to resume operations after a temporary cease-and-desist order was stayed. The agreement follows allegations that the company improperly claimed more than $8 million owed to consumers from unredeemed crypto vouchers. Read More

How Microsoft is betting on AI agents in Windows, dusting off a winning playbook from the past

Microsoft is pushing AI agents deep into Windows, reviving a platform strategy that once made the PC operating system dominant. The question is whether that approach can still work in a world defined by phones, browsers, and the cloud. Read More

Seattle-area tech company sues New York acquisition advisor, alleging botched $5.2M deal

SmarTek21 has sued TGP GP Management, accusing the New York-based advisor of flawed due diligence in a $5.2 million acquisition that has since required repeated cash infusions. Read More

Podcast

The stories that defined 2025: AI dreams, brutal realities, and Seattle tech at a turning point

The past year may go down as one of the most consequential in technology history — in Seattle and beyond. On this special year-end episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we look back at the stories that defined 2025, from AI’s rapid rise and massive infrastructure bets to layoffs, shifting tech jobs, and what it all means for Seattle’s future. Read More

Microsoft CTO to AI startups: Stop waiting for better models and ‘do the damned experiments’

Kevin Scott says today’s AI tools are already powerful enough to most startup surprise founders. But extracting their value requires unglamorous product work, real customer feedback, and a willingness to experiment. Read More

Drone capital of the world? Seattle could be a big winner in the U.S. crackdown on DJI and others

New U.S. restrictions on foreign-made drones could reshape the industry — and give Washington state a major opening. Brinc Drones CEO Blake Resnick says the region’s existing players and aerospace talent position Seattle to benefit as domestic manufacturers scale up. Read More

Google looks to buy its way out of the AI power crunch with $4.75B Intersect acquisition

Google parent Alphabet’s $4.75 billion acquisition of clean energy developer Intersect is a major Pacific Northwest exit that shows how cloud giants are racing to secure the power needed to fuel their AI data center ambitions. Read More

Appeals court rules UW violated computer science professor’s free speech rights

A divided federal appeals court ruled that the University of Washington violated a computer science professor’s First Amendment rights by investigating and warning him over a parody land acknowledgment in a course syllabus, saying student discomfort does not justify retaliation against protected academic speech. Read More

Podcast

Landline phones in 2025? How this tech industry veteran is helping kids connect

A Seattle startup is reviving the landline — without screens, apps, or AI — and parents can’t buy them fast enough. In this Uncommon Thinkers episode of the GeekWire Podcast, Tin Can CEO Chet Kittleson explains why voice-only phones are resonating with families, what sparked the idea, and how a $12 million seed round is helping scale the business. Read More

Starbucks hires Amazon grocery tech leader as new CTO amid turnaround push

Starbucks has named longtime Amazon executive Anand Varadarajan as its new chief technology officer, tapping a veteran of the tech giant’s grocery and supply chain operations as the coffee chain pushes to modernize technology in its stores. Read More

With new Alexa website, Amazon’s consumer AI vision finally comes together — and it’s actually useful

Amazon has quietly started rolling out Alexa.com, bringing its AI-powered Alexa+ assistant to the desktop browser for the first time and completing a long-missing piece of its consumer AI strategy. The web portal offers point-and-click control over reminders, files, and smart home devices — a level of precision that voice commands can’t match. Read More

Amazon AI chief Rohit Prasad leaving; Infrastructure exec Peter DeSantis to lead unified AI group

Amazon AI chief Rohit Prasad is leaving at year’s end, according to a memo from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Peter DeSantis, a 27-year veteran who has led AWS infrastructure, will oversee a new organization combining AI, silicon, and quantum computing. Read More

Allen Institute for AI rivals Google, Meta and OpenAI with open-source AI vision model

Ai2 unveiled Molmo 2, a new open-source AI model that can analyze video with precision — tracking objects, counting events, and pinpointing exactly where and when things happen in a clip. The advanced vision system offers an open alternative to closed video models from Google, OpenAI, and others. Read More

Top Stories from Todd Bishop

Latest from Todd Bishop