Articles by Todd Bishop

A bigger role for Swami: Amazon’s agentic AI chief gets broader mandate to shape emerging tech

AWS is giving Swami Sivasubramanian a bigger job. The agentic AI chief will now also oversee emerging technologies and help shape AI strategy across the cloud division, as Amazon reshapes its broader AI strategy and teams. Read More

Microsoft Azure tops $100B in annual revenue as record AI spending cuts into cash flow

Microsoft’s Azure cloud business grew 43% last quarter — well past its own forecast — and topped $100 billion in annual revenue for the first time. The cost: a record $41 billion in capital spending, with free cash flow down 23%. Shares rose after hours, reversing the recent pattern. Read More

Amazon earnings preview: Wall Street looks for more cloud growth as AI spending hits a record

Amazon reports second-quarter results Thursday afternoon, with AWS growth expected to accelerate and capital spending on pace for a record $200 billion this year. The big question: How much patience do investors have left for the company’s bet on AI? Read More

What are you building? Talking with founders and business leaders at the Seattle Tech Week kickoff event

Founders, investors and operators at the Seattle Tech Week kickoff describe what they’re building, from an AI system that runs a professional cricket team’s logistics to voice AI for counting bottles behind a bar. Read More

Warner Bros. Discovery sues Amazon over HBO Max exec hire, seeks order blocking future poaching

Warner Bros. Discovery sued Amazon in Los Angeles County Superior Court over the hiring of HBO Max marketing executive Pia Barlow, alleging Amazon induced her to break a contract that ran through October 2027. The suit asks the court to bar Amazon from hiring any Warner Bros. Discovery employee under contract. Read More

Microsoft escalates the AI security race with ‘Project Perception’ and a new in-house model

Microsoft on Monday unveiled Project Perception, an AI cybersecurity system built to defend against AI-driven attacks, aiming to keep pace with both hackers and its technology rivals. It’s part of a broader escalation across the industry. Read More

Microsoft earnings preview: AI spending, cloud margins, and why the stock keeps falling

Microsoft reports fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year results Wednesday. A look at the key numbers to watch, including capital spending, Azure growth, cloud margins, Copilot adoption and the company’s first capital spending forecast for fiscal 2027. Read More

Podcast

What’s going on with Seattle startup funding, a Kalshi setback, Impinj’s long game, and a smartphone detox

This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Seattle startup funding fell about 40% in the first half of 2026 as AI reshaped the venture market — plus a Kalshi court setback, Impinj’s 10 years on the Nasdaq, and could you go without your smartphone for five weeks? Read More

Amazon confirms it’s closing key AI site in San Francisco but says work on its top models continues

Amazon is closing its San Francisco AGI site as part of the layoffs it made this week in its artificial general intelligence organization, but said its frontier model research lab will continue. Read More

Amazon cuts jobs in AGI group as it puts more focus on customer-facing AI

Amazon confirmed layoffs in its artificial general intelligence organization, the group behind its Nova models, as the company sharpens its AI focus toward tools for business customers. The cuts follow a year of leadership turnover in the group and a broader run of reductions since January. Read More

New Markdown rival: Open-source DGML format aims to turn docs into data that AI (and humans) can trust

Docugami, the Kirkland, Wash., startup led by XML co-creator Jean Paoli, is open-sourcing DGML, a format that turns business documents into structured, verifiable data for AI. The company is releasing it under an open-source license and partnering with Inveniam and Mantra to anchor the data on a blockchain. Read More

Seattle judge deals blow to Kalshi, rejects prediction market’s federal defense

A King County Superior Court judge granted Washington state a preliminary injunction against Kalshi, ruling the prediction market platform is likely running illegal online gambling. The judge rejected Kalshi’s argument that federal oversight by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission preempts state gambling laws. Read More

The little chips that could: How Impinj has survived 26 years in a market that’s ‘just getting going’

More than a quarter-century after Impinj was founded, CEO Chris Diorio and team rang the Nasdaq opening bell Tuesday to mark the Seattle RFID chipmaker’s 10th anniversary as a public company. GeekWire chronicles the company’s ups and downs, and what’s next. Read More

Seattle’s Clarify acquires S.F. startup Seam AI, joining forces to challenge CRM stalwarts

Clarify, the Seattle-based AI startup that has raised more than $22 million to take on Salesforce and other CRM incumbents,… Read More

Veteran Microsoft security executive joins AWS amid broader reshuffle in Redmond

Rudra “Rudy” Mitra, who led Microsoft’s Purview data-security business, is joining Amazon Web Services as vice president of security services. His move is part of a broader reshuffling of Microsoft’s security leadership this year under new chief Hayete Gallot. Read More

Podcast

Silicon Valley icon Vinod Khosla: What kind of Seahawks owner will he be?

Silicon Valley legend Vinod Khosla’s family is leading a group that’s buying the Seattle Seahawks for a record $9.6 billion. We dug into hours of his talks and interviews to answer the big questions on this week’s GeekWire Podcast. Read More

Departing AWS exec Dave Brown is reportedly joining Meta, as Facebook parent mulls its own cloud

Dave Brown, the senior AWS executive whose departure Amazon announced this week, is joining Meta to work on its data center build-out, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The move comes as Meta weighs whether to launch a cloud business of its own, which would put it in competition with AWS. Read More

The code AI forgot: logcat.ai raises $2.55M to put agents to work on device operating systems

Seattle startup logcat.ai has raised $2.55 million in pre-seed funding to build AI agents for debugging and developing device operating systems. Founded by two former Esper engineers, the company is going after the low-level Android and Linux software inside phones, vehicles, and other connected devices. Read More

AWS EC2 and AI leader Dave Brown to exit, replaced by Amazon exec and Microsoft vet Dave Treadwell

Dave Brown is leaving Amazon Web Services after nearly 19 years, departing at the end of July for a new role outside the company. Dave Treadwell, a longtime Amazon executive who spent 27 years at Microsoft, will take over AWS Compute and ML Services on Aug. 1. Read More

JPMorgan Chase bets on Seattle to build its AI control layer

JPMorgan Chase is building out a new AI software infrastructure team, with a major presence in Seattle, focused on running AI across its data centers and outside providers in a way that controls costs, protects its intellectual property, and avoids tying its fortunes to any one vendor. Read More

Vieu launches AI-ready map of business relationships, challenging tech incumbents

Vieu, a Seattle startup founded by former Microsoft leaders, launched its “Business Graph” — a live map of business relationships built from observed signals like shared work history and board affiliations, rather than the self-reported connections on LinkedIn. Read More

Apptio co-founders reunite to launch enterprise AI startup Thira with $21M in funding led by Madrona

Apptio co-founders Sunny Gupta and Kurt Shintaffer launched Thira, a Bellevue-based enterprise AI startup, with $21 million in seed funding led by Madrona. Thira is building AI agents to autonomously handle IT support tickets and other back-office work at large companies. Read More

Motorola leads $125M round for Brinc, fueling 911 drone expansion amid U.S. import crackdown

Seattle-based 911 drone maker Brinc raised $125 million led by Motorola Solutions, at a valuation the company says has nearly doubled from a year ago. The funding will support expanded manufacturing and a new Seattle headquarters and factory later this year. Read More

Venture funding drops in Seattle area as AI boom reshapes startup world

Seattle-area startups raised $2.7 billion in the first half of 2026, down 40% from a year ago, even as U.S. venture funding hit a record $412.7 billion. The disconnect: AI mega-rounds are driving the national boom, and Seattle’s biggest deals were in fusion, space, and cybersecurity. Read More

What to know about Vinod Khosla, the Silicon Valley legend whose family is buying the Seahawks

He’s obsessive about talent, fiercely loyal to the leaders he picks, and relentless when told no. Here’s what Vinod Khosla’s four decades in tech and investing tell us about how the venture capitalist and his family are likely to approach owning the Seahawks. Read More

Podcast

Microsoft’s reset, a new era for Seattle startups, and how AI is changing everything for founders

On this week’s show, we’re on the GeekWire deck for our annual founder open house, where we dig into Microsoft’s latest round of layoffs — including a major Xbox shakeup — and the surprising rise of hardware companies on the GeekWire 200. Read More

The awkward timing of the Xbox CEO’s new Federal Reserve gig

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma was named to co-lead a Federal Reserve task force on jobs and productivity — three days after announcing 3,200 job cuts across Microsoft’s gaming division. The gaming press is having a field day. Read More

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

Former Amazon executive Dave Clark’s supply chain startup has raised $50 million in new funding, bringing its total to $150 million, as it builds a customer base that includes Meta, Fanatics, and Kimberly-Clark. Read More

T-Mobile exec Mike Katz exits after 28 years, as carrier reshuffles top ranks and taps ex-AT&T leader

T-Mobile’s longest-tenured Un-carrier architect is leaving after 28 years, as CEO Srini Gopalan reshapes the carrier’s leadership team and brings in a former AT&T executive. Read More

This startup lets companies teach AI about their brands — and the chatbots are listening

Optimly swept three awards at the Flywheel Investment Conference in Wenatchee and has closed an $800,000 pre-seed round backed by AI House, the Seattle startup studio formerly known as AI2 Incubator. The company builds a public index where brands can correct what AI chatbots say about them. Read More

Top Stories from Todd Bishop

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

Latest from Todd Bishop

A bigger role for Swami: Amazon’s agentic AI chief gets broader mandate to shape emerging tech

What are you building? Talking with founders and business leaders at the Seattle Tech Week kickoff event

Warner Bros. Discovery sues Amazon over HBO Max exec hire, seeks order blocking future poaching

Microsoft escalates the AI security race with ‘Project Perception’ and a new in-house model

What’s going on with Seattle startup funding, a Kalshi setback, Impinj’s long game, and a smartphone detox

Amazon confirms it’s closing key AI site in San Francisco but says work on its top models continues

Amazon cuts jobs in AGI group as it puts more focus on customer-facing AI

New Markdown rival: Open-source DGML format aims to turn docs into data that AI (and humans) can trust

Seattle judge deals blow to Kalshi, rejects prediction market’s federal defense

The little chips that could: How Impinj has survived 26 years in a market that’s ‘just getting going’

Seattle’s Clarify acquires S.F. startup Seam AI, joining forces to challenge CRM stalwarts

Veteran Microsoft security executive joins AWS amid broader reshuffle in Redmond

Silicon Valley icon Vinod Khosla: What kind of Seahawks owner will he be?

The code AI forgot: logcat.ai raises $2.55M to put agents to work on device operating systems

Vieu launches AI-ready map of business relationships, challenging tech incumbents

Apptio co-founders reunite to launch enterprise AI startup Thira with $21M in funding led by Madrona

Motorola leads $125M round for Brinc, fueling 911 drone expansion amid U.S. import crackdown

Venture funding drops in Seattle area as AI boom reshapes startup world

What to know about Vinod Khosla, the Silicon Valley legend whose family is buying the Seahawks

Microsoft’s reset, a new era for Seattle startups, and how AI is changing everything for founders

The awkward timing of the Xbox CEO’s new Federal Reserve gig

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

T-Mobile exec Mike Katz exits after 28 years, as carrier reshuffles top ranks and taps ex-AT&T leader

This startup lets companies teach AI about their brands — and the chatbots are listening