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<title>Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of Sept. 27, 2026</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/geekwire-weekly-roundup-2026-09-27/</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 04 Oct 2026 15:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[GeekWire]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[GeekWire Weekly]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/2026/geekwire-weekly-roundup-2026-09-27/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1200" height="630" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/geekwire-week-in-review1.png" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="GeekWire Week in Review" decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/geekwire-week-in-review1.png 1200w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/geekwire-week-in-review1-620x326.png 620w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px"> See the technology stories that people were reading on GeekWire for the week of Sept. 27, 2026. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/geekwire-weekly-roundup-2026-09-27/">Read More</a>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
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 Sept. 27, 2026.
Sign up to receive these updates every Sunday in your inbox by subscribing to our <a href="http://www.geekwire.com/newsletters/">GeekWire Weekly email newsletter</a>.
<h3>Most popular stories on GeekWire</h3>
<article class="teaser"><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/meet-the-x-bat-full-specs-on-the-new-ai-piloted-fighter-jet-to-be-built-in-washington-state/" class="teaser-thumb"><img decoding="async" width="200" height="113" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-SHI16_LaunchPad_v07_16k_00000-2-200x113.jpeg" class="attachment-featured size-featured wp-post-image" alt="" loading="lazy"></a>
<h2><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/meet-the-x-bat-full-specs-on-the-new-ai-piloted-fighter-jet-to-be-built-in-washington-state/">Meet the X-BAT: Full specs on the new AI-piloted fighter jet to be built in Washington state</a></h2>
X-BAT at a Glance: Measuring 26 feet long with a 1,000-nautical-mile combat radius, Shield AI’s autonomous strike fighter is designed to launch vertically from highways or naval decks—bypassing traditional runways entirely. Here is a detailed look at the aircraft’s specs, timeline, and capabilities as production sets to begin in Des Moines, Wash. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/meet-the-x-bat-full-specs-on-the-new-ai-piloted-fighter-jet-to-be-built-in-washington-state/">Read More</a> <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/meet-the-x-bat-full-specs-on-the-new-ai-piloted-fighter-jet-to-be-built-in-washington-state/">… Read More</a>
</article>
<article class="teaser"><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/microsoft-executives-peter-lee-president-of-microsoft-science-and-evp-ryan-roslansky-to-depart/" class="teaser-thumb"><img decoding="async" width="200" height="101" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lee-and-Roslansky-200x101.png" class="attachment-featured size-featured wp-post-image" alt="" loading="lazy"></a>
<h2><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/microsoft-executives-peter-lee-president-of-microsoft-science-and-evp-ryan-roslansky-to-depart/">Longtime Microsoft research leader Peter Lee and former LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky to depart</a></h2>
Two top Microsoft executives shared this week that they’re leaving the Redmond, Wash., tech giant: Peter Lee, the former head of Microsoft Research, and Ryan Roslansky, Microsoft executive vice president overseeing both LinkedIn and Microsoft Office. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/microsoft-executives-peter-lee-president-of-microsoft-science-and-evp-ryan-roslansky-to-depart/">Read More</a> <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/microsoft-executives-peter-lee-president-of-microsoft-science-and-evp-ryan-roslansky-to-depart/">… Read More</a>
</article>
<article class="teaser"><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/kindle-gets-a-clicker-amazon-unveils-35-page-turning-remote-and-refreshes-its-e-reader-lineup/" class="teaser-thumb"><img decoding="async" width="200" height="150" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Kindle-Click_Lifestyle-01-200x150.jpg" class="attachment-featured size-featured wp-post-image" alt="" loading="lazy"></a>
<h2><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/kindle-gets-a-clicker-amazon-unveils-35-page-turning-remote-and-refreshes-its-e-reader-lineup/">Kindle gets a clicker: Amazon unveils $35 page-turning remote and refreshes its e-reader lineup</a></h2>
Amazon unveiled the Kindle Click, a $34.99 Bluetooth remote for turning pages, alongside a redesigned lineup of Kindle e-readers with flush screens, optional aluminum housings and user-replaceable batteries. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/kindle-gets-a-clicker-amazon-unveils-35-page-turning-remote-and-refreshes-its-e-reader-lineup/">Read More</a> <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/kindle-gets-a-clicker-amazon-unveils-35-page-turning-remote-and-refreshes-its-e-reader-lineup/">… Read More</a>
</article>
<article class="teaser"><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/shield-ai-selects-seattle-area-to-build-x-bat-autonomous-fighter-jet-plans-to-add-4000-jobs-by-early-2030s/" class="teaser-thumb"><img decoding="async" width="200" height="113" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/X-BAT-Flyby-200x113.jpeg" class="attachment-featured size-featured wp-post-image" alt="" loading="lazy"></a>
<h2><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/shield-ai-selects-seattle-area-to-build-x-bat-autonomous-fighter-jet-plans-to-add-4000-jobs-by-early-2030s/">Shield AI selects Seattle area to build X-BAT autonomous fighter jet, plans to add 4,000 jobs by early 2030s</a></h2>
Defense tech upstart Shield AI has selected the Puget Sound region as the manufacturing hub for X-BAT, bringing AI-piloted fighter production to the region and promising 4,000 jobs by the early 2030s. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/shield-ai-selects-seattle-area-to-build-x-bat-autonomous-fighter-jet-plans-to-add-4000-jobs-by-early-2030s/">Read More</a> <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/shield-ai-selects-seattle-area-to-build-x-bat-autonomous-fighter-jet-plans-to-add-4000-jobs-by-early-2030s/">… Read More</a>
</article>
<article class="teaser"><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/im-not-sure-wed-make-the-same-decision-a-rocket-makers-reality-check-for-the-seattle-region/" class="teaser-thumb"><img decoding="async" width="200" height="134" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/andy-lapsa-200x134.jpg" class="attachment-featured size-featured wp-post-image" alt="" loading="lazy"></a>
<h2><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/im-not-sure-wed-make-the-same-decision-a-rocket-makers-reality-check-for-the-seattle-region/">‘I’m not sure we’d make the same decision’: A rocket maker’s reality check for the Seattle region</a></h2>
Stoke Space CEO Andy Lapsa, whose company is building a fully reusable rocket, told a Seattle audience he isn’t sure he’d start the company in Washington state today. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/im-not-sure-wed-make-the-same-decision-a-rocket-makers-reality-check-for-the-seattle-region/">Read More</a> <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/im-not-sure-wed-make-the-same-decision-a-rocket-makers-reality-check-for-the-seattle-region/">… Read More</a>
</article>
<article class="teaser"><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-software-engineer-turned-general-contractor-built-an-ai-guide-to-the-patchwork-of-permit-rules/" class="teaser-thumb"><img decoding="async" width="200" height="118" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/kolmopermits-200x118.png" class="attachment-featured size-featured wp-post-image" alt="" loading="lazy"></a>
<h2><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-software-engineer-turned-general-contractor-built-an-ai-guide-to-the-patchwork-of-permit-rules/">Seattle software engineer turned general contractor built an AI guide to the patchwork of permit rules</a></h2>
The site, kolmo.io/permits, serves as an un-gated database designed to answer the questions that usually send homeowners into a spiral of municipal PDFs. The AI-powered tool covers 457 verified rules across 80 jurisdictions in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, linking each rule directly to specific city source pages and exact wording rather than forcing users to rely on rough guesses and Google searches. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-software-engineer-turned-general-contractor-built-an-ai-guide-to-the-patchwork-of-permit-rules/">Read More</a> <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-software-engineer-turned-general-contractor-built-an-ai-guide-to-the-patchwork-of-permit-rules/">… Read More</a>
</article>
<article class="teaser"><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/report-downtown-seattle-lost-13000-jobs-in-a-year-while-bellevues-tech-hub-boomed/" class="teaser-thumb"><img decoding="async" width="200" height="150" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PXL_20260312_0050372101-200x150.jpg" class="attachment-featured size-featured wp-post-image" alt="" loading="lazy"></a>
<h2><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/report-downtown-seattle-lost-13000-jobs-in-a-year-while-bellevues-tech-hub-boomed/">Report: Downtown Seattle lost 13,000 jobs in a year, while Bellevue’s tech hub boomed</a></h2>
Seattle lost 18,000 jobs between 2024 and 2025—with 70% concentrated downtown—while Bellevue added over 5,300, according to new Downtown Seattle Association data. Amid business claims that the JumpStart payroll tax is driving tech across the lake, Mayor Katie Wilson has moved to freeze tax rates in her new budget to give employers stability amid broader industry shifts. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/report-downtown-seattle-lost-13000-jobs-in-a-year-while-bellevues-tech-hub-boomed/">Read More</a> <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/report-downtown-seattle-lost-13000-jobs-in-a-year-while-bellevues-tech-hub-boomed/">… Read More</a>
</article>
<article class="teaser"><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-outranks-major-global-cities-to-land-at-no-4-in-report-that-cites-economy-quality-of-life-and-more/" class="teaser-thumb"><img decoding="async" width="200" height="148" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/55423783822_6aaacd6670_k-200x148.jpg" class="attachment-featured size-featured wp-post-image" alt="" loading="lazy"></a>
<h2><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-outranks-major-global-cities-to-land-at-no-4-in-report-that-cites-economy-quality-of-life-and-more/">Seattle outranks major global cities to land at No. 4 in report that cites economy, quality of life, and more</a></h2>
The Emerald City landed at No. 4 overall in the newly released Oxford Economics Global Cities Index 2026, which scored 1,000 major urban centers across economics, human capital, quality of life, environment, and governance. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-outranks-major-global-cities-to-land-at-no-4-in-report-that-cites-economy-quality-of-life-and-more/">Read More</a> <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-outranks-major-global-cities-to-land-at-no-4-in-report-that-cites-economy-quality-of-life-and-more/">… Read More</a>
</article>
<article class="teaser"><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-pledges-1b-to-data-center-communities-warns-that-local-opposition-threatens-u-s-ai-lead/" class="teaser-thumb"><img decoding="async" width="200" height="133" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Garman-Keynote-10-200x133.jpg" class="attachment-featured size-featured wp-post-image" alt="" loading="lazy"></a>
<h2><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-pledges-1b-to-data-center-communities-warns-that-local-opposition-threatens-u-s-ai-lead/">Amazon pledges $1B to data center communities, warns that local opposition threatens U.S. AI lead</a></h2>
Amazon says it will spend more than $1 billion over five years on community college, job training and other programs in the U.S. communities that host its data centers. The move responds to a growing backlash that AWS CEO Matt Garman says threatens the country’s lead in AI. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-pledges-1b-to-data-center-communities-warns-that-local-opposition-threatens-u-s-ai-lead/">Read More</a> <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-pledges-1b-to-data-center-communities-warns-that-local-opposition-threatens-u-s-ai-lead/">… Read More</a>
</article>
<article class="teaser"><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/uw-starts-construction-on-231-1m-chemistry-hub-set-to-open-in-2029/" class="teaser-thumb"><img decoding="async" width="200" height="116" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-chemistry-building-artists-rendition-200x116.jpg" class="attachment-featured size-featured wp-post-image" alt="" loading="lazy"></a>
<h2><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/uw-starts-construction-on-231-1m-chemistry-hub-set-to-open-in-2029/">UW starts construction on $231.1M chemistry hub set to open in 2029</a></h2>
The University of Washington broke ground on a $231.1 million Chemical Sciences Building set to open in 2029, featuring 104,500 square feet of state-of-the-art labs for instruction and research in quantum science, sustainable chemistry, and human health. The new five-story facility will replace the old Chemistry Library Building and pave the way for a full renovation of historic Bagley Hall. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/uw-starts-construction-on-231-1m-chemistry-hub-set-to-open-in-2029/">Read More</a> <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/uw-starts-construction-on-231-1m-chemistry-hub-set-to-open-in-2029/">… Read More</a>
</article>
]]></content:encoded>
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">956354</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>Washington climate tech founders score funding as AI boom drains investor cash</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/washington-climate-tech-founders-score-funding-as-ai-boom-drains-investor-cash/</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 03 Oct 2026 21:01:23 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa Stiffler]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Startups]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Sustainability]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Airbuild]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Azotera]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[batteries]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Climate Solutions International]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[climate tech]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Emerald Battery Labs]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[green ammonia]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ocean]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Opalene Climate Challenge]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Seattle Climate Innovation Hub]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[VertueLab]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ZILA BioWorks]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955753</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="945" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Copy-of-IMG_05351-1260x945.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Copy-of-IMG_05351-1260x945.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Copy-of-IMG_05351-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Copy-of-IMG_05351-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Copy-of-IMG_05351-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> As investor dollars are channeled into data centers, a philanthropic effort stepped up to fund six early-stage Washington climate tech startups building hardware, bio-resins and energy storage. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/washington-climate-tech-founders-score-funding-as-ai-boom-drains-investor-cash/">Read More</a>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1260" height="945" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Copy-of-IMG_05351-1260x945.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-956259" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Copy-of-IMG_05351-1260x945.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Copy-of-IMG_05351-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Copy-of-IMG_05351-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Copy-of-IMG_05351-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">From left: Allison Arnold, co-director of the Opalene Climate Challenge; David Gory, co-founder and CEO of AirBuild; and Aina Abiodun, president and executive director of VertueLab. (Opalene Photo)</figcaption></figure>
Some climate tech startups tied to the AI boom are still attracting investors, but deals are fewer overall and times are tougher for companies addressing sustainability issues that don’t align with data center needs.
Concerns about those trends inspired a one-time Washington state initiative called the <a href="https://www.vertuelab.org/opalene-climate-challenge">Opalene Climate Challenge</a>, which was led by the nonprofit <a href="https://www.vertuelab.org/">VertueLab</a>. The effort announced six investments from a pool of nearly 40 applicants.
The program planned to partner with the state to secure matching dollars, but organizers realized it would take too long to raise the needed capital. Instead, they relied solely on philanthropic donors.
“The imperative was to get the money out to these climate tech startups who are doing extraordinary work but are confronting that pinch in capital,” said Allison Arnold, co-director of the Opalene Climate Challenge.
Sustainability startups that develop hardware or physical products can face a more difficult path to scale than software companies because they typically require more capital, longer development cycles and time-consuming work to manufacture, test and deploy their technologies.
The challenge aimed to fill an early-stage funding gap with recoverable grants from donor-advised funds. Successful investments will return proceeds to the donor’s fund or another designated nonprofit.
Five of the six winners are commercializing technologies developed at the University of Washington or Washington State University. Many of the startups have participated in mentoring programs such as the Cascadia Clean Tech Accelerator or UW’s CoMotion Labs Climate Tech Incubator, or received investments from the E8 angel group.
“Those entrepreneurs who have actively sought out the resources in our ecosystem have had greater success. For most companies, it takes more than just the money,” Arnold said. At the same time, she added, “money is what has been missing in our corner of the country. We don’t have the type of risk capital that’s available in places like Silicon Valley, Boston or New York.”
The winners were featured at an event Thursday at the Seattle Climate Innovation Hub. Recipients of $100,000 awards:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/airbuild/">Airbuild</a>, also the winner of the $5,000 Audience Choice Award, uses microalgae to turn wastewater treatment plants into fertilizer factories </li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/oceanbuild/">Ocean</a> produces low-cost, low-carbon bamboo panels for roofing and other building applications</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/zilabioworks/">ZILA BioWorks</a> offers plant-based resins and epoxies to replace high-carbon alternatives</li>
</ul>
Recipients of $25,000 awards:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/azotera/">Azotera</a> produces low-cost ammonia for energy storage and farm applications</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/climate-solutions-international-inc/">Climate Solutions International</a> offers a software platform that helps government employees analyze factors such as climate resilience, cost and carbon emissions for proposed infrastructure projects</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/emeraldbatterylabs/">Emerald Battery Labs</a> builds sodium-ion batteries to replace lead-acid batteries in commercial fleets and data centers</li>
</ul>
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">955753</post-id> </item>
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<title>Seattle and San Francisco: Big tech, political backlash and the AI boom</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-and-san-francisco-big-tech-political-backlash-and-the-ai-boom/</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 03 Oct 2026 16:04:47 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Todd Bishop]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Podcasts]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Blue City Blues]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[David Hyde]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[John Cook]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Weber]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[margaret o'mara]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[San Francisco]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Sandeep Kaushik]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=956196</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724519-1260x841.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724519-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724519-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724519-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724519-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> In a live joint recording of the GeekWire and Blue City Blues podcasts, GeekWire's John Cook, historian Margaret O'Mara and journalist Jonathan Weber join Blue City Blues hosts David Hyde and Sandeep Kaushik to discuss the tech industry's tensions with Seattle and San Francisco, and what the AI boom means for the future of both cities. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-and-san-francisco-big-tech-political-backlash-and-the-ai-boom/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724519-1260x841.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-956202" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724519-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724519-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724519-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724519-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Historian Margaret O’Mara, journalist Jonathan Weber, and GeekWire’s John Cook at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle, recording a joint episode of the GeekWire and Blue City Blues podcasts with David Hyde and Sandeep Kaushik. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)</figcaption></figure>
Tech remade Seattle and San Francisco over the past three decades, bringing jobs and wealth along with soaring housing costs and a political backlash. Now the AI boom is hitting both cities, before either has resolved the tensions that have repeatedly divided their communities.
That’s the subject of this week’s GeekWire Podcast, a live joint taping with the <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blue-city-blues/id1777289409">Blue City Blues</a> podcast at the <a href="https://nordicmuseum.org/events/two-cities-one-industry-big-tech-power-and-politics-in-seattle-and-san-francisco">National Nordic Museum</a> in Seattle. GeekWire co-founder John Cook joins historian Margaret O’Mara, author of “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/534709/the-code-by-margaret-omara/">The Code</a>,” and San Francisco journalist Jonathan Weber, author of “<a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/city-on-the-edge-jonathan-weber/1148560194">City on the Edge</a>,” with Blue City Blues hosts David Hyde and Sandeep Kaushik.
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://omny.fm/shows/geekwire-podcast/how-tech-remade-seattle-and-san-francisco-and-where-ai-is-taking-them-now/embed?media=audio&size=wide&style=cover" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; fullscreen" allowfullscreen width="100%" height="180" frameborder="0" title="Seattle and San Francisco: Big tech, political backlash and the AI boom"></iframe>
Here are some of the key takeaways from the conversation.
The tech industry’s conflicts in Seattle and San Francisco began when the industry moved out of the suburbs and into the middle of both cities.
Silicon Valley grew up 30 to 40 miles south of San Francisco, and Microsoft built a suburban campus in Redmond that O’Mara called “its own kind of bubble far away from the city.”
When Weber arrived in San Francisco in 1990 to cover Silicon Valley for the Los Angeles Times, he said, “there was essentially no tech in the city at all.” That changed with the dot-com boom, which brought the first backlash in San Francisco’s Mission District in the late 1990s.
In Seattle, a similar shift happened with Amazon’s move to South Lake Union, starting in 2010. John said Amazon was “most perfectly positioned” at its earlier headquarters on Beacon Hill, southeast of downtown Seattle, “completely isolated from the rest of the city.”
“When things really shifted for Amazon is when they decided to plant themselves in the middle of the city,” John said. “Then things accelerate, and then these problems start to come in, and Amazon starts to get blamed.”
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724468-1260x841.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-956209" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724468-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724468-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724468-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724468-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">From left: Blue City Blues hosts David Hyde and Sandeep Kaushik, historian Margaret O’Mara, journalist Jonathan Weber and GeekWire co-founder John Cook during the live podcast taping at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)</figcaption></figure>
The tech industry grew up in an era of low taxes and light regulation, and that’s baked into its business model.
O’Mara pointed to 1978, when California voters passed Proposition 13, which capped property taxes and “essentially starved localities of revenue,” she said. Personal computers and video games were taking off in that same era. “Silicon Valley’s kind of grown up in that world,” she said.
In Seattle, John said, Amazon’s view was that it was doing enough by bringing jobs to the city, while the city’s progressive leaders wanted more as prices rose. “Those two philosophies just collided in Seattle in real time,” he said.
Cities have limited leverage, Weber said. “A company can move two miles and avoid whatever taxes the city wants to impose.”
Seattle’s tech and business leaders, unhappy with the city’s political leadership, are organizing to fill the gap themselves.
Asked whether tech leaders think they’ve been getting good leadership from Seattle’s mayors, John said, “Short answer: No.” Businesses feel they’re paying a growing list of new taxes, he said, without seeing results on basics like potholes and clean streets.
In recent months, business figures including Microsoft’s Brad Smith, former Gov. Chris Gregoire and Joe Nguyen of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce have started forming coalitions and pooling their resources. “They’re going on offense,” John said. “They feel there’s a vacuum and a gap here based on this lack of political leadership.”
John said one of a mayor’s big jobs is to be “the chief cheerleader of the region and the city,” and Seattle’s recent mayors haven’t done it. 
Weber said San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has made that role a big part of his success: “Even though he’s a billionaire, he comes across as kind of a regular San Francisco guy.”
“That’s kind of a regular San Francisco guy these days,” O’Mara quipped.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="813" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724686-1260x813.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-956210" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724686-1260x813.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724686-767x495.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724686-1536x991.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724686-2048x1321.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The audience at the National Nordic Museum for the joint taping of the GeekWire Podcast and Blue City Blues. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)</figcaption></figure>
San Francisco is the center of the AI boom, but Seattle and the Bay Area have always depended on each other more than they’ve competed.
Weber called San Francisco the undisputed capital of AI, as the home of OpenAI and Anthropic. The boom has brought so much wealth to the city, he said, that “there’s a mansion shortage.”
John said the gap between the two regions in venture funding for AI is “an astronomical difference.” But OpenAI and Anthropic have both opened engineering centers in the Seattle area, he said, hiring people who don’t want to leave.
Microsoft and Amazon both raised early money from Bay Area venture capitalists, O’Mara said. 
John cited the longtime advice for Seattle founders: “Start your company and build your company in Seattle, raise your money in the Bay Area.” But Seattle has always run second to the Bay Area, John said, and that’s OK. “Who cares?” he said. “They are their own thing. We’re our own thing.”
The Gilded Age offers a precedent for putting guardrails on AI.
O’Mara compared the moment to the era of Carnegie and Rockefeller, when fast-growing industries overwhelmed a small U.S. government, and the regulation that followed still left room to make a lot of money. 
Overemphasizing the novelty of AI, she said, “becomes a very convenient excuse not to regulate it.”
Weber said the AI debate is hard to read because most of the people in it are “talking their book,” with a business interest in the positions they take. The issue is arising, he said, at a time when “we essentially don’t have any national political leadership that’s able to deal with it.”
“So many things are indeed new,” O’Mara said, “but it doesn’t mean that nothing can be done.”
Both cities need to protect their quality of place, and tech itself can undermine it.
O’Mara said building a tech hub comes down to three things: capital, institutions such as research universities, and quality of place. Asked what Seattle and San Francisco should do differently over the next decade, she picked the third.
“This is not just making things nice for Amazon engineers getting paid $300,000 a year,” O’Mara said. “It is making the city safe, vital and fun.”
Weber said tech threatens that sense of place, because people who can shop, meet and find entertainment online don’t need the city in the same way. In San Francisco’s traditional nightlife districts, he said, there’s little going on after 9 p.m., while the city’s caterers and party planners are busy. “A lot of social life has moved indoors into private spaces,” he said.
To which John joked, “I just want to enjoy San Francisco in the metaverse.”
Subscribe to GeekWire in <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/geekwire/id427374434?app=podcast&mt=2">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2PPEGel5l0v3XxlD8fVxAh">Spotify</a>, or wherever you listen.
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">956196</post-id> </item>
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<title>The biggest unresolved question in AI right now, and more takeaways from Madrona’s IA40 Summit</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/the-biggest-unresolved-question-in-ai-right-now-and-more-takeaways-from-madronas-ia40-summit/</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 02 Oct 2026 19:17:29 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Todd Bishop]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI agents]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Amazon Web Services]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Anthropic]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Carlos Guestrin]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Charles Lamanna]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[IA40]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Madrona Venture Group]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Matt McIlwain]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Rahul Patil]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Swami Sivasubramanian]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955948</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724708-edit-1260x841.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724708-edit-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724708-edit-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724708-edit-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724708-edit-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Executives from Microsoft, Amazon, Anthropic and Stripe described AI agents stepping between companies and their customers, without settling who keeps the customer relationship or the data that comes from it. Also: why most companies are far behind Anthropic's own gains from AI, and a split over relying on a single AI provider. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/the-biggest-unresolved-question-in-ai-right-now-and-more-takeaways-from-madronas-ia40-summit/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724708-edit-1260x841.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955975" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724708-edit-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724708-edit-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724708-edit-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724708-edit-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Madrona Managing Director Matt McIlwain speaks at the IA40 Summit in Seattle on Wednesday. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)</figcaption></figure>
Executives from companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Anthropic and Stripe agreed on a lot this week about where AI is headed. But one big question was left unresolved: who keeps the relationship with the customer, and the data that comes from it, once an AI agent is in the middle?
That question was a recurring theme at Madrona’s <a href="https://www.ia40.com/">IA40 Summit</a>, the venture capital firm’s annual gathering of AI startups, investors and tech executives, held Wednesday at the Four Seasons Hotel on the downtown Seattle waterfront.
As Madrona Managing Director <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-mcilwain/">Matt McIlwain</a> said in his closing remarks, the question of who gets to use the data that comes from people’s engagement with AI systems came up “over and over and over again” during the day.
GeekWire attended the entire day and came up with these takeaways, reducing our own human bottleneck (see below) with lots of back-and-forth with Anthropic’s Claude and other AI tools.
AI agents are coming between companies and their customers: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleslamanna/">Charles Lamanna</a>, the Microsoft executive vice president who oversees Microsoft 365 and the platform behind Copilot, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/agents-are-very-harsh-customers-microsoft-exec-warns-many-apps-will-lose-pricing-leverage/">predicted most business software</a> will end up being used by AI assistants on a person’s behalf, leaving software makers with less power to set prices.
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeandenisgreze/">Jean-Denis Greze</a>, CEO of Town, a startup that makes an AI assistant for work, went further. Since about July, he said, AI has been able to operate a browser or a computer almost as well as a person, at a reasonable cost. That means an AI assistant can work through an app’s user interface the way a person does, without needing an API from the software maker, he said.
“Everything is going to become a thin app because the better the AI gets at using the computer, the less the app matters as a unit of software,” Greze said, echoing the term Lamanna had used that morning for software that people open only briefly.
The same shift is under way in retail. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/maiaj/">Maia Josebachvili</a>, Stripe’s chief revenue officer for AI, said commerce by AI agents on Stripe was roughly flat for eight or nine months and then rose sharply in the past six weeks.
Many merchants make their money by getting shoppers to add to their orders at checkout and by showing them ads, she said, and they lose those chances when an agent does the buying. That won’t work over the long term, Josebachvili said.
That conflict is <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazons-fight-with-meta-who-owns-the-customer-relationship-when-an-agent-does-the-buying/">playing out in real time</a> in a high-profile dispute between two tech giants. Amazon <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-blocks-metas-muse-ai-assistant-in-new-standoff-over-agentic-shopping/">blocked Meta’s Muse assistant</a> from shopping on its site last month.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724907-edit-1260x841.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955976" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724907-edit-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724907-edit-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724907-edit-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724907-edit-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Anthropic Chief Technology Officer Rahul Patil at Madrona’s IA40 Summit. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)</figcaption></figure>
The data side of the question came up in a session with Anthropic Chief Technology Officer <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahul-patil-a0944836/">Rahul Patil</a>. Moderator <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelle-d-ornano/">Raphaëlle d’Ornano</a> asked who owns the record of an AI agent’s work, including its mistakes and corrections, and whether it belongs to the customer. She said she has never gotten a clear answer.
Patil didn’t answer directly. He said each company that supplies the software for running agents will work to improve them, and “will use every data that’s available to them to make it better.”
“It’s good for the ecosystem if the agents actually improve,” he said.
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/swaminathansivasubramanian/">Swami Sivasubramanian</a>, Amazon Web Services’ vice president of Agentic AI and Emerging Technologies, said one of the least appreciated parts of making AI agents work is getting them the right company data for the task.
AWS in June <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-unveils-new-ai-agents-trying-to-thread-the-needle-between-autonomy-and-human-control/">announced a service</a> for that purpose, called AWS Context, which maps the relationships in a company’s data for agents to use. Sivasubramanian said it’s meant to work across platforms and cloud providers, and he expects this kind of service to be a basic building block for the next 20 years, as cloud storage and databases were two decades ago.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1725492-edit-1260x841.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955977" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1725492-edit-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1725492-edit-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1725492-edit-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1725492-edit-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Swami Sivasubramanian, left, Amazon Web Services’ vice president of Agentic AI and Emerging Technologies, with Madrona Managing Director Tim Porter. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)</figcaption></figure>
Most companies aren’t keeping up with the technology: Patil said Anthropic writes about 200 times as much code as it did 18 months ago. Some customers have doubled or tripled their output, he said, but almost none have seen gains like Anthropic’s.
“The bottleneck is actually not AI. The bottleneck is human,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/archvem/">Archana Vemulapalli</a>, global head of AI product management at Goldman Sachs. A company’s roles and processes were built before AI, she said.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1725027-edit-1260x841.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955978" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1725027-edit-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1725027-edit-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1725027-edit-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1725027-edit-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Archana Vemulapalli, global head of AI product management at Goldman Sachs, speaks at Madrona’s IA40 Summit in Seattle on Wednesday. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)</figcaption></figure>
Sivasubramanian said teams inside Amazon were showing him impressive AI agents they had built in two or three weeks. When he asked when the agents could be rolled out, he said, almost every team told him it still had to work out security, identity and monitoring.
McKinsey senior partner <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/larihamalainen/">Lari Hamalainen</a> said about 40% of companies say AI has increased their profits, but only 6% describe the increase as substantial.
Even as AI becomes more and more capable, there’s still lots of work to do to close the gap between “the goals, the capabilities, and what we all are aspiring to do,” McIlwain said.
Companies are split on depending on a single AI provider: Anthropic’s Patil, notably, argued that large companies are spending too much effort preserving the ability to switch between AI providers. To keep that option open, he said, they end up building for the least common denominator, limiting themselves to the features every AI model shares. That effort also takes their engineers away from the work that sets their own company apart.
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-guestrin-5352a869/">Carlos Guestrin</a>, co-CEO of the AI startup Noeri, offered an alternative take on the same panel. Intelligence shouldn’t be controlled by one or two companies that own the models, he said, and every company should be able to build and own its own AI systems.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724955-edit-1260x841.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955981" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724955-edit-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724955-edit-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724955-edit-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1724955-edit-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Carlos Guestrin, co-CEO of Noeri and a Stanford computer science professor, at Madrona’s IA40 Summit. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)</figcaption></figure>
Guestrin is a Stanford computer science professor and former University of Washington professor who founded the Seattle machine learning startup Turi, which <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2016/exclusive-apple-acquires-turi-major-exit-seattle-based-machine-learning-ai-startup/">Apple acquired in 2016</a>.
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/enoreyes/">Eno Reyes</a>, co-founder and chief technology officer of Factory, a startup that makes AI coding tools, said on a later panel that many businesses don’t see a way to build their future without ceding control to one AI lab. Thomas Dohmke, the former GitHub CEO who now leads the startup Entire, said developers always want choice.
Amazon works with more than one AI lab. It is a <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-doubles-down-on-anthropic-with-25b-investment-mirroring-its-openai-cloud-deal/">major Anthropic investor</a> and partner, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangrossman/">Dan Grossman</a>, Amazon’s vice president of business and corporate development, pointed out on an investor panel that Amazon had <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/09/bedrock-managed-agents-preview/">launched a managed agents product</a> with OpenAI that week.
Amazon also sells its own product for running AI agents, AgentCore, which overlaps with Anthropic’s Managed Agents.
Companies don’t yet trust AI with important decisions: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/zico-kolter-560382a4/">Zico Kolter</a>, the Carnegie Mellon professor who chairs the safety and security committee of OpenAI’s board, said the ability to control AI systems has to keep pace with their capabilities, which might mean developing them more slowly than is possible.
Sivasubramanian said executives worry about whether an AI agent will always follow their company’s rules and regulations. Companies can keep the creativity of AI models, he said, by pairing them with separate systems that check a model’s work against the company’s rules and catch violations.
The money is concentrated in a few companies: The companies on <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/madronas-annual-ia40-list-shows-an-ai-industry-splitting-in-two/">this year’s IA40 list</a> have raised $410 billion since they were founded, according to Madrona’s data. OpenAI, Anthropic and Databricks account for 92% of it.
Anthropic raised $143 billion of its $161 billion total in the 12 months ending Aug. 15, a figure that includes debt. The company has filed confidentially for an initial public offering and is seeking a valuation of about $2 trillion, <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/exclusive-anthropic-ipo-prospectus-lays-205226515.html">Reuters reported this week</a>. Bloomberg reported that it could go public <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/article/anthropic-reportedly-looking-to-ipo-as-early-as-mid-november-180315768.html">as early as mid-November</a>.
Capital spending by Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and Apple is projected to rise 74% this year to about $742 billion, according to PitchBook figures Madrona presented.
Lamanna said Microsoft’s heaviest AI users among its software developers are each on track to spend more than $1 million a year on AI usage, even with the company’s internal discount.
Madrona’s closing slide said returns on AI are still early for most of the companies using it but look inevitable based on what the earliest adopters are seeing.
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<title>Seattle voice AI startup Ultravox, formerly known as Fixie, acquired by Inworld</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-voice-ai-startup-ultravox-formerly-known-as-fixie-acquired-by-inworld/</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 02 Oct 2026 16:11:50 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa Stiffler]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Startups]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[acquisition]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[acquisitions]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[fixie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Inworld]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Ultravox]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955920</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="1008" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fixie.ai-0362-print-web_Original-1260x1008.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fixie.ai-0362-print-web_Original-1260x1008.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fixie.ai-0362-print-web_Original-768x615.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fixie.ai-0362-print-web_Original-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fixie.ai-0362-print-web_Original-630x504.jpg 630w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fixie.ai-0362-print-web_Original.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Inworld has acquired Seattle-based AI startup Ultravox for an undisclosed sum to enhance its real-time voice technology. Founded in 2022 as Fixie, the startup previously raised $17 million to build speech models capable of handling conversational turn-taking and interruptions. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-voice-ai-startup-ultravox-formerly-known-as-fixie-acquired-by-inworld/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="1008" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fixie.ai-0362-print-web_Original-1260x1008.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-762461" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fixie.ai-0362-print-web_Original-1260x1008.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fixie.ai-0362-print-web_Original-768x615.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fixie.ai-0362-print-web_Original-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fixie.ai-0362-print-web_Original-630x504.jpg 630w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fixie.ai-0362-print-web_Original.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The co-founders of Ultravox, which launched in 2022 as Fixie, from left: Hessam Bagherinezhad, Matt Welsh, Justin Uberti and Zach Koch. (Fixie Photo)</figcaption></figure>
Seattle voice AI startup <a href="https://www.ultravox.ai/">Ultravox</a>, which launched as <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2023/google-and-apple-vets-raise-17m-for-fixie-a-large-language-model-startup-based-in-seattle/">Fixie</a>, has been <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261001868570/en/AI-Research-Lab-Inworld-Acquires-Voice-Agent-Platform-Ultravox">acquired</a> by Inworld for an undisclosed sum.
Ultravox was founded in 2022 by Google and Apple veterans to build a speech model for real-time, natural-sounding AI voice agents.
In perhaps its most whimsical project, the startup <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2023/startup-creates-ai-santa-using-its-tech-to-facilitate-believable-voice-calls-for-the-naughty-and-nice/">launched the HiSanta.ai website</a> in December 2023, allowing users to chat with Santa Claus, who spoke with a British accent, as well as Rudolph, Mrs. Claus and other North Pole notables. The site is no longer active.
The company <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2023/google-and-apple-vets-raise-17m-for-fixie-a-large-language-model-startup-based-in-seattle/">announced</a> a $17 million seed round in March 2023, and PitchBook put its valuation at $51.46 million at the time. Redpoint Ventures led the round, which included Madrona Venture Group, Zetta Venture Partners, SignalFire, Bloomberg Beta and Kearny Jackson. Current and former executives at Google, Amazon and Apple also invested.
Ultravox has 10 employees, according to LinkedIn. It was unclear whether the entire team would join Inworld, which is based in Mountain View, Calif.
“We’re excited to welcome members of the Ultravox team and continue building the platform,” said Inworld CEO Kylan Gibbs in a statement.
The acquisition will allow Inworld to adopt Ultravox’s technology for managing turn-taking and interruptions in voice conversations with AI, which should improve performance in real-time chats.
Inworld has raised $119.8 million since launching in 2021 and is valued at $515 million, according to PitchBook. 
Ultravox co-founder <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachkoch/">Zach Koch</a> was most recently the company’s CEO. His LinkedIn profile says he is now vice president of product at Shopify. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-salas-580a1524">Peter Salas</a>, who joined the company as a software engineer in 2023, is currently listed as chief technology officer.
The startup’s original CEO, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/welsh-matt">Matt Welsh</a>, departed two years ago and is now head of AI systems at defense company Palantir Technologies. Co-founders <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hessam-bagherinezhad-86b09677/">Hessam Bagherinezhad</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/juberti/">Justin Uberti</a> also left, in 2023 and 2024 respectively, and both joined OpenAI.
The release announcing the acquisition said Ultravox customers would be upgraded to Inworld’s Realtime TTS-2 voice technology.
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<title>Seattle Space Week shines a light on eight problems and prospects for pioneers on the final frontier</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-space-week-problems-prospects/</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 02 Oct 2026 15:28:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alan Boyle]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Space]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[commercial space]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Seattle Space Week]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Space Northwest]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955529</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="823" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/261001-varda-8288-1260x823.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="Space Northwest Symposium attendees in the lobby of a conference hall with Varda space capsule on display" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/261001-varda-8288-1260x823.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/261001-varda-8288-767x501.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/261001-varda-8288-1536x1003.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/261001-varda-8288-2048x1337.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> How high can the Pacific Northwest's space industry rise? And what factors are holding it back? Experts share their perspectives. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-space-week-problems-prospects/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="823" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/261001-varda-8288-1260x823.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955535" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/261001-varda-8288-1260x823.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/261001-varda-8288-767x501.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/261001-varda-8288-1536x1003.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/261001-varda-8288-2048x1337.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Dale Goulding, chief operating officer at Forge Digital, chats with Michael Reilly, chief strategy officer at Varda Space Industries, at the Space Northwest Symposium in Federal Way, Wash. One of Varda’s orbital capsules is on display in front of them. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)</figcaption></figure>
How high can Washington state’s space industry rise? 
Preliminary findings suggest that the economic impact of the state’s space sector more than doubled between 2018 and 2022, and <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/washington-space-industry-economic-impact/">nearly doubled again between 2022 and now</a>. But at the same time, some leaders of the space community are questioning whether the Pacific Northwest can keep pace with other regional clusters in, say, Florida, Texas and Colorado.
That good news, bad news situation made headlines this week when Stoke Space CEO Andy Lapsa <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/im-not-sure-wed-make-the-same-decision-a-rocket-makers-reality-check-for-the-seattle-region/">questioned whether he’d pick the Seattle area as his home base</a> if he had to do it over — just before <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/washington-governor-sets-up-space-council-to-boost-business-ventures-targeting-the-final-frontier/">taking the stage as a member of Gov. Bob Ferguson’s Washington Space Council</a>.
Ferguson isn’t the only elected official trying to make sure the Seattle area keeps up on the space frontier. Dana Ralph, the mayor of Kent, Wash., where Stoke is headquartered, made that clear in her remarks during the kickoff for <a href="https://www.spacenorthwest.org/seattle-space-week">Seattle Space Week</a> at the Museum of Flight.
“We don’t take you for granted,” said Ralph, addressing a gathering of CEOs, investors and other VIPs. “I want you to hear that out loud: We don’t take you for granted.”
Seattle Space Week — highlighted by Tuesday’s <a href="https://luma.com/wrxcql80">Space Northwest Symposium</a> in Federal Way — provided plenty of opportunities for discussing the challenges facing Washington state’s space ventures. Here are four problems to face, and four prospects to look forward to.
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">‘We have a problem’ </h2>
The launch crisis: The availability of launch opportunities has <a href="https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/theres-a-huge-launch-crunch-right-now-and-it-will-probably-get-worse/">shrunk dramatically</a>. “It’s just crazy how there’s this mismatch between supply and demand right now in the industry,” said Tim Beard, Stoke Space’s chief financial officer. “It’s becoming a crisis.”
One factor is the increased demand for deploying satellite constellations for broadband data services (such as Starlink and Amazon Leo) and for future AI data processing (such as Starcloud, SpaceX’s Starmind and Google’s Project Suncatcher).
Another factor is reduced supply: <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/blue-origins-rocket-blowup-nasa-amazon-leo/">Blue Origin</a> and <a href="https://keeptrack.space/deep-dive/vulcan-grounding-nssl">United Launch Alliance</a> are dealing with setbacks in their next-generation rocket programs. Meanwhile, SpaceX is talking about <a href="https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/goodbye-falcon-9-spacex-planning-to-retire-workhorse-launcher-when-starship-is-up-and-running">phasing out its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket</a> as it makes the transition to Starship. The resulting launch crunch is an industry-wide problem, but it hits Seattle’s satellite ventures especially hard.
The workforce challenge: There’s also a limited supply of skilled technicians and engineers. Bill Bruner, CEO of New Frontier Aerospace, ranks that as his No. 1 challenge. “It’s finding skilled, trained people to do, not just the hard engineering work, but the Grade 13, Grade 14 graduate technical work,” he said. “We need a national solution to that problem.”
Ralph said Kent and other Seattle-area municipalities need to partner with state government and commercial ventures to address the challenge. “We should be able to make it easier for employers to invest in apprenticeship, credentials and on-the-job training,” she said. “We need to build a workforce system that moves with industry, not several years behind it.” 
Funding from faraway: Much of the funding that fuels Seattle’s space ventures comes from elsewhere. “There are a lot of VCs in Seattle, but they’re not necessarily space VCs,” said Mike Reilly, chief strategy officer for Varda Space Industries. “I feel like a lot of the space money comes out of L.A. and San Francisco.”
Brian Monnin, co-founder and chief commercial officer at Sophia Space, said midsize space ventures need to find ways to fill their funding gaps. “<a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/sophia-space-sli-300m-deal-computing-constellation/">Debt financing</a> is one way,” he said. “But I think there should be more public-private combinations of firms, traditional banks working alongside debt financiers, working alongside the public for us to fill that vast middle.”
Regional rivalries: Several executives said other states are much more aggressive than Washington when it comes to attracting space ventures. “The incentives just aren’t here,” Monnin said. “We’re looking at where we build our Factory One for <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/sophia-space-caltech-ai-patent-orbital-data-centers/">Sophia Space tiles</a>, and you have to look at the incentives from sovereign funds in New Mexico, Louisiana and others. They’re far more attractive than they are in this state currently.”
The inter-regional competition was one of the challenges cited by Stoke Space CEO Andy Lapsa — and by his CFO as well. “I need to be pretty direct in that we’re being actively courted by any number of states: Colorado, Texas, Florida,” Beard said. “They want us to move there, but Washington state is the right place for Stoke. … I hope our policymakers in Olympia, throughout the state, our senators hear this. We want to stay in Washington state. Help us do that.”
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">‘Light this candle’</h2>
Public-private partnerships: The newly announced <a href="https://www.commerce.wa.gov/economic-development/washington-space-council/">Washington Space Council</a> isn’t likely to set up a multibillion-dollar fund for space ventures anytime soon, but it could serve as a forum for business executives and government officials to work out realistic ways to foster the state’s space industry.
Will the work of the council go beyond virtue-signaling? Last year, the Governor’s Economic Development Strategic Reserve Fund <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2025/washington-state-350k-portal-space-systems-bothell/">awarded $350,000 to support Portal Space Systems’ expansion</a> into a 50,000-square-foot satellite manufacturing facility in Bothell, Wash. Such grants may serve as a model for future financial incentives.
Satellite offices: Space ventures don’t need to be headquartered in Washington to benefit the state’s space industry. Cowboy Space, for example, is based in California but recently announced the opening of a <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/cowboy-space-kent-orbital-data-centers/">291,035-square-foot spacecraft design and manufacturing facility in Kent</a>. BlackSky is based in Virginia, but its satellites are built in a <a href="https://blacksky.com/press-releases/blacksky-ships-first-gen-3-satellite-for-expected-launch-in-february/">22,000-square-foot factory in Tukwila, Wash.</a> SpaceX may have <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1813290895334383820">moved its corporate headquarters from California to Texas</a>, but it still makes more than half of the world’s satellites at its <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/spacex-is-churning-out-70-starlink-satellites-a-week-in-redmond-and-other-tidbits-from-its-ipo-filing/">facilities in Redmond</a> and Woodinville, Wash.
Just as Google and Meta maintain engineering hubs in the Seattle area, out-of-state satellite ventures are likely to establish Seattle-area outposts. “The fundamentals that made this region are still here: talent, a deep supply chain, industrial capacity, a culture of making things, and generations of knowledge that you simply cannot re-create overnight,” Ralph said.
Coming attractions: The silver lining to the launch crisis is that Stoke Space and other commercial space ventures plan to fill the gap. And when SpaceX’s Starship enters service, that could dramatically change the parameters of the launch market. Ron Faith, CEO of RBC Signals, said this week’s <a href="https://cosmiclog.com/2026/09/28/starship-drops-off-satellites-during-its-first-orbital-flight/">first orbital Starship flight</a> was “a pretty big milestone event.”
“Having Starship go into orbit and deploy real satellites … that’s a significant increase in capacity for launch,” he said. “But with that said, we’re also seeing many, many more launchers come online.” The list includes Blue Origin’s <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/tag/new-glenn/">New Glenn</a>, United Launch Alliance’s <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2024/astrobotic-peregrine-moon-lander-vulcan-blue-origin/">Vulcan</a>, Rocket Lab’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Lab_Neutron">Neutron</a>, Firefly Aerospace’s <a href="https://fireflyspace.com/alpha/">Alpha</a>, Relativity Space’s <a href="https://www.relativityspace.com/terran-r">Terran R</a> — and yes, Stoke Space’s <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/stoke-space-billion-upsize-nova-rocket/">Nova</a>.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1258" height="901" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/nova-pathfinder.jpg" alt="Illustration: Stoke Space Nova Pathfiner during ascent" class="wp-image-955813" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/nova-pathfinder.jpg 1258w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/nova-pathfinder-768x550.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1258px) 100vw, 1258px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">An artist’s conception shows Stoke Space’s Nova Pathfinder rocket rising into Earth orbit. (Stoke Space Illustration)</figcaption></figure>
A pad of our own: When it comes to space facilities, the Seattle area lacks two big items: a nearby NASA center and an orbital launch pad.
During a <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/nasa-jared-isaacman-nuclear-inspiration-tour-northwest-space/">recent visit to Redmond</a>, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman didn’t offer much encouragement for the space agency’s fans in the Pacific Northwest. “I think it’s unlikely we’re going to be adding any additional centers right now,” he told me.
But at the Museum of Flight, Ferguson said the Washington Space Council “will look for ways we might be able to develop Washington-based commercial launch capabilities.” 
At the Space Northwest Symposium, Monnin wondered why the Seattle area’s space ventures haven’t forged closer ties with the region’s military installations. “It’s a shame that over the last few decades we haven’t seen the affinity toward Fort Lewis-McChord or the naval base in Bremerton as innovation centers … because from an orbital compute standpoint, the biggest need is defense- or security-related,” he said. “How we haven’t tapped into that as a state, I think, is a miss.”
The Pacific Northwest’s geography would make it difficult to put a launch pad in a place that avoids posing a significant risk to populated areas. That’s why Blue Origin and Stoke Space have their orbital launch pads in Florida instead of Washington. But when Beard was asked about the prospect of using a pad closer to home, he wasn’t dismissive.
“Launching from the Washington coast would be fantastic,” he said. “Also, my geography is not great, but I think it’s slightly closer to ship a rocket to the Washington coast than it is all the way down to Cape Canaveral. So, that’s one advantage as well. We’d love to see launch here, and I think that we’d be good partners to do that with.”
Check out the <a href="https://www.spacenorthwest.org/seattle-space-week">Space Northwest website</a> for the Seattle Space Week event calendar.
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">955529</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>Seattle software engineer turned general contractor built an AI guide to the patchwork of permit rules</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-software-engineer-turned-general-contractor-built-an-ai-guide-to-the-patchwork-of-permit-rules/</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:42:56 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kurt Schlosser]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[building permits]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Kolmo Construction]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Pascal Matta]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=954011</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="900" height="531" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/kolmopermits.png" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/kolmopermits.png 900w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/kolmopermits-768x453.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px"> The site, kolmo.io/permits, serves as an un-gated database designed to answer the questions that usually send homeowners into a spiral of municipal PDFs. The AI-powered tool covers 457 verified rules across 80 jurisdictions in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, linking each rule directly to specific city source pages and exact wording rather than forcing users to rely on rough guesses and Google searches. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-software-engineer-turned-general-contractor-built-an-ai-guide-to-the-patchwork-of-permit-rules/">Read More</a>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="900" height="531" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/kolmopermits.png" alt="" class="wp-image-955175" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/kolmopermits.png 900w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/kolmopermits-768x453.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A 3D rendering of the buildable envelope for a property in Seattle is part of the information displayed by Pascal Matta’s permitting information tool. (Screengrab via kolmo.io/permits)</figcaption></figure>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascal-matta/">Pascal Matta</a> has a background building software for tech giants like Google and T-Mobile. But when he wanted to have a deck added to his Seattle home, he discovered that municipal code was far trickier than software code. 
After trying to sort through a mess of permitting regulations for a deck he never had built, Matta decided to tackle the problem himself in two ways. First, he started Kolmo Construction, his own Seattle-based general contracting company. Second, he built a free online tool to decipher convoluted permit rules in the city and elsewhere.
The site, <a href="https://www.kolmo.io/permits" target="_blank" rel="noopener">kolmo.io/permits</a>, serves as an un-gated database designed to answer the questions that usually send homeowners into a spiral of municipal PDFs. The AI-powered tool covers 457 verified rules across 80 jurisdictions in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, linking each rule directly to specific city source pages and exact wording rather than forcing users to rely on rough guesses and Google searches.
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1177" height="1260" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/pascal-matta-kolmo-1177x1260.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955176" style="width:275px;height:auto" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/pascal-matta-kolmo-1177x1260.jpg 1177w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/pascal-matta-kolmo-768x822.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/pascal-matta-kolmo-1434x1536.jpg 1434w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/pascal-matta-kolmo-1912x2048.jpg 1912w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1177px) 100vw, 1177px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Software engineer and general contractor Pascal Matta. (Photo courtesy of Pascal Matta)</figcaption></figure>
</div>
It also layers in a Washington state baseline across 82 jurisdictions, clearly labeling what has been directly verified by a city and what hasn’t.
“It exists because the information genuinely isn’t anywhere else,” Matta said of the site, noting how simple permit questions can vary wildly across neighboring cities. “It has a different answer in Bellevue, Kirkland, and Seattle, each buried in a different city’s PDF — and homeowners find out after they’ve signed a contract, which is when it gets expensive.”
Users enter a specific address into the site to generate a lot-level breakdown, complete with a 3D visualization of their property’s buildable envelope, height limits, and existing structures. 
From there, the tool evaluates local zoning and building codes to show what can be built — such as whether a lot qualifies for two detached ADUs under Seattle code — while providing instant “Do I need a permit?” answers for tasks ranging from plumbing work to tree removal to heat pump installation.
Matta’s project arrives as cities and tech startups alike try to untangle municipal permitting backlogs. 
The City of Seattle <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2025/seattle-to-deploy-ai-to-speed-up-housing-and-small-business-permit-process/">announced plans in 2025</a> to deploy AI to streamline its own housing and small-business permit reviews, while local startups like <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2025/seattle-area-startup-govstream-ai-raises-3-6m-to-improve-city-permitting-processes-using-ai/">Govstream AI have raised millions</a> to modernize government land-use workflows.
But while those enterprise efforts focus on back-end bureaucratic efficiency, Matta’s tool approaches the problem from the ground up — putting clear, searchable code rules directly into the hands of homeowners and builders before a shovel ever hits the dirt.
Behind the user interface sits an AI layer powered by Google’s Gemini model using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), which feeds the system exact city rules so it can answer specific permit questions with citations rather than AI guesses. 
Matta also exposed the entire database over Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing third-party AI assistants to query the rules directly. To keep the information accurate, an automated weekly process re-checks every source page for updates and posts the results to a public data-quality log — a system Matta notes caught an error in his own fee calculator when Seattle updated its 2026 permit fee schedule.
While the permit tool costs Matta around $2,000 in LLM API tokens just to process Seattle’s data, he has no plans to monetize it or put it behind a paywall. He simply wants people — and fellow general contractors — to use it.
Back on the job site, his software background gives Kolmo a distinct edge. Using internal AI tools he built, Matta can take voice notes and photos during a walkthrough and generate a detailed project quote in under a minute, giving clients clear answers while he’s still at their front door.
That overlap between code and physical construction is what keeps him energized. When asked whether he prefers building software or physical decks, Matta points to the sweet spot where his two careers meet.
“I think I like what I’m doing now,” Matta said. “I like building decks, but I can see also the potential that I have because I have a software background — how it changes the game, honestly.”
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">954011</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>Amazon pledges $1B to data center communities, warns that local opposition threatens U.S. AI lead</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-pledges-1b-to-data-center-communities-warns-that-local-opposition-threatens-u-s-ai-lead/</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 02 Oct 2026 09:05:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Todd Bishop]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Civic]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI infrastructure]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AWS]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Built Together]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[data centers]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Matt Garman]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955851</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="840" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Garman-Keynote-10-1260x840.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Garman-Keynote-10-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Garman-Keynote-10-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Garman-Keynote-10-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Garman-Keynote-10-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Amazon says it will spend more than $1 billion over five years on community college, job training and other programs in the U.S. communities that host its data centers. The move responds to a growing backlash that AWS CEO Matt Garman says threatens the country's lead in AI. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-pledges-1b-to-data-center-communities-warns-that-local-opposition-threatens-u-s-ai-lead/">Read More</a>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="840" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Garman-Keynote-10-1260x840.jpg" alt="Matt Garman speaks on stage in a light purple button-up shirt, gesturing with both hands and holding a presentation clicker, in front of a dark screen showing a purple circle with orbit lines." class="wp-image-955853" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Garman-Keynote-10-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Garman-Keynote-10-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Garman-Keynote-10-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Garman-Keynote-10-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman, shown at AWS re:Invent in 2025, says local opposition to data centers threatens the U.S. position in the AI race. (Amazon Photo / Noah Berger)</figcaption></figure>
Amazon says it will spend more than $1 billion over five years in the U.S. communities where it builds and operates data centers, responding to a growing backlash across the country against the tech industry’s massive AI infrastructure buildout.
The company’s new program, which it calls “Built Together,” will fund free community college, job training, energy upgrades for homes and schools, and other local projects identified by data center communities. It comes on top of more than $1 billion that Amazon says it has given to communities over the past three years.
Amazon also says it will stop using NDAs with government agencies on data center projects, install lower-emission backup generators at new sites, publish its energy and water use each year, and pay enough for power to keep local electricity bills from rising.
Announcing the commitments <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-data-centers-built-together">in a post Friday morning</a>, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said local opposition to data centers — which he asserted is stoked by “misinformation and outright lies” — threatens the country’s position in the global race for AI leadership.
“Right now there are over 100 data center moratoriums being considered across the country,” Garman wrote. “If these measures are enacted, the U.S. could be writing its own losing ticket to this race, and the consequences would last generations.”
The business stakes: Amazon is making an unprecedented bet on AI, projecting about $220 billion in capital expenses this year, largely on data centers and chips. That’s <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/aws-is-booming-but-amazons-free-cash-flow-turns-negative-on-record-ai-spending/">more than the cash</a> its business generates on an annual basis.
By comparison, the additional $1 billion in community funding over five years works out to about $200 million a year, or about one-tenth of 1% of this year’s projected capital spending.

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Amazon’s AI strategy depends on finding communities willing to host its data centers. Microsoft, Google and other tech giants are spending on a similar scale, to meet current and anticipated AI demand, and they face the same problem.
Local opposition has become a real limit on the AI buildout. At least 75 data center projects worth about $130 billion were <a href="https://www.datacenterwatch.org/q1-2026">blocked or delayed</a> in the first three months of the year alone, according to Data Center Watch, a group that tracks these disputes. An <a href="https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/55479-nearly-two-thirds-americans-oppose-data-center-construction-in-their-community-august-28-31-2026-economist-yougov-poll">Economist/YouGov poll</a> in late August found that 63% of Americans would oppose a data center in their community.
Pushing back on the narrative: Much of Garman’s post is a point-by-point rebuttal of what he calls myths about data centers. 
He called it “false” that data centers are sucking up all the water in communities, “misleading and convenient scapegoating” to blame them for driving up all electricity rates, “untrue” that their backup generators emit huge amounts of pollution, and “false” that communities get nothing in return.
Amazon’s average data center uses less than 13,000 gallons of water a day, he wrote, and backup generators sit idle 99.9% of the time. Where electricity rates are rising, he attributed it primarily to an aging grid.
Garman pointed to “widespread reports of various countries intentionally seeding misinformation in the U.S. about data centers to trick us into slowing down.” OpenAI and X have each reported China-linked accounts posting about data centers. 
However, <a href="https://www.politifact.com/article/2026/sep/23/china-influence-data-center-opposition/">PolitiFact reported</a> last month that the role of foreign influence in the opposition to data centers has been exaggerated, with little sign the accounts reached a wide audience.
“We understand why there is apprehension in some communities where data centers are being built,” Garman wrote. At the same time, he said Amazon and other data center operators have already taken many steps to address those concerns. 
The new commitments, he wrote, are a way to codify the company’s existing practices.
Where Amazon and Microsoft differ: Microsoft <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/microsoft-responds-to-ai-data-center-revolt-vowing-to-cover-full-power-costs-and-reject-local-tax-breaks/">promised in January</a> not to seek local tax breaks for its data centers. Asked by GeekWire whether it would do the same, Amazon did not make that commitment. The company said it is the largest taxpayer in almost every community where it operates, and that local governments offer incentives to attract its projects.
In his post, Garman pointed to St. Joseph County, Ind., where he wrote that Amazon is expected to pay more than $3 billion in taxes on land that would have generated $1.2 million under its prior use. In Madison County, Miss., he cited more than 2,300 construction workers now on the job and more than 1,700 operations jobs to come.
In 2023, Good Jobs First, a watchdog group that tracks corporate subsidies, <a href="https://goodjobsfirst.org/at-1-billion-amazons-oregon-subsidy-is-largest-known-in-history/">reported</a> that five Amazon data centers in Morrow County, Ore., would receive about $1 billion in property tax breaks over 15 years, which the group called the largest known subsidy in the company’s history at the time.
Microsoft also went further on NDAs, saying in March that it would <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/microsoft-nixes-ndas-with-local-governments-worldwide-when-deploying-data-centers/">terminate its existing nondisclosure agreements</a> with local governments. Amazon said its change applies going forward, and that it doesn’t plan to revisit past agreements, most of which no longer apply once a project becomes public.
Power costs: Amazon was among seven companies that <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-advances-energy-affordability-with-the-ratepayer-protection-pledge/">signed a White House pledge</a> in March to pay for the power and grid upgrades their data centers require.
The new commitment repeats that pledge, which the company said reflects what it was already doing. Amazon has long structured its <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/water-power-and-transparency-amazons-12b-data-center-deal-signals-a-new-era-of-accountability/">power agreements</a> to cover the full cost of serving its data centers, it said, with rates approved by state utility regulators.
In his post, Garman disputed that data centers are to blame for <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2025/senators-probe-ai-tech-giants-over-electric-bills-amazon-says-its-data-centers-pay-more-than-their-share/">rising electricity rates</a>. Among states with large numbers of data centers, he wrote, rates have risen in some, including Illinois and New York, and fallen in others, including Indiana and Mississippi. He wrote that new grid capacity, funded by the private sector, should lead to flat or lower rates for nearby residents.
However, according to U.S. government data <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/14/data-centers-are-concentrated-in-these-states-heres-whats-happening-to-electricity-prices-.html">reported by CNBC</a>, residential electricity prices in three states with high concentrations of data centers were up sharply in August 2025 from a year earlier: 13% in Virginia, 16% in Illinois and 12% in Ohio, compared with 6% nationally.
Climate goals: Amazon’s carbon emissions <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/the-cost-of-the-ai-boom-amazon-emissions-jump-16-as-company-stands-by-net-zero-pledge/">rose 16% last year</a> as the company expanded its data center capacity. Kara Hurst, Amazon’s chief sustainability officer, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/from-ai-data-centers-to-nasa-beating-wildfire-tech-5-lessons-from-climate-week-nyc/">said at Climate Week NYC</a> last week that the company remains committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2040.
Garman wrote that Amazon has been the largest corporate buyer of carbon-free energy since 2019. Under the new commitment, the company each year will publish the share of its energy that comes from carbon-free sources.
On water, Amazon says it is committed to <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-claims-data-centers-are-7-times-more-water-efficient-than-rivals-as-seattle-pauses-new-builds/">returning more water</a> to communities than its data centers use by 2030, and was 75% of the way to that goal as of 2025. Microsoft made a similar pledge in January.
Where the money goes: Amazon’s Built Together program is organized around three areas: education and job training, energy and water, and flexible funding for local priorities.
Addressing questions from GeekWire, Amazon didn’t provide a full breakdown of the $1 billion, but said it expects to put more than $100 million up front into community college endowments and roughly another $100 million into expanding its training centers.
Under the program, Amazon says it will:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Cover out-of-pocket community college costs for an estimated 300,000 students in data center communities over five years. The company says agreements with 26 colleges are already in the works.</li>
<li>Build 16 more training centers on or near data center sites, offering free certification programs in skilled trades. Amazon operates three of the centers now and has six more in development.</li>
<li>Fund energy-efficiency upgrades at more than 300 schools and community buildings and more than 30,000 homes.</li>
<li>Provide annual funding through local nonprofits and community foundations for projects such as roads, parks and fire equipment, with priorities set by each community.</li>
</ul>
“Every community is different,” Garman wrote. “What matters most in rural Oregon is not the same as what matters in suburban Virginia or a mid-size city in Ohio.”
The local funding will reflect those differences, he wrote, saying that Amazon is not deciding what communities need but rather “providing resources and letting communities decide.”
GeekWire reporter Lisa Stiffler contributed to this story. 
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<title>SpaceX’s rideshare launch kicks off milestone mission for Starfish Space’s first Otter space vehicle</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/spacex-rideshare-starfish-space-first-otter/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 21:03:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alan Boyle]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Space]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Cowboy Space]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[orbital data center]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Satellite]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Satellites]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Space Servicing]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[SpaceX]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Starfish Space]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955698</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1209" height="800" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/261001-spacex2.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rising into sky" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/261001-spacex2.jpg 1209w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/261001-spacex2-768x508.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1209px) 100vw, 1209px"> Falcon 9 rocket launches 130 payloads, including Starfish's flagship spacecraft as well as Cowboy Space's first satellite and a NASA astrophysics probe. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/spacex-rideshare-starfish-space-first-otter/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1209" height="800" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/261001-spacex2.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955704" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/261001-spacex2.jpg 1209w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/261001-spacex2-768x508.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1209px) 100vw, 1209px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket rises from its California launch pad, sending 130 payloads into orbit. (Credit: SpaceX via X)</figcaption></figure>
<a href="https://www.starfishspace.com/">Starfish Space’s</a> first full-scale Otter satellite servicing vehicle went into orbit today, marking a major milestone for the Tukwila, Wash.-based startup.
The Otter spacecraft was among 130 payloads launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Otter is roughly the size of a kitchen oven, with solar arrays that were folded up for launch.
Other payloads on the satellite rideshare mission, known as Transporter-18, included Cowboy Space’s first power-beaming satellite, a prototype for Google’s AI data-center constellation, and a NASA-funded probe that will track the energy released by galaxies and supernovas.
Today’s liftoff through surface-level fog — and the return of the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster to a nearby landing pad — proceeded like clockwork. A little more than an hour after launch, Otter separated from the rocket’s upper stage and powered up for orbital operations.
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Once Otter is fully commissioned, it will rendezvous with and inspect a series of inoperable satellites for a $15 million NASA mission known as <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/nasa-sspicy-starfish-space-otter-debut/">Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability</a>, or SSPICY for short. The capabilities demonstrated by SSPICY could be used during future missions to check the health of active satellites, or dispose of defunct satellites.
SSPICY may not be the only mission that Otter takes on during its operating lifetime.
“Success in the mission is to actually go and provide this commercial inspection service on a number of these different spacecraft, and that will be a huge win in and of itself,” <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/nasa-sspicy-starfish-space-otter-debut/">Starfish co-founder Trevor Bennett told GeekWire last week</a>. “But we’re also bringing Otter along to provide servicing well beyond that, so we could go and inspect more spacecraft, or potentially do some additional docking past the initial mission.”
This inaugural Otter mission follows up on two orbital flight tests involving smaller-scale Otter Pup prototypes. The first test fell short of linking up with its target satellite but was able to <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2024/starfish-satellite-rendezvous-d-orbit/">demonstrate Starfish’s satellite-tracking system</a>. The second Otter Pup <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2025/spacex-starfish-space-otter-satellite-docking-test/">went into orbit last year</a> and is currently closing in on its target.
Starfish Space is already preparing for future Otter missions — including a <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/starfish-space-satellite-disposal-space-development-agency/">satellite disposal job</a> for the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency, two commercial satellite servicing missions in geostationary Earth orbit, and <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/starfish-space-54-5m-space-force/">two servicing missions for the U.S. Space Force</a>.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="1163" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/otter-falcon-1260x1163.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955731" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/otter-falcon-1260x1163.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/otter-falcon-767x708.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/otter-falcon.jpg 1398w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The blue circle highlights the placement of Starfish Space’s Otter spacecraft inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage prior to launch. (Credit: Starfish Space / SpaceX)</figcaption></figure>
More about Transporter-18’s payloads:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Cowboy Space’s Reason-1 satellite is designed to <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261001398158/en/Cowboy-Space-Launches-Reason-1-to-Demonstrate-First-Laser-Power-Beaming-From-Orbit-to-Earth">collect solar energy in space</a> and transmit it to a ground receiver with a kilowatt-class laser, advancing technologies central to the company’s planned orbital data centers. <a href="https://www.cowboyspace.com/">Cowboy Space</a>, formerly known as Aetherflux, is headquartered in California but is setting up <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/cowboy-space-kent-orbital-data-centers/">a 291,035-square-foot manufacturing facility in Kent, Wash</a>.</li>
<li>Google’s Project Suncatcher M1 prototype, built by Planet Labs, will test the tensor processing units that Google plans to use for its orbital AI data-center constellation. The prototype is “designed to gather in-orbit data on how our TPUs handle the physical stress of spaceflight and the radiation and thermal extremes of space,” <a href="https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-research/google-project-suncatcher-facts/">Google said in a blog post</a>.</li>
<li>Star Catcher’s Protostar satellite will be involved in an <a href="https://www.star-catcher.com/news/protostar-announcement">experiment to beam power</a> from the main spacecraft to a smaller deployable satellite equipped with off-the-shelf solar panels. The Protostar mission is meant to blaze a trail for the orbital power grid that <a href="https://www.star-catcher.com/">Star Catcher</a> hopes to create.</li>
<li>The SPRITE CubeSat is part of a $4 million mission funded by NASA and led by the University of Colorado that will study how stars and galaxies shaped the evolution of the early universe. The satellite is equipped with a far-ultraviolet imaging spectrograph. SPRITE stands for <a href="https://lasp.colorado.edu/2026/09/29/sprite-mission-set-to-launch/">Supernova Remnants and Proxies for Reionization Testbed Experiment</a>.</li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">955698</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>Startup Spotlight: Porchlight uses AI to help foster human connection in senior care</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/startup-spotlight-porchlight-uses-ai-to-help-foster-human-connection-in-senior-care/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 19:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kurt Schlosser]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Startup Spotlight]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Startups]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[assisted living]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[eldercare technology]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[memory care]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Porchlight]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955186</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="845" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/patrick-donahue-headshot-1260x845.png" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/patrick-donahue-headshot-1260x845.png 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/patrick-donahue-headshot-768x515.png 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/patrick-donahue-headshot-1536x1031.png 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/patrick-donahue-headshot.png 2000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> With the tap of a single button on a device, a resident hears a prompt, records their memories, and lets the platform automatically generate a concise "Know Your Resident" briefing for care staff, as well as a private audio feed for family members. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/startup-spotlight-porchlight-uses-ai-to-help-foster-human-connection-in-senior-care/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="2000" height="1342" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/patrick-donahue-headshot.png" alt="" class="wp-image-955472" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/patrick-donahue-headshot.png 2000w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/patrick-donahue-headshot-1260x845.png 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/patrick-donahue-headshot-768x515.png 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/patrick-donahue-headshot-1536x1031.png 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Porchlight founder Patrick Donahue’s parents worked in medicine, and hospice care was part of his family’s life. (Photo courtesy of Donahue)</figcaption></figure>
When a new caregiver walks into an assisted living room for a shift, they usually hold a chart with a room number and a list of medical needs — and almost no background about the human being in the bed. They might be caring for a former machinist, a retired dancer, or a veteran, but in the rush of daily care, those life stories are often left behind.
Seattle-area software engineer <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-donahue-26947b411/">Patrick Donahue</a> wants to bridge that gap. 

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Startup Spotlight
<h3 class="gw-hero" style="font-size:22px;font-weight:700;line-height:1.2;color:#1a1a1a;margin:0 0 4px 0;">Porchlight</h3>
Patrick Donahue, Founder
Founded 2026 · Seattle area
<ul class="gw-facts" style="list-style:none;padding:16px 0 0 0;margin:0;border-top:1px solid #eee;">
<li style="margin:0 0 14px 0;padding:0;">
Funding raised
None. Bootstrapped.
</li>
<li style="margin:0 0 14px 0;padding:0;">
Employees
1 (me)
</li>
<li style="margin:0 0 14px 0;padding:0;">
Favorite AI tool
Claude
</li>
<li style="margin:0 0 14px 0;padding:0;">
Coffee order
Drip coffee, black
</li>
<li style="margin:0 0 14px 0;padding:0;">
What are you reading
"I’m Still Here" by John Zeisel, about connecting with people living with dementia
</li>
<li style="margin:0 0 14px 0;padding:0;">
What are you listening to
The StoryCorps podcast
</li>
<li style="margin:0 0 0 0;padding:0;">
Entrepreneurial idol
Dave Isay, who started StoryCorps. He proved that ordinary people telling their own stories is worth building something around.
</li>
</ul>
</aside>
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Donahue is the founder and sole builder of <a href="https://porchlight.ing/">Porchlight</a>, a newly launched life-story and reminiscence tool designed for assisted living and memory care communities. With the tap of a single button on a device, a resident hears a prompt, records their memories, and lets the platform automatically generate a concise “Know Your Resident” briefing for care staff, as well as a private audio feed for family members.
The goal is to give busy aides immediate context on a resident’s history, turning routine care into meaningful human connection.
The project stems from Donahue’s own history — both as a veteran backend developer who spent years scaling web platforms and as the son of medical professionals exposed to hospice care. Seeing how easily personal histories disappear without deliberate recording, he set out to build a tool that makes daily storytelling effortless for residents and care teams alike.
Donahue shared his inspiration, the realities of early-stage software development, and the power of asking the right questions is this edition of GeekWire’s Startup Spotlight.
In 50 words or less, what’s your elevator pitch?
Porchlight is a life-story tool for assisted living and memory care. A resident taps one button, hears a question, and talks about their life. Porchlight turns the answers into a briefing so every caregiver knows the person in the room, and a private page where family can listen and reply.
What problem are you obsessed with solving?
The first shift. The aide walking into a room tonight often knows a room number and a care plan and nothing else. The resident might have been a machinist, a dancer, a veteran, and nobody has had time to find out.
It’s personal for me. Both of my parents worked in medicine, and hospice care was part of our family’s life. When my father died, I understood how much of a person’s story goes with them unless someone asks while there’s still time. I’ve also kept a journal my whole life, and I know what putting your life into words does for you. Porchlight is the tool I wish had existed.
What surprised you after talking to customers?
I don’t have paying customers yet, and I’ve had fewer conversations with activity directors than I’d like. The surprise in the ones I have had: the first question wasn’t about the technology. It was what does it cost, and who has time to set it up. That pushed me to make setup a printed QR card and nothing else, and to make it free while communities try it.
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</button><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">An example of a ” Know Your Resident” briefing on Porchlight contains details on the people who matter to the patient and what lights him up, written from his own voice recordings. (Porchlight Image) </figcaption></figure>
How has AI changed the way you build your company?
It changed what’s possible. Transcription can now handle older voices, and language models can turn an hour of rambling memories into a one-page briefing or a family highlight. Our whole vision is to use that to strengthen human connection, never to replace it. There are three ways it does that:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>With family. The family relay lets a resident’s children and grandchildren hear their stories and reply in their own voices.</li>
<li>With neighbors. A community can build events and a newsletter around the stories residents are telling.</li>
<li>With the care team. Staff know the person, not just the chart.</li>
</ul>
What we’re after is a better quality of life, more dignity, and a way for residents to pass their wisdom on to the people they love. The resident talks and real people listen. Nothing in it pretends to be a person.
On the build side, I’ve spent ten years as a software engineer helping startups scale. AI coding tools are the reason a bootstrapped company can build and run something this careful at this pace.
What’s one thing people misunderstand about your startup?
People hear “AI for seniors” and picture a companion chatbot, or a product only for people who are losing their memory. It’s neither. Reminiscence, meaning simply inviting someone to talk about their own life, is one of the oldest and most loved practices in eldercare, and it works for anyone with a life behind them. Porchlight makes it possible to do every day and keep what gets said. It isn’t a medical or therapy product, and I don’t claim it is.
What was the toughest decision you made in the past year?
Pulling claims off my own website. When I checked the marketing against the code, some of it described features that were planned, not built. Cutting that felt like making the product look smaller right when I needed it to look bigger. But I’m asking communities to trust me with their residents’ stories, so the copy has to match what the software actually does.
What’s one piece of advice for other entrepreneurs?
Make sure what you say matches what you’ve built. It’s tempting to describe the version in your head. Early on, trust is most of what you have to sell, and it’s easy to spend it without noticing.
We’ll know our company has made it when…
A new aide walks into a room on their first day, asks a resident about the dance where he met his wife, and watches him light up. And the community pays for Porchlight because that moment is worth it to them.
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">955186</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>Tech Moves: Amazon GM departs for Scala; Flyhomes appoints 3 leaders; Heinz Marketing names COO</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/tech-moves-amazon-gm-departs-for-scala-flyhomes-appoints-3-leaders-heinz-marketing-names-coo/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 17:25:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa Stiffler]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Startups]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Tech Moves]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Brandon Middaugh]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[flyhomes]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[goodwill]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Heinz Marketing]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[LogicGate]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Nimbus Aerospace]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[scala]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Untamed Intelligence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[UW Climate Risk Lab]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955587</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="400" height="400" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Asic-Demberel.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Asic-Demberel.jpg 400w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Asic-Demberel-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Asic-Demberel-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Asic-Demberel-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Asic-Demberel-200x200.jpg 200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px"> Amazon general manager departs to become CTO of Scala; Flyhomes appoints three leaders; and Heinz Marketing names new COO/president. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/tech-moves-amazon-gm-departs-for-scala-flyhomes-appoints-3-leaders-heinz-marketing-names-coo/">Read More</a>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="400" height="400" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Asic-Demberel.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955654" style="width:300px;height:auto" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Asic-Demberel.jpg 400w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Asic-Demberel-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Asic-Demberel-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Asic-Demberel-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Asic-Demberel-200x200.jpg 200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Asic Demberel. (LinkedIn Photo)</figcaption></figure>
</div>
Leadership changes at Bellevue, Wash.-based companies are dominating the news in this week’s Tech Moves, plus some notable items in neighboring Redmond. 
— Former Amazon leader <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/asicdemberel/">Asic Demberel</a> is now chief technology officer for <a href="https://scala.ai/">Scala</a>, a Bellevue-based startup offering an AI operating system for contact centers and customer operations. Demberel was with Amazon for 15 years, first working on fraud technology for AWS and leaving the company as general manager and engineering leader for Amazon Pharmacy Kiosks.
“You don’t walk away from 15 years at Amazon for an incremental challenge. It takes an exceptionally complex problem and an opportunity so massive that you simply can’t look away,” Demberel <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7510807691351543808/">said </a>of his decision to leave. 
Scala was founded by Smartsheet CEO Rajeev Singh and former Accolade executive Ardie Sameti. It raised an <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/ai-startup-founded-by-ex-accolade-leaders-lands-8-5m-from-seattle-vcs-to-rethink-contact-center-operations/">$8.5 million seed round</a> in February. 
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="400" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Flyhomes-leadership-1260x400.png" alt="" class="wp-image-955663" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Flyhomes-leadership-1260x400.png 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Flyhomes-leadership-768x244.png 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Flyhomes-leadership.png 1344w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">New Flyhomes leadership, from left: Tyler Moynihan, Nihit Nirmal and Wendy Tieu. (Flyhomes Photos)</figcaption></figure>
— <a href="https://flyhomes.com/">Flyhomes</a>, a Bellevue-based company providing financial tools for home buying and selling, has named three leadership hires:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylermoynihan/">Tyler Moynihan</a> has been named vice president of business development. He most recently held a leadership role at Opendoor, following nearly 12 years at Zillow that ended in 2023. While at Zillow, Moynihan helped lead major deals including the purchase of ShowingTime and a partnership with Opendoor.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nihitnirmal/">Nihit Nirmal</a> has joined as VP of product. Nirmal, who is based in Singapore, launched an AI agent startup to handle corporate conversations and worked in multiple fintech leadership roles.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendytieu/">Wendy Tieu</a> has rejoined Flyhomes as director of partner enablement. Los Angeles-based Tieu left the company in 2024 after seven years, taking leadership roles at MoeGo and Whatnot.</li>
</ul>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="411" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Heinz-leadership-1260x411.png" alt="" class="wp-image-955665" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Heinz-leadership-1260x411.png 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Heinz-leadership-768x251.png 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Heinz-leadership.png 1358w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Heinz Marketing leadership, from left: Jenn Steele, COO and president; CEO Matt Heinz; and Maria Geokezas, retiring COO. (LinkedIn Photos)</figcaption></figure>
— <a href="https://www.heinzmarketing.com/">Heinz Marketing</a>, a Redmond, Wash.-based B2B marketing and consulting firm, is shaking up its leadership. The company has named <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennsteele">Jenn Steele</a> as its chief operating officer and president, while <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattheinz/">Matt Heinz</a>, who started the business 18 years ago, is moving from president to CEO.
Steele joins Heinz Marketing from Seattle’s SoundGTM, which she co-founded and led. She has held executive roles at numerous Seattle-area companies including CEO of Kissmetrics and top marketing and revenue positions elsewhere.
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mgeokezas">Maria Geokezas</a> is retiring as COO after nearly 17 years with the firm. The company credits her leadership with shaping the organization and said “the whole team is deeply grateful and will miss her.”
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="412" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Untamed-Intelligence-leaders-1260x412.png" alt="" class="wp-image-955664" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Untamed-Intelligence-leaders-1260x412.png 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Untamed-Intelligence-leaders-768x251.png 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Untamed-Intelligence-leaders.png 1390w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Untamed Intelligence co-founders, from left: Ludovic Fourrage, Paul LeBlanc and Rachel Koblic. (LinkedIn Photos)</figcaption></figure>
— <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ludovicfourrage/">Ludovic Fourrage</a> announced that he is co-founder and chief AI officer for <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/untamed-intelligence/">Untamed Intelligence</a>, a Bellevue startup launched in May. 
“Untamed Intelligence is an innovation studio dedicated to advancing human possibility. We begin by asking what human beings need to flourish and then explore how technology and learning science might help us get there,” the company said on LinkedIn.
Fourrage was previously senior program officer for the Gates Foundation. Before that, he was with Microsoft for more than 13 years, working in certification and learning leadership roles. Fourrage is also the founder of Nucamp Coding Bootcamp, serving as board chairman of the company.
The startup’s other co-founders are CEO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-j-leblanc-6a17749/">Paul LeBlanc</a> and Chief Product Officer <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rkoblic/">Rachel Koblic</a>. LeBlanc was president of Southern New Hampshire University for 21 years until 2024. Koblic has her own learning-focused consultancy and was chief learning officer for Matter and Space.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="897" height="437" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/LogicGate-Bellevue-leadership.png" alt="" class="wp-image-955666" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/LogicGate-Bellevue-leadership.png 897w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/LogicGate-Bellevue-leadership-768x374.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">LogicGate hires, from left: Mike Zinne and Ram Venkat. (LinkedIn Photos)</figcaption></figure>
— <a href="https://www.logicgate.ai/">LogicGate</a>, a Chicago company offering a no-code governance, risk and compliance platform, has named two Bellevue-based leaders:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mzinne?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAAAaKs0BlvxQQ5N5Eha7jIBvKbZl3KjDyLw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Zinne</a> has joined as chief customer officer, after working at companies including Quiq, Outreach and Zendesk.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ram-venkat/?isSelfProfile=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ram Venkat</a> has taken the role of senior vice president of product, joining from Highspot. He also worked at Amazon and T-Mobile.</li>
</ul>
— The <a href="https://www.technology-alliance.com/">Technology Alliance</a> has appointed <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewmedlin">Matt Medlin</a>, a longtime CPA with a focus on venture-backed companies, chair of its board of directors. Two current board members have taken new roles, with Helion’s <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessiebarton/">Jessie Thomas</a> becoming vice chair and EY’s <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/alissa-garner-byersdorfer/">Alissa Garner Byersdorfer</a> serving as treasurer.
The <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/uw-climate-risk-lab/">UW Climate Risk Lab</a> has named two new members to its leadership council:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonmiddaugh/">Brandon Middaugh</a>, general manager of Microsoft’s sustainable markets and Climate Innovation Fund</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/petewhitney/">Peter Whitney</a>, Amazon Web Services’ business development manager for AI and modern data strategy, for the Americas</li>
</ul>
— Seattle-based <a href="https://www.nimbusaerospace.com/">Nimbus Aerospace</a>, which recently <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/nimbus-aerospace-tests-quarter-scale-prototype-in-oregon-as-hybrid-electric-race-ramps-up/">completed a test flight</a> of its quarter-scale prototype, has added two advisory board members:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-p-58687521/">Frank Paskiewicz</a>, an aviation regulatory expert who served with the Federal Aviation Administration for 28 years, leaving as deputy director of the Aircraft Certification Service</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheikh-rabbi-8884b856/">Sheikh Rabbi</a>, CEO and co-founder of Magnetic Motion, a startup developing drop-in hybrid-electric propulsion systems for climate-friendly aircraft</li>
</ul>
— <a href="https://evergreengoodwill.org/">Evergreen Goodwill</a> has promoted <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/derieontaysparks">Derieontay Sparks</a> to chief revenue officer, overseeing operations that support the nonprofit’s tuition-free education and workforce development programs.
— And in case you missed it, two top Microsoft executives shared this week that they’re leaving the Redmond tech giant: Peter Lee, the former head of Microsoft Research, and Ryan Roslansky, Microsoft executive vice president overseeing both LinkedIn and Microsoft Office. See the <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/microsoft-executives-peter-lee-president-of-microsoft-science-and-evp-ryan-roslansky-to-depart/">whole story here</a>.

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<title>Longtime Microsoft research leader Peter Lee and former LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky to depart</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/microsoft-executives-peter-lee-president-of-microsoft-science-and-evp-ryan-roslansky-to-depart/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 16:35:41 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa Stiffler]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Tech Moves]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[LinkedIn]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Microsoft Research]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Peter Lee]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Ryan Roslansky]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955636</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="973" height="490" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lee-and-Roslansky.png" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lee-and-Roslansky.png 973w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lee-and-Roslansky-768x387.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 973px) 100vw, 973px"> Two top Microsoft executives shared this week that they're leaving the Redmond, Wash., tech giant: Peter Lee, the former head of Microsoft Research, and Ryan Roslansky, Microsoft executive vice president overseeing both LinkedIn and Microsoft Office. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/microsoft-executives-peter-lee-president-of-microsoft-science-and-evp-ryan-roslansky-to-depart/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="973" height="490" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lee-and-Roslansky.png" alt="" class="wp-image-955640" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lee-and-Roslansky.png 973w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lee-and-Roslansky-768x387.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 973px) 100vw, 973px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Peter Lee, left, and Ryan Roslansky both shared news this week that they’re leaving Microsoft. (LinkedIn Photos)</figcaption></figure>
Two top Microsoft executives announced this week that they’re leaving the Redmond, Wash., tech giant:
— <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterlee4/">Peter Lee</a>, the former head of <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/microsoftresearch/">Microsoft Research</a> and most recently president of Microsoft Science, is resigning after more than 16 years.
“As for what I’ll be doing next, what I can say at this point is that it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join an elite team, fulfilling a dream I’ve had since childhood. It’s a major detour from what I’ve been doing over the past 2+ decades,” Lee <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peterlee4_for-the-past-16-years-im-pretty-sure-ive-share-7511167167451783168-ZaJZ/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAAmZBMB4ZPLFVeakJlucqgeZbv9Gl1WRKU">said on LinkedIn</a>.
At the same time, he said he would continue working with healthcare organizations including the Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine and Seattle Children’s.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="945" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/peterleemustang-1260x945.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-900813" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/peterleemustang-1260x945.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/peterleemustang-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/peterleemustang-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/peterleemustang-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Peter Lee, right, in the Moment Motors shop with founder Marc Davis, left, and builder Brandon Beaman, in Austin, Texas. Moment is converting Lee’s 1964 Mustang to electric. (Photo courtesy of Peter Lee)</figcaption></figure>
Before joining Microsoft, Lee spent 22 years at Carnegie Mellon University, where he served as head of its Computer Science Department. He was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in health and life sciences in 2024.
As a hobby, Lee enjoys converting classic cars into electric vehicles, including a replica 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder and a 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback.
— <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanroslansky">Ryan Roslansky</a> is leaving Microsoft after nearly 18 years with LinkedIn and Microsoft. Last year, he was promoted from CEO of LinkedIn to Microsoft executive vice president overseeing both LinkedIn and Microsoft Office. In April, the company <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/linkedin-ceo-change-daniel-shapero-takes-the-helm-as-ryan-roslansky-broadens-microsoft-role/">named Daniel Shapero</a> the new LinkedIn CEO.
Roslansky <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/note-thanks-ryan-roslansky-wietc/">thanked</a> CEO Satya Nadella, noting that when Microsoft acquired LinkedIn a decade ago, “you gave us room to build, and then trusted many of us with a lot more. I’ve learned more from you than I can fit in an email, and I’m grateful for the friendship that came with it.”
Nadella in turn praised Roslansky, saying on the company blog, “I’ve always appreciated his clarity of thinking and I’m deeply grateful for everything Ryan has built, for the leaders and teams he has developed, and for his friendship and counsel.”
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="839" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Ryan_and_Dan.jpg.original-1260x839-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955649" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Ryan_and_Dan.jpg.original-1260x839-1.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Ryan_and_Dan.jpg.original-1260x839-1-768x511.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">LinkedIn CEO Daniel Shapero, left, and Ryan Roslansky, EVP of LinkedIn and Microsoft Office, at LinkedIn headquarters. (LinkedIn Photo)</figcaption></figure>
Roslansky joined LinkedIn in 2009 as chief product officer and became CEO in 2020. To continue in his role as Microsoft EVP would require relocating his family from the San Francisco Bay Area to the company’s Redmond headquarters.
“But my life and my family’s life are here in the Bay Area,” he said, adding, “The work now goes to leaders who are set up to take it further. I can’t wait to see what they do with it.” 
Roslansky will leave the company at the end of the year.
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<title>New JPMorganChase Seattle tech leader: How AI is changing what the bank looks for in engineers</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/new-jpmorganchase-seattle-tech-leader-how-ai-is-changing-what-the-bank-looks-for-in-engineers/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:20:31 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Todd Bishop]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[GitHub Copilot]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[JPMorgan Chase]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Kristine Baker]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Lori Beer]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Mamtha Banerjee]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Ture Armas]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955299</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713892-1260x841.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713892-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713892-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713892-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713892-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Ture Armas, the new leader of JPMorganChase's Seattle Tech Center, says AI is pushing engineers to work more closely with the business, changing how the bank hires. The center has more than 400 people and about 50 openings in AI, cloud and cybersecurity. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/new-jpmorganchase-seattle-tech-leader-how-ai-is-changing-what-the-bank-looks-for-in-engineers/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713892-1260x841.jpg" alt="Ture Armas and Kristine Baker sit side by side on a dark gray couch in front of a row of leafy green plants in an office lounge." class="wp-image-955614" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713892-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713892-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713892-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713892-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Ture Armas, left, JPMorganChase’s CTO and head of Commercial Bank Lending Technology and the new leader of its Seattle Tech Center, and Kristine Baker, a JPMorganChase vice president who manages the Seattle Tech Center. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)</figcaption></figure>
<a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ture-armas-b3b63b/">Ture Armas</a> has been encouraging JPMorganChase engineers, from Seattle to India, to rethink their approach to the job as AI changes how software gets built.
Armas, the new leader of the bank’s Seattle Tech Center, said in an interview that engineers will need to work more closely with the business, model its problems and communicate clearly, rather than waiting for a business analyst to hand them fully written requirements.
“Things that we in the past referred to as soft skills, they are now the hard skills,” Armas said, explaining that it’s changing how the bank hires. “You do need to interview for that.”
Lori Beer, JPMorganChase’s global chief information officer, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/jpmorgan-chase-bets-on-seattle-to-build-its-ai-control-layer/">named Armas to the Seattle role</a> in July. He succeeded Mamtha Banerjee, who left the bank in March. Armas also continues in his day job as CTO and head of Commercial Bank Lending Technology.
How the job is changing: In his view, the traditional handoff from a business analyst, with wireframes and acceptance tests spelled out, is giving way to spec-driven development, in which engineers write the specifications that AI coding tools work from.
That puts a premium on skills such as modeling the business domain and working directly with business teams, much like the forward-deployed engineers that have become common in the AI industry. “We are moving towards that,” he said.
He gave the same advice to his teams in India on a recent visit, telling them to get embedded in the business and “fall in love with the business problem.”
Most developers at the Seattle center use GitHub Copilot, Armas said, while Anthropic’s Claude Code is in use on smaller teams.
On <a href="https://www.jpmorganchase.com/content/dam/jpmc/jpmorgan-chase-and-co/investor-relations/documents/quarterly-earnings/2026/2nd-quarter/2Q26-earnings-transcript.pdf">the bank’s July 14 earnings call</a>, CEO Jamie Dimon said JPMorganChase has almost 1,000 AI use cases, about 50 of them significant, in areas including risk, fraud, marketing and document reading. He said the bank has “had discrete areas where we did reduce jobs by 30% or 40%,” and that “most of those people were offered jobs elsewhere.”
“We are preparing to make sure we can retrain our people,” Dimon said, predicting the change will be faster and more dramatic than past waves of automation.
A bigger footprint: The Seattle Tech Center has more than 400 people and about 50 open positions, mostly in AI, cloud and cybersecurity, said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristineabaker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kristine Baker</a>, a JPMorganChase vice president who manages the Seattle Tech Center.
The team finished moving this summer into expanded space in the downtown Seattle skyscraper now called the <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-skyscraper-renamed-to-jpmorganchase-center-as-banking-giant-expands-footprint/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JPMorganChase Center</a>, formerly the Russell Investments Center. The bank occupies five floors in the building. Tech fills all of the 14th floor, the largest, with more technologists on two other floors.
The move brings the tech center back to where it started.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="854" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/jpmc-team-1260x854.jpg" alt="Six JPMorganChase Seattle Tech Center leaders stand on a downtown Seattle sidewalk in front of a pillar with a sign that reads "JPMorganChase Center."" class="wp-image-955615" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/jpmc-team-1260x854.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/jpmc-team-767x520.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/jpmc-team-1536x1041.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/jpmc-team-2048x1388.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">From left: Margaret Watson, Tracy Jacobs, Kristine Baker, Rob Muszkiewicz, Ture Armas and Kamie Robinson of JPMorganChase’s Seattle Tech Center leadership team, outside the JPMorganChase Center in downtown Seattle. (JPMorganChase Photo)</figcaption></figure>
JPMorganChase opened the Seattle center in 2018 on a single floor of what was then the Russell Investments Center, led by Todd Hrycenko, a security executive who joined the bank from Salesforce. A year later, with about 100 people, it <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.geekwire.com/2019/jpmorgan-chase-expands-seattle-engineering-center-100-people-plans-add-hundreds/">signed a lease</a> at 1201 Third Ave., the former Washington Mutual Tower across the street.
The center grew to more than <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.geekwire.com/2023/jpmorgan-chases-seattle-engineering-hub-tops-320-people-capitalizing-on-tech-industry-cooldown/">320 people</a> by 2023 under Rao Lakkakula, and to 380 by early 2025, when <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.geekwire.com/2025/jpmorgan-chase-names-new-seattle-tech-center-leader-as-engineering-hub-grows-to-380-people/">Banerjee took over</a> after Lakkakula left for Microsoft.
Site leadership: Armas said he spends about 95% of his time on his lending technology job, and he credited Baker with running the tech center day to day. The lead role rotates among senior executives, and Baker has provided continuity through the changes in leadership.
“She shepherds each one of us along,” Armas said.
Baker joined JPMorganChase in 2023 from Amazon Web Services, where she led a program to build AWS teams at new U.S. locations, after 14 years at Western Washington University. She also works with the bank’s global program of about two dozen tech centers.
Armas, whose first name is pronounced too-RAY, grew up in British Columbia and studied computer science at the University of British Columbia. He worked in New York for about 18 years before moving to Seattle in 2016 to lead technology for the bank’s commercial real estate lending business, which has deep roots in Washington Mutual’s Seattle operations.
Seattle’s talent pool: Armas cited Seattle’s depth of talent in AI, cloud and cybersecurity engineering — noting, for example, that vets from Amazon and other local tech companies have moved into senior technology roles at the bank.
Beer, the bank’s CIO, said in a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/jpmorgan-chase-bets-on-seattle-to-build-its-ai-control-layer/">July interview</a> that Seattle is one of the key hubs for a new AI software infrastructure team to help JPMC manage AI workloads across its own data centers and outside cloud providers, with the goals of controlling costs and avoiding lock-in to any one AI vendor.
The competition for engineers has eased since the hiring rush of the pandemic years. The bank is now getting “lots of responses to every position,” Armas said.
Asked about Seattle’s JumpStart payroll tax, which other business leaders have said discourages hiring in the city, Armas said there are no plans to change course from where the bank is now, in downtown Seattle.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713894-1260x841.jpg" alt="An open office floor with rows of desks with dual monitors, low gray dividers and planters, with glass-walled meeting rooms along the back." class="wp-image-955617" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713894-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713894-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713894-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/P1713894-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Tech fills all of the 14th floor of the JPMorganChase Center, the largest of the bank’s five floors in the building. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)</figcaption></figure>
Inside the office: The new tech floor in the JPMorganChase Center has become a draw for the rest of the bank. Armas said bankers regularly come up to the 14th floor, and when he asked some of them why, they told him the breakout room is the best in the building.
Desks on the floor aren’t assigned. They’re grouped into “neighborhoods” by line of business, including one for the bank’s AI and data organization, with lockers for personal belongings. Small rooms with doors line the floor for private calls, white noise keeps the open areas quiet, and windows look out over the city. There’s a prayer room and a mother’s room.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="945" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/20260924_144812-1260x945.jpg" alt="A dimly lit game room with a ping-pong table in the foreground, a pool table behind it and a lighted neon sign on the back wall." class="wp-image-955616" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/20260924_144812-1260x945.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/20260924_144812-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/20260924_144812-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/20260924_144812-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The game room at JPMorganChase’s Seattle Tech Center. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)</figcaption></figure>
A game room with a ping-pong table sits behind an easy-to-miss door. Some employees have used it for DJ sessions, strobe lights included.
What’s next: The site lead role typically rotates every couple of years. Armas, who has been part of the conversations about a Seattle tech center since he arrived in 2016, said his goal over his tenure is to connect the center’s engineers with teams across the bank and the business problems the bank needs to solve.
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<title>Kindle gets a clicker: Amazon unveils $35 page-turning remote and refreshes its e-reader lineup</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/kindle-gets-a-clicker-amazon-unveils-35-page-turning-remote-and-refreshes-its-e-reader-lineup/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 14:26:37 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Todd Bishop]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Chris Green]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Kevin Keith]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Kindle]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Kindle Click]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Kindle Colorsoft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Kindle Paperwhite]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955581</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="941" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Kindle-Click_Lifestyle-01-1260x941.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Kindle-Click_Lifestyle-01-1260x941.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Kindle-Click_Lifestyle-01-767x573.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Kindle-Click_Lifestyle-01-1536x1147.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Kindle-Click_Lifestyle-01-2048x1529.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Amazon unveiled the Kindle Click, a $34.99 Bluetooth remote for turning pages, alongside a redesigned lineup of Kindle e-readers with flush screens, optional aluminum housings and user-replaceable batteries. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/kindle-gets-a-clicker-amazon-unveils-35-page-turning-remote-and-refreshes-its-e-reader-lineup/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="941" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Kindle-Click_Lifestyle-01-1260x941.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955592" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Kindle-Click_Lifestyle-01-1260x941.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Kindle-Click_Lifestyle-01-767x573.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Kindle-Click_Lifestyle-01-1536x1147.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Kindle-Click_Lifestyle-01-2048x1529.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Amazon’s $34.99 Kindle Click remote, shown with the new base Kindle in a purple shade Amazon calls “ube.” (Amazon Photo)</figcaption></figure>
Amazon’s Kindle is joining the ranks of TVs and garage doors.
The company on Thursday unveiled the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZ5D64F8">Kindle Click</a>, a $34.99 Bluetooth remote control that lets readers prop up their e-readers and turn pages without holding or reaching for them. It’s the first official Kindle remote, debuting alongside <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/new-kindle-lineup-2026">a redesigned lineup of Kindle e-readers</a>. 
Amazon says it’s meant for reading under the covers, on a treadmill, or on an airplane tray table. It’s available for preorder and ships Oct. 28. It recharges over USB-C, includes side buttons for adjusting brightness, and works with Kindles released in 2024 or later.
The company cited BookTok as an inspiration, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-01/amazon-debuts-2026-kindles-6-inch-kindle-paperwhite-colorsoft">Bloomberg reported</a>, a reference to the community of readers on TikTok who post book recommendations, reviews and their reading setups. Kindle fans there have been showing off third-party clickers for years.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="709" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/kindle-page-turn-cover-horizontal-1260x709.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955597" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/kindle-page-turn-cover-horizontal-1260x709.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/kindle-page-turn-cover-horizontal-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/kindle-page-turn-cover-horizontal-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/kindle-page-turn-cover-horizontal-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Amazon’s new $79.99 Page-Turn Cover adds physical buttons to the Kindle Paperwhite and Colorsoft Signature Editions. (Amazon Photo)</figcaption></figure>
Amazon is also bringing back physical page-turn buttons, which disappeared when the company <a href="https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/the-kindle-oasis-will-be-discontinued-as-amazon-says-goodbye-to-page-turn-buttons-213538052.html">discontinued the Kindle Oasis</a> in 2024. This time they come in a separate <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H4WGJMPD">$79.99 magnetic cover</a>, which works only with the new Signature Edition versions of the Paperwhite and Colorsoft.
The new Kindles have screens that sit flush with the edges, colors that wrap around to the front, and optional aluminum housings. They also have user-replaceable batteries to comply with <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1542/oj">European Union rules</a>, Amazon told <a href="https://www.theverge.com/tech/1002811/amazon-kindle-paperwhite-colorsoft">The Verge</a>.
The base <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FXJ8VZ39">Kindle</a> starts at $149.99, or <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FZDCHT4J">$189.99 in aluminum</a>. The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GHTD6Q5C">Paperwhite</a> starts at $199.99 and the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GHT5P56N">Colorsoft</a> at $289.99, with Signature Editions at <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GV621HD7">$249.99</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GV5WJH35">$319.99</a>. Those prices match what Amazon has charged since August, when it <a href="https://fortune.com/2026/08/21/exclusive-amazon-quietly-hiked-prices-echo-fire-tv-kindle-eero-significant-increases-memory-costs/">raised Kindle prices by $40 to $50</a>, citing memory and storage costs. The base Kindle is available now. The Paperwhite and Colorsoft ship Oct. 28.
Amazon doesn’t disclose financial results or unit sales for its devices, but Kindle device sales hit their highest point in more than a decade last year, with three straight years of double-digit growth, Kevin Keith, Amazon VP of devices, said at a media preview, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-01/amazon-debuts-2026-kindles-6-inch-kindle-paperwhite-colorsoft">according to Bloomberg</a>.
Chris Green, Amazon VP of industrial design, also told Bloomberg where he’d like to take the design next: “At some point we will get to something more like a credit card that’s all display that you’ll be able to flex with your hand for a page turn.”
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<title>Starcloud’s AI computing payload will get a ride to lunar orbit on Firefly’s space vehicle</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/starcloud-ai-computing-moon-firefly/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 01:14:38 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alan Boyle]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Space]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Artifical intelligence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[data centers]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Firefly Aerospace]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Moon]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Starcloud]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955483</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="709" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260930-firefly-starcloud-1260x709.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="Illustration: Elytra craft in lunar orbit with the moon in background" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260930-firefly-starcloud-1260x709.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260930-firefly-starcloud-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260930-firefly-starcloud-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260930-firefly-starcloud.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Prototype data center scheduled to make the trip to the moon to demonstrate Starcloud's in-space processing capabilities in 2028. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/starcloud-ai-computing-moon-firefly/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="709" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260930-firefly-starcloud-1260x709.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955497" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260930-firefly-starcloud-1260x709.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260930-firefly-starcloud-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260930-firefly-starcloud-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260930-firefly-starcloud.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">An artist’s conception shows Firefly’s Elytra spacecraft in lunar orbit, with Starcloud’s SC-1L data-processing payload highlighted in purple. (Firefly Aerospace Illustration)</figcaption></figure>
Redmond, Wash.-based <a href="https://www.starcloud.com/">Starcloud</a> has signed up to send its artificial intelligence data-processing hardware into lunar orbit on a Firefly Aerospace spacecraft.
Starcloud’s payload, known as SC-1L, will fly on Firefly’s Elytra orbital vehicle during a NASA-supported mission that’s scheduled for launch no earlier than 2028. The mission will demonstrate technologies that Starcloud plans to use on AI data centers in Earth orbit — and around the moon as well.
“Space is the future of data centers, and the moon is the next frontier for that vision,” Ezra Feilden, Starcloud’s co-founder and chief technology officer, <a href="https://fireflyspace.com/news/firefly-aerospace-signs-starcloud-as-commercial-customer-demonstrating-data-center-capabilities-around-the-moon/">said today in a news release</a>. 
Starcloud <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2025/starcloud-power-training-ai-space/">made its mark in Earth orbit last year</a> with Starcloud-1, a satellite equipped with an Nvidia H100 chip. Starcloud-1 successfully trained a large language model called NanoGPT, marking a first for orbital computing. “We successfully validated our ability to run and train AI models on enterprise-grade GPUs in low Earth orbit, and now we’re taking this proven technology to lunar orbit,” Feilden said.
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="How Data Centers in Space Could Change AI" width="800" height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cNI4N3-FcEI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>
Starcloud’s SC-1L payload will be integrated aboard the Elytra vehicle for a <a href="https://fireflyspace.com/missions/blue-ghost-elytra-gruithuisen-domes/">mission aimed at delivering Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander</a> to a lunar region known as <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/resource/a-lunar-mystery-the-gruithuisen-domes/">the Gruithuisen Domes</a>. After the lander separates from Elytra and descends to the surface, the orbiting vehicle will serve as a data relay for Blue Ghost.
The data-processing demonstration begins when the Blue Ghost mission ends. SC-1L will ingest data from Elytra’s <a href="https://fireflyspace.com/solux/">onboard Solux vision system</a>, execute high-performance AI computing in orbit and transmit the processed data back to Earth.
The Solux system is designed to serve as an autonomous navigation and tracking tool in space environments where global positioning systems are otherwise unavailable. Firefly expects the Elytra orbiter to operate in lunar orbit for at least five years.
“We’re proud to collaborate with innovative customers like Starcloud and collectively take another step toward establishing the infrastructure that will power a permanent human and robotic presence at the moon,” said Ray Allensworth, Firefly’s vice president of spacecraft.
Elytra will also use high-resolution telescopes and Firefly’s <a href="https://fireflyspace.com/ocula/">Ocula moon imaging service</a> for surface mapping, mineral detection and reconnaissance. Firefly recently <a href="https://fireflyspace.com/news/firefly-aerospace-enables-on-orbit-processing-for-moon-imaging-service-with-nvidia-jetson/">announced a collaboration with Nvidia</a> to process the data for Ocula using Nvidia’s Jetson module.
In August, Starcloud reported <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/starcloud-250m-data-center-satellite-network-nvidia/">raising $250 million in funding</a> to support the creation of a constellation of AI data-center satellites in low Earth orbit, powered by Nvidia’s Space-1 Vera Rubin Module. Starcloud has filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/data-center-space-race-heats-up-as-starcloud-startup-requests-88000-satellites">operate as many as 88,000 satellites</a> as orbital data centers.
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<title>UW moves Global Innovation Exchange program to Microsoft’s campus in rent-free deal</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/uw-moves-global-innovation-exchange-program-to-microsofts-campus-in-rent-free-deal/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 23:50:33 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa Stiffler]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Global Innovation Exchange]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[University of Washington]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955407</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="840" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_3-1260x840.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_3-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_3-2048x1366.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> The University of Washington and Microsoft celebrated the official opening of the Global Innovation Exchange’s new permanent home on the tech giant's campus. Supported by a $42 million in-kind contribution from Microsoft, the rent-free facility embeds UW students and researchers alongside tech industry leaders. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/uw-moves-global-innovation-exchange-program-to-microsofts-campus-in-rent-free-deal/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="840" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_3-1260x840.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955438" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_3-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_3-2048x1366.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The UW’s Global Innovation Exchange program has moved into a new full-time space on the Microsoft campus. (UW Photo)</figcaption></figure>
The University of Washington and Microsoft today celebrated the opening of the permanent home of the <a href="https://gix.uw.edu/">UW’s Global Innovation Exchange (GIX)</a>, an institute supporting tech leaders, on the tech giant’s Redmond, Wash., campus.
GIX is the first UW program to set up full-time operations at Microsoft, whose headquarters are just across Lake Washington from the university’s main campus. The company provided a $42 million in-kind donation to establish the embedded facility.
The UW is leasing the new 48,500-square-foot GIX space in Microsoft’s Building 92 rent-free.
“At a time when AI is transforming how we learn and work, that proximity will create new opportunities for University of Washington students, Microsoft employees, and researchers to learn from one another and accelerate innovation,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement. 
GIX’s mission is to provide interdisciplinary graduate and professional education to tech leaders. It enrolls more than 150 students each year in its Master of Science in Technology Innovation program, which offers in-person and hybrid online options.
“At GIX, we keep people — not technology — as our focus, recognizing that technological change is not an end unto itself. Its value depends on how people use it to create opportunity, strengthen institutions, and contribute to broader social progress,” said Sean Carr, executive director and CEO of GIX. 
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="840" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_13-1260x840.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955469" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_13-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_13-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_13-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_13-2048x1366.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A space inside the new GIX facility on the Microsoft campus. (UW Photo)</figcaption></figure>
The institute opened in 2017 in Bellevue’s Spring District. From then until 2023, Microsoft provided $70 million in endowment support, facility improvements and lease payments. GIX moved to its new Redmond home in July. The space includes classrooms, labs, prototyping and makers space facilities, and a high-tech remote learning studio.
GIX was initially created as a collaboration between <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2017/whats-ahead-historic-uw-china-tech-school-seattle-region-prepares-1st-students/">the UW and Beijing’s Tsinghua University</a> to offer graduate technology degrees for American and Chinese students, with the Chinese research university establishing a physical presence in the U.S. 
It appears the arrangement did not come together as planned. The GIX website notes that students can earn dual master’s degrees, one from the UW and the other from Tsinghua, but the links for Tsinghua are dated. Under its “global experiences” heading, the site lists a two-week immersion program last summer for students from National Taiwan University to study in Seattle.
The announcement of the new facility says GIX participants will have access to “scholars, researchers, technologists, and business professionals from around the world” who are onsite at Microsoft.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="840" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_25-1260x840.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955470" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_25-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_25-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_25-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-GIX-Building_25-2048x1366.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The UW’s GIX facility in Redmond, Wash., includes labs, innovation spaces and classrooms. (UW Photo)</figcaption></figure>
Other GIX partners include T-Mobile, Amazon, Meta, Aigen, Cisco, Mitsubishi, Responsible Innovation Labs, AI2, Vaisala, King County Metro, Sound Transit, and the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory and Urban Freight Lab.
The institute is a self-sustaining unit of the UW and does not receive operational funding from the university or the state. It operates in partnership with the UW’s College of Engineering and Foster School of Business.
The UW and Microsoft said in a release that the arrangement “demonstrates how a public research university can engage deeply with industry without sacrificing its academic independence or public purpose.”

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<title>Seattle Times journalists picket over AI, calling for job protections in contract talks</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-times-journalists-picket-over-ai-calling-for-job-protections-in-contract-talks/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 22:04:42 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Grace Kaste]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Alan Fisco]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Journalism]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[McClatchy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Michele Matassa Flores]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Ryan Blethen]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Seattle Times]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Seattle Times Union]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955444</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="945" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/seattle-times-ai-1260x945.jpeg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/seattle-times-ai-1260x945.jpeg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/seattle-times-ai-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/seattle-times-ai-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/seattle-times-ai-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Members of the Seattle Times Union held a lunchtime picket outside the newspaper's offices Wednesday, calling on the company to guarantee that AI won't replace any newsroom jobs. The company has agreed that AI won't interview sources or write stories, but the union says other roles such as copy editors and photographers aren't protected. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-times-journalists-picket-over-ai-calling-for-job-protections-in-contract-talks/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="945" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/seattle-times-ai-1260x945.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-955446" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/seattle-times-ai-1260x945.jpeg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/seattle-times-ai-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/seattle-times-ai-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/seattle-times-ai-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Seattle Times Union members picket outside the newspaper’s offices on Wednesday. “Honk if you hate AI.” (GeekWire Photo / Grace Kaste)</figcaption></figure>
Members of the <a href="https://www.seattletimesunion.com/">Seattle Times Union</a> held a lunchtime picket outside the newspaper’s offices Wednesday, calling on the company to guarantee that AI won’t replace any newsroom jobs.
The picket comes six months into contract negotiations that the union says are <a href="https://www.seattletimesunion.com/updates/bargaining-update-929-join-our-info-picket">currently stalled</a> over wages and AI use. While the company has agreed to prohibit the use of AI to interview people or write articles, it has declined to extend protections to other newsroom roles, such as photojournalists, copy editors and social media producers, according to the union.
“Management has admitted at the bargaining table that it could use AI to replace jobs,” journalist Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks said in a speech. “All of our members in the newsroom — reporters, photographers, copy editors, page designers, graphic artists, digital producers and more — deserve job security against machines.”
From the start of bargaining, the union says it has called for a contract in which “interviewing sources, writing stories, and all other journalistic and production related functions will be done by humans.” Management has only accepted the interviewing and writing clauses, excluding roles such as copy editors, graphic artists and photojournalists, according to the union.
That worries reporters like Manuel Villa, a data journalist at the Times, who cited the example of copy editors. “There is nothing to say that they wouldn’t be completely replaced,” Villa said. “I trust in them to make my pieces better. I am not sure I trust an AI agent to do that.” 
The Seattle Times Union is part of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, which <a href="https://nwlaborpress.org/2026/08/new-contract-at-five-northwest-newspapers-draws-a-line-on-ai/">won a contract this summer</a> barring McClatchy from using AI to replace staff, decrease pay or reduce working hours at five newspapers in Washington and Idaho. McClatchy laid off 17 journalists at those papers this month as part of nationwide cuts.
Michele Matassa Flores, Seattle Times executive editor, addressed the paper’s use of AI <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/inside-the-times/at-the-seattle-times-humans-not-ai-report-write-and-edit-all-stories/">in a column published Sunday</a>. “The Seattle Times does not publish news stories produced by artificial intelligence. Full stop,” she wrote.
At the same time, Matassa Flores wrote, there are “ways artificial intelligence can help us do our work.” The weekly News Quiz and an audio player that reads stories aloud are the paper’s only reader-facing AI products, she wrote. 
Behind the scenes, she wrote, the newsroom occasionally uses AI to transcribe interviews and analyze large data sets, and it is piloting a program that scans government meeting videos for potential story ideas. Every use of AI in the newsroom needs approval from newsroom leadership, according to the column.
The column quoted Seattle Times Publisher Ryan Blethen telling a reader that “AI should be treated as a tool to aid and assist our journalism, not replace it.” The column did not mention the union or the contract talks.
Seattle Times Co. President and CEO Alan Fisco, in a statement provided to GeekWire, said the company will continue talks with the union over AI issues. 
“We understand the Guild’s concerns regarding the development of AI in the workplace, and especially its potential impact on journalism,” Fisco said in the statement. “To that end, we remain committed to negotiating with the Guild toward mutually acceptable contract language regarding AI use at The Seattle Times.”
The Seattle Times Co. and Newsday <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-times-sues-microsoft-and-openai-alleging-they-trained-their-ai-on-its-journalism/">sued Microsoft and OpenAI</a> on Sept. 4, alleging the companies used their journalism to train AI models without permission. 
The union said at the time that it supported the lawsuit, but that “if the Seattle Times Co. truly cares about the threat AI poses to journalism’s business model, it should protect the workers who produce the copyrighted material at the heart of this case.”
At the picket Wednesday, union members said they were hopeful that the company would come around, citing the broader trend of AI skepticism. A recent union <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/save-seattle-journalism-fair-wages-and-ai-protections-now">petition</a>, calling on the company to pledge not to replace any newsroom workers with AI, has received more than 1,600 signatures from the public.
“We’ve been doing a lot of public outreach, and we’ve been hearing sentiments from the community that they don’t want their local paper to be made with AI,” multiplatform desk editor Brandon Foster said. “It’s nice to know we’re on the same page as our readers.” 
The union says it’s awaiting the company’s response after Tuesday’s bargaining session. The next session is scheduled for Oct. 13.
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<title>UW starts construction on $231.1M chemistry hub set to open in 2029</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/uw-starts-construction-on-231-1m-chemistry-hub-set-to-open-in-2029/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 21:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa Stiffler]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Chemical Sciences Building]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[University of Washington]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955367</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="730" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-chemistry-building-artists-rendition-1260x730.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-chemistry-building-artists-rendition-1260x730.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-chemistry-building-artists-rendition-768x445.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-chemistry-building-artists-rendition-1536x890.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-chemistry-building-artists-rendition-2048x1186.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> The University of Washington broke ground on a $231.1 million Chemical Sciences Building set to open in 2029, featuring 104,500 square feet of state-of-the-art labs for instruction and research in quantum science, sustainable chemistry, and human health. The new five-story facility will replace the old Chemistry Library Building and pave the way for a full renovation of historic Bagley Hall. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/uw-starts-construction-on-231-1m-chemistry-hub-set-to-open-in-2029/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="730" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-chemistry-building-artists-rendition-1260x730.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955399" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-chemistry-building-artists-rendition-1260x730.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-chemistry-building-artists-rendition-768x445.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-chemistry-building-artists-rendition-1536x890.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UW-chemistry-building-artists-rendition-2048x1186.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Artist rendering of the UW’s new Chemical Sciences Building. The design-build team is Skanska and Payette+EHDD. (UW Image)</figcaption></figure>
The University of Washington today marked the groundbreaking of its Chemical Sciences Building, a $231.1 million facility that will provide new laboratories for instruction and research in areas including sustainable chemistry, human health, advanced materials and quantum science.
The five-story, 104,500-square-foot building will replace the Chemistry Library Building, which sits west of Bagley Hall.
The new facility will also allow for a complete renovation of Bagley Hall, the longtime home of the Department of Chemistry. Bagley, which stands alongside the UW’s iconic Drumheller Fountain, was built in 1937.
Funding for construction of the Chemical Sciences Building comes from a $129 million appropriation from Washington state, with the remainder provided by the UW’s College of Arts & Sciences, the UW and private donations. Funding for the Bagley renovation is still being identified, a university spokesperson said. 
The new building is slated to open in 2029.
“The work that happens here will help advance science, strengthen our state and improve lives for generations to come,” said UW President Robert Jones in a statement. 
The UW’s Department of Chemistry, among the largest in the U.S., has about 275 staff and faculty, according to its online directory. At the start of the 2025 academic year, it reported 985 undergraduate majors and 320 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.
The department managed <a href="https://artsci.washington.edu/academics/natural-sciences/chemistry/fact-sheet">$28 million</a> in funding in 2025, including grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, industry and foundations.
UW and state leaders framed the project as bringing economic and academic benefits, including workforce training, industry collaboration and the ability to attract and retain talented students and researchers.
“Washington’s economy is built on innovation,” said Gov. Bob Ferguson, who attended the groundbreaking. “Maintaining our leadership requires a reliable pipeline of skilled, highly educated workers. We’re proud to be an investor in this state-of-the-art new building.”
The design-build team for the project is Skanska and Payette+EHDD. 
The chemistry building will be among the UW’s largest new academic facilities in Seattle since the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building, a 72,000-square-foot College of Engineering facility, opened in the spring of 2025. 
The university had planned to build a 345,000-square-foot building just west of the main campus to house research programs in clean energy, protein design and precision medicine. The Brightwork facility <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2025/uw-pulls-the-plug-on-anchor-research-building-in-planned-seattle-innovation-district/">was scuttled</a> last year.

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<title>Report: Downtown Seattle lost 13,000 jobs in a year, while Bellevue’s tech hub boomed</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/report-downtown-seattle-lost-13000-jobs-in-a-year-while-bellevues-tech-hub-boomed/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 20:33:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[John Cook]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Civic]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Bellevue]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[downtown Seattle]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Downtown Seattle Association]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[JumpStart Tax]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Katie Wilson]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Puget Sound economy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Seattle tech jobs]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955354</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="945" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PXL_20260312_0050372101-1260x945.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PXL_20260312_0050372101-1260x945.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PXL_20260312_0050372101-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PXL_20260312_0050372101-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PXL_20260312_0050372101-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Seattle lost 18,000 jobs between 2024 and 2025—with 70% concentrated downtown—while Bellevue added over 5,300, according to new Downtown Seattle Association data. Amid business claims that the JumpStart payroll tax is driving tech across the lake, Mayor Katie Wilson has moved to freeze tax rates in her new budget to give employers stability amid broader industry shifts. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/report-downtown-seattle-lost-13000-jobs-in-a-year-while-bellevues-tech-hub-boomed/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="945" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PXL_20260312_0050372101-1260x945.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-919000" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PXL_20260312_0050372101-1260x945.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PXL_20260312_0050372101-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PXL_20260312_0050372101-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PXL_20260312_0050372101-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A display at the Downtown Seattle Association’s annual event. (GeekWire Photo / Lisa Stiffler)</figcaption></figure>
Seattle’s economic engine is stalling, and downtown is taking the brunt of the hit.
Between 2024 and 2025, Seattle shed 18,065 total jobs, with a staggering 70% of those losses—13,000 jobs—coming directly from the city’s downtown core, according to a new report released by the Downtown Seattle Association.
In some ways, it’s a tale of two cities. 
While Seattle proper shrank, neighboring Eastside tech hub Bellevue gained 5,375 jobs over the same timeframe, highlighting a shifting center of gravity within the Puget Sound region. 
A lot of that growth in Bellevue, and decline in Seattle is coming from one company: Amazon. 
The online retail and cloud computing powerhouse employed 15,700 workers in Bellevue at the end of 2025, making it the largest employer in Bellevue at 9.85% of the total workforce, according to the city’s <a href="https://bellevuewa.gov/sites/default/files/media/document/dept-finance-asset-management/annual-reports/city-of-bellevue%2C-washington-2025-annual-report.pdf" data-type="link" data-id="https://bellevuewa.gov/sites/default/files/media/document/dept-finance-asset-management/annual-reports/city-of-bellevue%2C-washington-2025-annual-report.pdf">Annual Comprehensive Financial Report</a>. That’s up from just a few hundred employees in Bellevue nearly a decade ago.
Amazon employs about 49,000 people in Seattle proper, though the <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2026/09/28/amazon-bellevue-workforce-expansion.html" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2026/09/28/amazon-bellevue-workforce-expansion.html">Puget Sound Business Journal </a>noted this week that the company has shed office space in downtown Seattle and dramatically slowed employment in the city.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="598" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-30-at-10.01.29-AM-1260x598.png" alt="" class="wp-image-955366" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-30-at-10.01.29-AM-1260x598.png 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-30-at-10.01.29-AM-768x365.png 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-30-at-10.01.29-AM-1536x729.png 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-30-at-10.01.29-AM-2048x972.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A major shift is happening in tech employment as Bellevue’s tech employment grows, while Seattle’s shrinks. (Graphic via the DSA)</figcaption></figure>
Other key findings from the Downtown Seattle Association report:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Tech Leads the Drop: Seattle’s sharpest sector declines were concentrated in Information and Technology, Professional Services, and Construction.</li>
<li>National Lag: Out of the top 30 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, the Puget Sound region ranked 20th in job growth between 2019 and 2025. Total regional nonfarm growth rose just 1.7% over six years, vastly underperforming peer markets like Austin (25.2%), Dallas/Fort Worth (14%), and Nashville (14%).</li>
<li>Stagnant Commuter Foot Traffic: Inbound commuter visits to downtown Seattle remain stuck in the low 60% range compared to 2019 baselines, sliding 38% since the pandemic — a steeper loss than Bellevue (-21%), Austin (-23%), or Chicago (-32%).</li>
<li>Intra-Region Tech Shift: While Seattle’s tech headcount dropped from its 2023 peak, Bellevue’s tech job totals surged upward between 2024 and 2025, regaining momentum.</li>
</ul>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="763" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/DSA-report-Screenshot-2026-09-30-at-9.43.45-AM-1260x763.png" alt="" class="wp-image-955360" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/DSA-report-Screenshot-2026-09-30-at-9.43.45-AM-1260x763.png 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/DSA-report-Screenshot-2026-09-30-at-9.43.45-AM-767x464.png 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/DSA-report-Screenshot-2026-09-30-at-9.43.45-AM-1536x930.png 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/DSA-report-Screenshot-2026-09-30-at-9.43.45-AM-2048x1239.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A new report shows weakness in Seattle’s economic growth from 2019 to 2025. (Graphic via the DSA)</figcaption></figure>
The latest findings build on a growing chorus of criticism regarding the city’s fiscal climate. A June <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/five-years-in-new-analysis-ties-seattles-jumpstart-tax-to-downtown-decline/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/five-years-in-new-analysis-ties-seattles-jumpstart-tax-to-downtown-decline/">analysis by the DSA argued</a> that Seattle’s controversial “JumpStart” payroll expense tax—passed in 2020 and targeting major employers like Amazon—is backfiring by driving business across Lake Washington.
The June report highlighted that since 2020, downtown Seattle lost roughly 30,000 jobs and saw office building values plummet 48%, while Bellevue—which levies no comparable head tax—gained jobs and expanded commercial values by 7%. 
Though JumpStart projects $388 million in revenue this year, about 70% of that relies on just 10 major companies, underscoring how heavily Seattle leans on a handful of tech giants. 
City of Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has consistently pushed back against blaming downtown’s struggles on any single tax, pointing to broader post-pandemic remote-work trends, high interest rates and national tech restructurings that affect cities nationwide. She credited JumpStart with saving the city from drastic service cuts during the pandemic and noted that Seattle’s recovery remains resilient.

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<div style="font-size:14px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:1px;color:#c0392b;margin-bottom:8px;text-transform:uppercase;">Related</div>
<a class="callout-img" href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/facing-seismic-shifts-in-tech-sector-seattle-mayor-freezes-jumpstart-tax-rates-in-new-budget/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/wilsonbudget.jpeg" alt="" style="width:100%;height:auto;display:block;border-radius:4px;" /></a>
<a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/facing-seismic-shifts-in-tech-sector-seattle-mayor-freezes-jumpstart-tax-rates-in-new-budget/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="font-size:16px;font-weight:700;line-height:1.3;color:#1a1a1a;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:8px;">Facing ‘seismic shifts’ in tech sector, Seattle mayor freezes JumpStart tax rates in new budget</a>
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However, in a sign that Mayor Wilson is paying close attention to tech-sector headwinds and shifting job patterns in the region, she last week proposed a $9.1 billion 2027 budget, which would erase a $175 million general fund deficit and cut nearly $50 million in spending while <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/facing-seismic-shifts-in-tech-sector-seattle-mayor-freezes-jumpstart-tax-rates-in-new-budget/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/facing-seismic-shifts-in-tech-sector-seattle-mayor-freezes-jumpstart-tax-rates-in-new-budget/">freezing JumpStart tax rates</a>.
Citing “seismic shifts” in the technology sector, the mayor’s freeze leaves the payroll tax untouched to offer big employers a period of tax stability, even as she continues directing JumpStart revenues beyond their original intent to cover core general fund operations.
“These were a set of taxes that may have provided some short-term gain to the city coffers, but are inflicting long-term pain,” DSA President and CEO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-scholes-35301b4/">Jon Scholes</a> told GeekWire in an interview in June. “We predicted that at the time, and were sort of dismissed and ignored.” 

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<title>‘Agents are very harsh customers’: Microsoft exec warns many apps will lose pricing leverage</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/agents-are-very-harsh-customers-microsoft-exec-warns-many-apps-will-lose-pricing-leverage/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 17:48:25 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Todd Bishop]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI agents]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Charles Lamanna]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Madrona Venture Group]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Matt McIlwain]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Microsoft 365]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Microsoft Copilot]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955375</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/lamanna-1260x841.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/lamanna-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/lamanna-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/lamanna-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/lamanna-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Microsoft's Charles Lamanna says most business software will end up running behind AI agents rather than in front of users, leaving apps with less pricing power and customer loyalty. His comments come as Amazon blocks Meta's Muse agent from shopping on its site. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/agents-are-very-harsh-customers-microsoft-exec-warns-many-apps-will-lose-pricing-leverage/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/lamanna-1260x841.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955378" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/lamanna-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/lamanna-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/lamanna-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/lamanna-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Microsoft’s Charles Lamanna, executive vice president of Copilot, Agents and Platform, left, speaks with Madrona Managing Director Matt McIlwain at Madrona’s IA40 Summit in Seattle on Wednesday. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)</figcaption></figure>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleslamanna/">Charles Lamanna</a>, the Microsoft executive who oversees Microsoft 365 and the platform behind Copilot, says most business software will end up running behind AI agents rather than in front of users. That’s bad news for a lot of apps.
“If my agent interacts with your app exclusively, the agent’s your customer, not the end user,” Lamanna said Wednesday morning, speaking with Madrona’s <a href="https://www.madrona.com/team-profiles/matt-mcilwain/">Matt McIlwain</a> in the opening keynote at the venture capital firm’s annual <a href="https://www.ia40.com/summit/">IA40 Summit in Seattle</a>. “And agents are very harsh customers.”
Agents will pick whatever service is cheapest, fastest and most reliable, he said, and they’ll move people to another one quickly. Apps that sit behind agents will have a hard time holding on to pricing power or customer loyalty.
Lamanna splits software into two groups. 
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>“Thick” apps are where people spend most of their workweek, such as CAD programs, contact-center software, or Excel for a full-time financial modeler. </li>
<li>“Thin” apps are the ones people drop into and leave. He said that describes the vast majority of business software, and those apps will end up running “headless,” with AI assistants such as Copilot and ChatGPT doing the work through the back end.</li>
</ul>
Microsoft’s own apps aren’t exempt. Word, Excel and PowerPoint won’t go away, Lamanna said, but most people will use them inside Copilot, which can now run Office without switching apps. In his view, the standard setup for an office worker ends up as Copilot for AI and Teams for communication, “and that’s maybe it.”

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<div style="font-size:14px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:1px;color:#c0392b;margin-bottom:8px;text-transform:uppercase;">Related</div>
<a class="callout-img" href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/microsoft-2-5-how-evp-charles-lamanna-is-helping-turn-microsoft-into-the-copilot-company/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/edit-20260324_Agents_of_Tranformation_162.jpg" alt="" style="width:100%;height:auto;display:block;border-radius:4px;" /></a>
<a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/microsoft-2-5-how-evp-charles-lamanna-is-helping-turn-microsoft-into-the-copilot-company/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="font-size:16px;font-weight:700;line-height:1.3;color:#1a1a1a;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:8px;">Microsoft 2.5: How EVP Charles Lamanna is helping turn Microsoft into the ‘Copilot company’</a>
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He compared a headless app to a company that sells only on Amazon. It can be a business, he said, but prices get squeezed when buyers are simply choosing between “your pencils or those pencils.” A brand such as Nike has more leverage.
Amazon itself is resisting that role. Earlier this week it <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-blocks-metas-muse-ai-assistant-in-new-standoff-over-agentic-shopping/">blocked</a> Meta’s Muse agent from shopping on its site, saying Meta never asked permission and that the agent doesn’t identify itself and appears to store customer credentials. Meta has said Muse can’t see users’ passwords or payment methods. Amazon is also in a legal fight with Perplexity over that company’s Comet shopping agent.
Amazon is open to agents on its own terms. Days after blocking Muse, it opened its <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-opens-its-seller-tools-to-outside-ai-agents-starting-with-anthropics-claude/">seller tools</a> to Anthropic’s Claude, letting merchants manage inventory, prices and listings without going into Seller Central.
Lamanna brought up Muse himself onstage, predicting it will reach far more people than work-focused agent tools such as Copilot and Claude Cowork.
Microsoft is on the other side of the same question. Copilot depends on other companies’ software being willing to work behind it. In an <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/microsoft-2-5-how-evp-charles-lamanna-is-helping-turn-microsoft-into-the-copilot-company/">August profile</a>, Lamanna said Copilot uses connectors to pull data from services such as Salesforce and ServiceNow, so people don’t have to leave the app.
]]></content:encoded>
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">955375</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>There’s a new No. 1 on the GeekWire 200 as AI and hardware reshape our Pacific Northwest startup index</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/theres-a-new-no-1-on-the-geekwire-200-as-ai-and-hardware-reshape-our-pacific-nw-startup-index/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 17:00:40 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Todd Bishop]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[GeekWire 200 Highlights]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Startups]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[agility robotics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Auger]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[brinc]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Echodyne]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[GeekWire 200]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Helion]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Stoke Space]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[temporal]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955200</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="840" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/gw-200-fall-2026-1260x840.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/gw-200-fall-2026-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/gw-200-fall-2026-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/gw-200-fall-2026.jpg 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Temporal, whose software keeps AI agents running reliably, is the new No. 1 on the GeekWire 200. Companies building AI software and advanced machinery for space, energy and defense lead the Fall 2026 update of our ranking of the Pacific Northwest's top privately held tech startups. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/theres-a-new-no-1-on-the-geekwire-200-as-ai-and-hardware-reshape-our-pacific-nw-startup-index/">Read More</a>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="840" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/gw-200-fall-2026-1260x840.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955362" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/gw-200-fall-2026-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/gw-200-fall-2026-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/gw-200-fall-2026.jpg 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /></figure>
Companies building software for the AI boom and advanced machinery for space, energy and defense are remaking the Pacific Northwest’s tech economy, and both trends are showing up in full force on the <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/geekwire-200/">GeekWire 200</a>, our ranking of the region’s top privately held tech startups.
The Fall 2026 update, released Wednesday morning, features a new No. 1: Temporal, the Bellevue, Wash., company whose software keeps AI agents running reliably. It <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/temporal-raises-550m-hits-12-55b-valuation-as-agentic-ai-wave-fuels-massive-growth/">raised $550 million</a> this month at a $12.55 billion valuation, more than double its value earlier this year. Its annualized revenue has passed $250 million, up more than 200% in a year, with customers including OpenAI, Nvidia and Netflix.
Temporal replaces fusion company Helion, now No. 2. Helion <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/helion-funding-round-grows-to-500m-amid-uncertainty-over-fusion-startups-microsoft-timeline/">grew its Series G round</a> to $500 million and <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/with-a-headcount-topping-800-helion-opens-seattle-office-in-pursuit-of-fusion-energy/">opened a Seattle office</a> as its headcount topped 800, but questions have emerged about its timeline for delivering fusion power to Microsoft by 2028.
Six of the top 10 companies build advanced machinery: fusion reactors, rockets, drones, radar, military vehicles and weed-zapping robots. Several of them spent the quarter scaling up production.
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Stoke Space (No. 3), which is developing a fully reusable rocket, jumped three spots after it <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/stoke-space-billion-upsize-nova-rocket/">raised about $1 billion</a>. It’s expanding its rocket test site in Moses Lake.</li>
<li>Brinc (No. 6), which makes drones that police and fire departments send to 911 calls, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/motorola-leads-125m-round-for-brinc-fueling-911-drone-expansion-amid-u-s-import-crackdown/">is moving into a new headquarters and factory</a> in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood with three times the production space of its current plant.</li>
<li>Echodyne (No. 9), which makes compact radar used to detect and track drones, jumped 33 spots into the top 10 after it <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/echodyne-opens-40m-radar-factory-near-seattle-to-meet-booming-demand-for-drone-detection/">opened a $40 million factory</a> in Woodinville to meet growing demand for drone detection.</li>
</ul>
The GeekWire 200 combines objective data, editorial insight and AI analysis of our coverage to provide a broad view of the region’s startup landscape. Dating to 2013, it has long served as a resource for investors, job seekers, service providers and others tracking the regional tech scene.
See the <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/geekwire-200/">updated GeekWire 200</a>, and continue reading for highlights. Here’s the new top 10.
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<body>
<div class="gw-top10-container">
<div class="gw-top10-table">
<div class="gw-table-header">
<div class="gw-table-title">GeekWire 200</div>
<h2 class="gw-table-subtitle">Top 10 Companies: Fall 2026</h2>
</div>
<div class="gw-company-row">
<div class="gw-rank-badge">1</div>
<div class="gw-company-logo">
<img decoding="async" src="https://d878vporrm2hj.cloudfront.net/company/42031521_company_logo" alt="Temporal">
</div>
<div class="gw-company-info">
<div class="gw-company-details">
<h3 class="gw-company-name">
<a href="https://temporal.io/" target="_blank">Temporal</a>

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/temporal-technologies/" target="_blank" class="gw-linkedin-link" title="View on LinkedIn"><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor"><path d="M19 0h-14c-2.761 0-5 2.239-5 5v14c0 2.761 2.239 5 5 5h14c2.762 0 5-2.239 5-5v-14c0-2.761-2.238-5-5-5zm-11 19h-3v-11h3v11zm-1.5-12.268c-.966 0-1.75-.79-1.75-1.764s.784-1.764 1.75-1.764 1.75.79 1.75 1.764-.783 1.764-1.75 1.764zm13.5 12.268h-3v-5.604c0-3.368-4-3.113-4 0v5.604h-3v-11h3v1.765c1.396-2.586 7-2.777 7 2.476v6.759z"/></svg></a>
<a href="https://www.geekwire.com/tag/temporal" target="_blank" class="gw-coverage-link" title="GeekWire Coverage">
<img decoding="async" src="https://www.geekwire.com/favicon-32x32.png" alt="GeekWire">
</a>

</h3>
Bellevue, Washington • Software Development
Durable-execution infrastructure for the agentic-AI stack, valued at $12.55B after a $550M Series E led by Lightspeed, with OpenAI, Nvidia and Snap among its customers.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gw-company-row">
<div class="gw-rank-badge">2</div>
<div class="gw-company-logo">
<img decoding="async" src="https://d878vporrm2hj.cloudfront.net/company/37265477_company_logo" alt="Helion">
</div>
<div class="gw-company-info">
<div class="gw-company-details">
<h3 class="gw-company-name">
<a href="http://www.helionenergy.com/" target="_blank">Helion</a>

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/helion-energy" target="_blank" class="gw-linkedin-link" title="View on LinkedIn"><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor"><path d="M19 0h-14c-2.761 0-5 2.239-5 5v14c0 2.761 2.239 5 5 5h14c2.762 0 5-2.239 5-5v-14c0-2.761-2.238-5-5-5zm-11 19h-3v-11h3v11zm-1.5-12.268c-.966 0-1.75-.79-1.75-1.764s.784-1.764 1.75-1.764 1.75.79 1.75 1.764-.783 1.764-1.75 1.764zm13.5 12.268h-3v-5.604c0-3.368-4-3.113-4 0v5.604h-3v-11h3v1.765c1.396-2.586 7-2.777 7 2.476v6.759z"/></svg></a>
<a href="https://www.geekwire.com/tag/helion" target="_blank" class="gw-coverage-link" title="GeekWire Coverage">
<img decoding="async" src="https://www.geekwire.com/favicon-32x32.png" alt="GeekWire">
</a>

</h3>
Everett, Washington • Renewable Energy Power Generation
Fusion-power developer backed by Sam Altman and SoftBank, with its Series G grown to $500M and more than 800 employees.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gw-company-row">
<div class="gw-rank-badge">3</div>
<div class="gw-company-logo">
<img decoding="async" src="https://d878vporrm2hj.cloudfront.net/company/37997480_company_logo" alt="Stoke Space">
</div>
<div class="gw-company-info">
<div class="gw-company-details">
<h3 class="gw-company-name">
<a href="http://www.stokespace.com" target="_blank">Stoke Space</a>

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/stoke-space/" target="_blank" class="gw-linkedin-link" title="View on LinkedIn"><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor"><path d="M19 0h-14c-2.761 0-5 2.239-5 5v14c0 2.761 2.239 5 5 5h14c2.762 0 5-2.239 5-5v-14c0-2.761-2.238-5-5-5zm-11 19h-3v-11h3v11zm-1.5-12.268c-.966 0-1.75-.79-1.75-1.764s.784-1.764 1.75-1.764 1.75.79 1.75 1.764-.783 1.764-1.75 1.764zm13.5 12.268h-3v-5.604c0-3.368-4-3.113-4 0v5.604h-3v-11h3v1.765c1.396-2.586 7-2.777 7 2.476v6.759z"/></svg></a>
<a href="https://www.geekwire.com/tag/stoke-space" target="_blank" class="gw-coverage-link" title="GeekWire Coverage">
<img decoding="async" src="https://www.geekwire.com/favicon-32x32.png" alt="GeekWire">
</a>

</h3>
Kent, Washington • Defense and Space Manufacturing
Building the fully reusable Nova rocket, with roughly $1B raised and its Moses Lake test site expanding to 550 acres ahead of a first flight in early 2027.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gw-company-row">
<div class="gw-rank-badge">4</div>
<div class="gw-company-logo">
<img decoding="async" src="https://d878vporrm2hj.cloudfront.net/company/1163340_company_logo" alt="Truveta">
</div>
<div class="gw-company-info">
<div class="gw-company-details">
<h3 class="gw-company-name">
<a href="http://www.truveta.com" target="_blank">Truveta</a>

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/truveta" target="_blank" class="gw-linkedin-link" title="View on LinkedIn"><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor"><path d="M19 0h-14c-2.761 0-5 2.239-5 5v14c0 2.761 2.239 5 5 5h14c2.762 0 5-2.239 5-5v-14c0-2.761-2.238-5-5-5zm-11 19h-3v-11h3v11zm-1.5-12.268c-.966 0-1.75-.79-1.75-1.764s.784-1.764 1.75-1.764 1.75.79 1.75 1.764-.783 1.764-1.75 1.764zm13.5 12.268h-3v-5.604c0-3.368-4-3.113-4 0v5.604h-3v-11h3v1.765c1.396-2.586 7-2.777 7 2.476v6.759z"/></svg></a>
<a href="https://www.geekwire.com/tag/truveta" target="_blank" class="gw-coverage-link" title="GeekWire Coverage">
<img decoding="async" src="https://www.geekwire.com/favicon-32x32.png" alt="GeekWire">
</a>

</h3>
Bellevue, Washington • Hospitals and Health Care
Health-data platform built with a consortium of health systems; its co-founders are serving as interim co-CEOs as Terry Myerson retires at the end of September.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gw-company-row">
<div class="gw-rank-badge">5</div>
<div class="gw-company-logo">
<img decoding="async" src="https://d878vporrm2hj.cloudfront.net/company/7320699_company_logo" alt="Chainguard">
</div>
<div class="gw-company-info">
<div class="gw-company-details">
<h3 class="gw-company-name">
<a href="https://chainguard.dev" target="_blank">Chainguard</a>

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/chainguard-dev/" target="_blank" class="gw-linkedin-link" title="View on LinkedIn"><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor"><path d="M19 0h-14c-2.761 0-5 2.239-5 5v14c0 2.761 2.239 5 5 5h14c2.762 0 5-2.239 5-5v-14c0-2.761-2.238-5-5-5zm-11 19h-3v-11h3v11zm-1.5-12.268c-.966 0-1.75-.79-1.75-1.764s.784-1.764 1.75-1.764 1.75.79 1.75 1.764-.783 1.764-1.75 1.764zm13.5 12.268h-3v-5.604c0-3.368-4-3.113-4 0v5.604h-3v-11h3v1.765c1.396-2.586 7-2.777 7 2.476v6.759z"/></svg></a>
<a href="https://www.geekwire.com/tag/chainguard" target="_blank" class="gw-coverage-link" title="GeekWire Coverage">
<img decoding="async" src="https://www.geekwire.com/favicon-32x32.png" alt="GeekWire">
</a>

</h3>
Kirkland, Washington • Computer and Network Security
Secure-by-default container images and software-supply-chain tooling, and at 784 employees one of the largest companies on the list.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gw-company-row">
<div class="gw-rank-badge">6</div>
<div class="gw-company-logo">
<img decoding="async" src="https://d878vporrm2hj.cloudfront.net/company/18911542_company_logo" alt="Brinc">
</div>
<div class="gw-company-info">
<div class="gw-company-details">
<h3 class="gw-company-name">
<a href="https://brincdrones.com/" target="_blank">Brinc</a>

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/brincdrones/" target="_blank" class="gw-linkedin-link" title="View on LinkedIn"><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor"><path d="M19 0h-14c-2.761 0-5 2.239-5 5v14c0 2.761 2.239 5 5 5h14c2.762 0 5-2.239 5-5v-14c0-2.761-2.238-5-5-5zm-11 19h-3v-11h3v11zm-1.5-12.268c-.966 0-1.75-.79-1.75-1.764s.784-1.764 1.75-1.764 1.75.79 1.75 1.764-.783 1.764-1.75 1.764zm13.5 12.268h-3v-5.604c0-3.368-4-3.113-4 0v5.604h-3v-11h3v1.765c1.396-2.586 7-2.777 7 2.476v6.759z"/></svg></a>
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</h3>
Seattle, Washington • Aviation and Aerospace Component Manufacturing
Drone maker for public safety, with a $125M round led by Motorola Solutions and a new Seattle headquarters and factory.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gw-company-row">
<div class="gw-rank-badge">7</div>
<div class="gw-company-logo">
<img decoding="async" src="https://d878vporrm2hj.cloudfront.net/company/16593764_company_logo" alt="Overland AI">
</div>
<div class="gw-company-info">
<div class="gw-company-details">
<h3 class="gw-company-name">
<a href="https://overland.ai/" target="_blank">Overland AI</a>

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/overland-ai/" target="_blank" class="gw-linkedin-link" title="View on LinkedIn"><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor"><path d="M19 0h-14c-2.761 0-5 2.239-5 5v14c0 2.761 2.239 5 5 5h14c2.762 0 5-2.239 5-5v-14c0-2.761-2.238-5-5-5zm-11 19h-3v-11h3v11zm-1.5-12.268c-.966 0-1.75-.79-1.75-1.764s.784-1.764 1.75-1.764 1.75.79 1.75 1.764-.783 1.764-1.75 1.764zm13.5 12.268h-3v-5.604c0-3.368-4-3.113-4 0v5.604h-3v-11h3v1.765c1.396-2.586 7-2.777 7 2.476v6.759z"/></svg></a>
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</h3>
Seattle, Washington • Defense and Space Manufacturing
Autonomy for military ground vehicles, and the first ground-autonomy company to prime a military production deal, a $19.7M Marine Corps contract.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gw-company-row">
<div class="gw-rank-badge">8</div>
<div class="gw-company-logo">
<img decoding="async" src="https://d878vporrm2hj.cloudfront.net/company/40213402_company_logo" alt="Carbon Robotics">
</div>
<div class="gw-company-info">
<div class="gw-company-details">
<h3 class="gw-company-name">
<a href="https://carbonrobotics.com/" target="_blank">Carbon Robotics</a>

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/carbonrobotics/people/" target="_blank" class="gw-linkedin-link" title="View on LinkedIn"><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor"><path d="M19 0h-14c-2.761 0-5 2.239-5 5v14c0 2.761 2.239 5 5 5h14c2.762 0 5-2.239 5-5v-14c0-2.761-2.238-5-5-5zm-11 19h-3v-11h3v11zm-1.5-12.268c-.966 0-1.75-.79-1.75-1.764s.784-1.764 1.75-1.764 1.75.79 1.75 1.764-.783 1.764-1.75 1.764zm13.5 12.268h-3v-5.604c0-3.368-4-3.113-4 0v5.604h-3v-11h3v1.765c1.396-2.586 7-2.777 7 2.476v6.759z"/></svg></a>
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</h3>
Seattle, Washington • Automation Machinery Manufacturing
Laser weeding and AI automation for agriculture, now shipping a Large Plant Model alongside an Autonomy-Ready partner program.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gw-company-row">
<div class="gw-rank-badge">9</div>
<div class="gw-company-logo">
<img decoding="async" src="https://d878vporrm2hj.cloudfront.net/company/673985_company_logo" alt="Echodyne">
</div>
<div class="gw-company-info">
<div class="gw-company-details">
<h3 class="gw-company-name">
<a href="https://www.echodyne.com" target="_blank">Echodyne</a>

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/echodyne/" target="_blank" class="gw-linkedin-link" title="View on LinkedIn"><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor"><path d="M19 0h-14c-2.761 0-5 2.239-5 5v14c0 2.761 2.239 5 5 5h14c2.762 0 5-2.239 5-5v-14c0-2.761-2.238-5-5-5zm-11 19h-3v-11h3v11zm-1.5-12.268c-.966 0-1.75-.79-1.75-1.764s.784-1.764 1.75-1.764 1.75.79 1.75 1.764-.783 1.764-1.75 1.764zm13.5 12.268h-3v-5.604c0-3.368-4-3.113-4 0v5.604h-3v-11h3v1.765c1.396-2.586 7-2.777 7 2.476v6.759z"/></svg></a>
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</h3>
Kirkland, Washington • Appliances, Electrical, and Electronics Manufacturing
Radar maker that opened a $40M, 86,000-square-foot factory in Woodinville built for about 30,000 radars a year, and is adding 100 to 200 people on top of 260.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gw-company-row">
<div class="gw-rank-badge">10</div>
<div class="gw-company-logo">
<img decoding="async" src="https://d878vporrm2hj.cloudfront.net/company/23151873_company_logo" alt="Dropzone">
</div>
<div class="gw-company-info">
<div class="gw-company-details">
<h3 class="gw-company-name">
<a href="https://dropzone.ai" target="_blank">Dropzone</a>

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/dropzone-ai/" target="_blank" class="gw-linkedin-link" title="View on LinkedIn"><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor"><path d="M19 0h-14c-2.761 0-5 2.239-5 5v14c0 2.761 2.239 5 5 5h14c2.762 0 5-2.239 5-5v-14c0-2.761-2.238-5-5-5zm-11 19h-3v-11h3v11zm-1.5-12.268c-.966 0-1.75-.79-1.75-1.764s.784-1.764 1.75-1.764 1.75.79 1.75 1.764-.783 1.764-1.75 1.764zm13.5 12.268h-3v-5.604c0-3.368-4-3.113-4 0v5.604h-3v-11h3v1.765c1.396-2.586 7-2.777 7 2.476v6.759z"/></svg></a>
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</h3>
Seattle, Washington • Computer and Network Security
Autonomous AI agents for security operations, and the fastest-growing company in the top 20, with headcount up from 37 to 82 over the past year.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gw-source">
GeekWire editorial • Rankings as of September 2026. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/geekwire-200/" target="_blank" style="color: #cb4c28; text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;">View full GeekWire 200 →</a>
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<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Notable moves and news</h4>
Overland AI (No. 7, up 2): The military autonomy startup <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/overland-ai-lands-marine-corps-deal-worth-nearly-20m-to-build-self-driving-military-vehicles/">landed a Marine Corps contract</a> worth nearly $20 million, which it says makes it the first ground-autonomy company to serve as prime contractor on a military production deal. It also <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattles-overland-ai-opens-bay-area-outpost-flipping-the-regional-tech-talent-script/">opened a Bay Area office</a> to recruit AI and robotics talent.
Carbon Robotics (No. 8): The laser-weeding company <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattles-ai-weed-wars-one-startup-maps-them-another-zaps-them/">added Plant Profiles</a>, letting farmers tailor its AI model to their own crops and fields.
Dropzone (No. 10, up 3): The maker of autonomous AI agents for security operations enters the top 10 after more than doubling its headcount over the past year, the fastest growth of any company in the top 20.
Starcloud (No. 52, up 23): The Redmond company building data centers in orbit <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/starcloud-250m-data-center-satellite-network-nvidia/">raised $250 million</a> at a $2.3 billion valuation, with Nvidia joining as an investor.
Levanta (No. 72, up 5): The creator-marketing platform <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/as-the-influencer-economy-drives-sales-seattle-startup-raises-22m-to-play-matchmaker/">raised $22 million</a> and says revenue is up 80% this year.
AIM Intelligent Machines (No. 100, up 10): The autonomous construction startup <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/earth-first-mars-later-inside-aims-grand-vision-for-physical-ai-and-autonomous-bulldozers/">laid out its vision</a> for self-driving bulldozers on Earth and, eventually, Mars.
Portal Space Systems (No. 107, up 7): The Bothell company is <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/inside-spacecraft-factory-portal-space-systems-starburst/">getting its first Starburst spacecraft ready</a> for launch.
Digs (No. 120, up 13): The Vancouver, Wash., homebuilding AI startup <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/homebuilding-ai-startup-digs-raises-25-3m-and-partners-with-building-products-giant/">raised $25.3 million</a> led by Builders FirstSource, which will offer its platform to 140,000 builder clients.
Augmodo (No. 122, up 23): The maker of AI camera badges for retail workers <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/augmodo-raises-21m-to-push-its-spatial-ai-beyond-just-retail-toward-the-broader-physical-workforce/">raised $21 million</a> at a $350 million valuation and is expanding into warehouses, factories and other workplaces.
Clarify (No. 150, up 19): The AI-native CRM startup <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattles-clarify-acquires-s-f-startup-seam-ai-joining-forces-to-challenge-crm-stalwarts/">acquired San Francisco’s Seam AI</a> and was <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/madronas-annual-ia40-list-shows-an-ai-industry-splitting-in-two/">named to Madrona’s IA40</a> for the second straight year.
Nuance Labs (No. 163, up 20): The AI lab founded by former Apple researchers <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattles-nuance-labs-raises-50m-to-give-ai-models-human-expression-and-nuance/">raised a $50 million Series A</a> led by Lightspeed.
NewDays (No. 172, up 14): The dementia-care startup <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/newdays-brings-its-ai-driven-dementia-care-platform-to-nevada-expands-seed-round-to-16m/">expanded its seed round</a> to $16 million and expanded to Nevada.
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">New to the list</h4>
Entire (debut, No. 101): Former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke’s startup <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/former-github-ceos-startup-entire-unveils-its-answer-to-the-crush-of-ai-coding-agents/">launched a distributed Git network</a> built for the load of AI coding agents. It’s the highest debut this quarter.
BrainChild Bio (debut, No. 117): The Seattle Children’s spinout <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-biotech-brainchild-bio-raises-116m-to-advance-car-t-therapy-for-childhood-brain-cancer/">raised $116 million</a> to advance a CAR T therapy for a deadly childhood brain cancer.
BuyWander (debut, No. 124): The retail-returns marketplace <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/buywander-moves-hq-from-spokane-to-seattle-area-as-retail-returns-startup-grows-team-to-325-people/">moved its headquarters</a> from Spokane to Kent and <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/buywander-raises-21m-as-retail-returns-startup-expands-nationwide-from-new-seattle-hq/">raised $21 million</a> led by Madrona and Inspired Capital.
Endurance (debut, No. 128): Former SpaceX engineer Andrew Redd’s startup is <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/go-inside-endurance-energy-the-seattle-startup-tapping-underwater-volcanoes-for-geothermal-power/">tapping undersea volcanoes</a> for geothermal power.
General Robotics (debut, No. 130): The Redmond startup led by Microsoft veterans <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/general-robotics-led-by-microsoft-vets-says-its-ai-has-cut-robot-setup-from-a-month-to-hours/">says its AI has cut robot setup</a> from a month to hours.
Thira (debut, No. 140): Apptio co-founders Sunny Gupta and Kurt Shintaffer <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/apptio-co-founders-reunite-to-launch-enterprise-ai-startup-thira-with-21m-in-funding-led-by-madrona/">reunited to launch</a> the enterprise AI startup with $21 million led by Madrona.
Golden Analytics (debut, No. 152): The Bellevue startup led by Francois Ajenstat, Tableau’s longtime chief product officer, is using AI to take on traditional business intelligence tools. It <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/former-tableau-product-chief-launches-golden-analytics-using-ai-to-challenge-the-bi-old-guard/">launched with $7 million</a> from NEA and Madrona in April, then <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/golden-analytics-lands-14m-seed-extension-and-opens-ai-platform-to-public-beta/">added a $14 million extension</a> led by Insight Partners in June, bringing its seed funding to $21 million.
Resect AI (debut, No. 158): The Washougal, Wash., startup <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/startup-takes-on-ai-hallucinations-with-25m-and-an-hq-rooted-in-a-small-town-south-of-seattle/">launched out of stealth</a> with $25 million to catch AI hallucinations before they happen.
NLM Photonics (debut, No. 165): The UW spinout, which makes materials that cut the power needed to move data between chips, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/nlm-photonics-adds-key-investors-in-quest-to-reduce-the-power-needed-to-move-data-between-chips/">added Pangaea Ventures and Mitsubishi Chemical’s venture arm</a> as investors.
Interlune (debut, No. 170): The moon-mining startup <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/interlune-helium-3-cold-capture-moon/">extracted helium-3 from ordinary helium</a>, demonstrating a process it plans to use on the moon.
Harell Data (debut, No. 176): Adaptive Biotechnologies co-founder Harlan Robins <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/adaptive-biotech-co-founder-raises-15m-for-new-startup-to-rethink-how-ai-trains-on-science/">raised $15 million</a> to connect AI developers with proprietary scientific data.
Noösphere Labs (debut, No. 180): Former Meta AI research director Kevin Carlberg <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/ex-meta-ai-research-director-raises-10-25m-from-trilogy-and-madrona-for-stealth-physical-ai-startup/">raised $10.25 million</a> from Trilogy and Madrona for the stealth physical AI startup.
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Leaving the list</h4>
Agility Robotics (previously No. 5): The Salem, Ore., humanoid robot maker left the list as it prepares to go public in a $2.5 billion SPAC merger expected to close in the fourth quarter. It <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/agilitys-new-digit-5-robot-lifts-50-pounds-works-20-hours-a-day-and-operates-alongside-people/">unveiled Digit 5</a>, which lifts 50 pounds and is designed to work alongside people without safety barriers.
Common Room (previously No. 80): The sales-intelligence startup left the list after agreeing to be <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/zoom-snaps-up-seattle-startup-common-room-to-bolster-ai-powered-sales-tools/">acquired by Zoom</a>.
Auger (previously No. 31): The supply chain startup led by former Amazon operations chief Dave Clark <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/this-former-amazon-exec-is-moving-his-startups-hq-to-texas-and-he-has-a-few-notes-for-seattle/">moved its headquarters to Dallas</a>. Auger still has a major engineering hub in Bellevue, which we’ve <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/engineering-centers/">added to our list of engineering centers</a> established in the region by companies headquartered elsewhere.
XBOW (previously No. 35): The AI hacking startup left the list because it doesn’t meet our standard that a company’s headquarters and leadership be based in the region. Its CEO is based in Malta, and its Seattle headquarters is <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/xbow-the-unicorn-with-a-seattle-mailbox-raises-another-35m-for-its-autonomous-hacking-platform/">a mailbox at a coworking space</a>.
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Notes on the GeekWire 200</h4>
Our list is not scientific, by any means, and the specific rankings should be taken with a grain of salt. But it has proven to be a valuable tool for many years. We hear regularly from readers who use the GeekWire 200 to look for jobs, prospect for customers, scout potential investments and get a high-level view of the region’s tech community.
Companies on the list must be privately held, founded within roughly the past 15 years and headquartered in the Pacific Northwest with their leadership based in the region. Companies generally leave the list when they agree to be acquired by another company or to go public.
To make sure your Pacific Northwest technology startup is eligible for the GeekWire 200, first confirm it’s included in the broader <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/startup-list/">GeekWire Startup List</a>. If so, there’s no need to submit it separately. If your startup isn’t among the companies on that larger list, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/submit-startup/">you can submit it for inclusion here</a>, and we’ll crunch the numbers to see if it makes the next GeekWire 200 update.
Email us at <a href="mailto:tips@geekwire.com">tips@geekwire.com</a> with any questions.
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<title>Spending management company Fraxion acquires Yellow Dog Software</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/spending-management-company-fraxion-acquires-yellow-dog-software/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 16:01:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa Stiffler]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[acquisition]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Fraxion]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Yellow Dog Software]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955341</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="681" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Stanton-Jandrell-.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Stanton-Jandrell-.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Stanton-Jandrell--768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Stanton-Jandrell--630x419.jpg 630w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px"> Seattle-based spending management platform Fraxion has acquired Yellow Dog Software, an inventory tracking provider for hospitality, sports and retail businesses. Fraxion serves as a digital gatekeeper for business expenses by tracking, controlling and approving business expenses. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/spending-management-company-fraxion-acquires-yellow-dog-software/">Read More</a>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="681" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Stanton-Jandrell-.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-498531" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Stanton-Jandrell-.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Stanton-Jandrell--768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Stanton-Jandrell--630x419.jpg 630w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Stanton Jandrell, CEO and co-founder of Fraxion. (Fraxion Photo)</figcaption></figure>
Seattle-based spending management company <a href="https://www.fraxion.biz/">Fraxion </a>has <a href="https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/computers-technology-and-internet/fraxion-extends-its-reach-into-inventory-management-with-acquisit-1228488">acquired </a>Yellow Dog Software, which offers inventory management software for the hospitality, sports, food and beverage, and retail industries. Fraxion serves as a digital gatekeeper for business expenses by tracking, controlling and approving business expenses.
Yellow Dog will continue operating out of its Norfolk, Virginia, office and has 67 employees. Terms of the deal were not released.
“Yellow Dog extends Fraxion’s capabilities beyond procure-to-pay into inventory management, adding greater visibility into the downstream impact of purchasing decisions,” Stanton Jandrell, co-founder and CEO of Fraxion, said in a statement.
Fraxion originally launched in South Africa in 1997 and relocated its U.S. headquarters to Seattle in 2019 following its merger with eRequester. It still operates an office in Cape Town. 
Last year, private equity firm Main Capital Partners took a majority stake in Fraxion. As part of that transaction, Fraxion also acquired accounts payable provider Centreviews. Fraxion currently has a 69-person headcount, according to the company.

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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">955341</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>Meet the X-BAT: Full specs on the new AI-piloted fighter jet to be built in Washington state</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/meet-the-x-bat-full-specs-on-the-new-ai-piloted-fighter-jet-to-be-built-in-washington-state/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 15:02:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[John Cook]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[aerospace]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[defense tech]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Shield AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[X-BAT]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955012</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="709" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-SHI16_LaunchPad_v07_16k_00000-2-1260x709.jpeg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-SHI16_LaunchPad_v07_16k_00000-2-1260x709.jpeg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-SHI16_LaunchPad_v07_16k_00000-2-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-SHI16_LaunchPad_v07_16k_00000-2-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-SHI16_LaunchPad_v07_16k_00000-2-2048x1152.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> X-BAT at a Glance: Measuring 26 feet long with a 1,000-nautical-mile combat radius, Shield AI’s autonomous strike fighter is designed to launch vertically from highways or naval decks—bypassing traditional runways entirely. Here is a detailed look at the aircraft’s specs, timeline, and capabilities as production sets to begin in Des Moines, Wash. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/meet-the-x-bat-full-specs-on-the-new-ai-piloted-fighter-jet-to-be-built-in-washington-state/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="709" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-SHI16_LaunchPad_v07_16k_00000-2-1260x709.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-955017" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-SHI16_LaunchPad_v07_16k_00000-2-1260x709.jpeg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-SHI16_LaunchPad_v07_16k_00000-2-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-SHI16_LaunchPad_v07_16k_00000-2-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-SHI16_LaunchPad_v07_16k_00000-2-2048x1152.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Shield AI’s new X-BAT autonomous fighter jet is designed to take off and land vertically. Rendering via Shield AI. </figcaption></figure>
Traditional military air operations rely heavily on fixed, vulnerable targets: long concrete runways and aircraft carriers. 
Shield AI’s new <a href="https://shield.ai/x-bat/" data-type="link" data-id="https://shield.ai/x-bat/">X-BAT</a> autonomous fighter jet is designed to bypass that infrastructure entirely, utilizing a vertical takeoff mechanism and a mobile launch trailer that can operate from highways, remote outposts or standard cargo ships.

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<div style="font-size:14px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:1px;color:#c0392b;margin-bottom:8px;text-transform:uppercase;">Related</div>
<a class="callout-img" href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/shield-ai-selects-seattle-area-to-build-x-bat-autonomous-fighter-jet-plans-to-add-4000-jobs-by-early-2030s/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/X-BAT-Flyby.jpeg" alt="" style="width:100%;height:auto;display:block;border-radius:4px;" /></a>
<a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/shield-ai-selects-seattle-area-to-build-x-bat-autonomous-fighter-jet-plans-to-add-4000-jobs-by-early-2030s/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="font-size:16px;font-weight:700;line-height:1.3;color:#1a1a1a;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:8px;">Shield AI selects Seattle area to build X-BAT autonomous fighter jet, plans to add 4,000 jobs by early 2030s</a>
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Operated without a human in the cockpit, the aircraft relies on aboard algorithms to navigate and execute strike missions where GPS and satellite communications are jammed. The X-BAT has yet to make its maiden flight, but Shield AI and GE Aerospace <a href="https://shield.ai/shield-ai-and-ge-aerospace-light-off-x-bat-engine-completing-thrust-vectoring-nozzle-integration-and-clearing-path-to-vertical-flight/" data-type="link" data-id="https://shield.ai/shield-ai-and-ge-aerospace-light-off-x-bat-engine-completing-thrust-vectoring-nozzle-integration-and-clearing-path-to-vertical-flight/">cleared a critical milestone</a> this summer by completing ground engine tests and integrating the jet’s F110 thrust-vectoring nozzle.
With news that the X-BAT will be mass produced in the Seattle area — bringing 4,000 jobs to the region by the early 2030s — we decided to take a closer look at this groundbreaking aircraft.
Meet the X-BAT: Specifications & Capabilities
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Aircraft Name: X-BAT</li>
<li>Developer: Shield AI</li>
<li>Aircraft Classification: Autonomous / AI-Piloted Strike Fighter (Runway-Independent)</li>
<li>Fuselage Length: 26 feet</li>
<li>Wingspan: 39 feet</li>
<li>Service Ceiling: Greater than 50,000 feet</li>
<li>Takeoff/Landing Style: Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL)</li>
<li>Objective Combat Radius: About 1,000 nautical mile combat radius (out and back), topping the roughly 590 nautical miles of the Air Force’s F-35A.</li>
<li>Total Range: 2,000 nautical miles.</li>
<li>Internal Payload Bay Capacity: Up to 2,000-pound class weapons. </li>
<li>Engine: GE Aerospace F110</li>
<li>Software: Shield AI Hivemind autonomy system.</li>
<li>Primary Propulsion & Flight Control: Autonomous AI agent, replacing human onboard pilot.</li>
<li>Logistics & Mobility: Road-transportable via dedicated Launch and Recovery Vehicle (LRV) trailer; highway-mobile and ship-deployable (destroyers, LHA/LHD amphibious assault ships, expeditionary bases). Tagline: “Earth is our runway.”</li>
<li>Target Production Rate: ~150 aircraft per year by early 2030s</li>
<li>Key Operational Milestones: First vertical flights expected in 2026. Production is set to start in Des Moines in mid-2027. The first jet is projected to be built in early 2028 and fly by that summer. The Navy could start using it by the end of 2029. Full production is planned for the early 2030s.</li>
</ul>
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">955012</post-id> </item>
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<title>Shield AI selects Seattle area to build X-BAT autonomous fighter jet, plans to add 4,000 jobs by early 2030s</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/shield-ai-selects-seattle-area-to-build-x-bat-autonomous-fighter-jet-plans-to-add-4000-jobs-by-early-2030s/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[John Cook]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[aerospace]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[artificial intelligence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[defense tech]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Drones]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[jobs]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Military]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Shield AI]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=954782</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="709" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/X-BAT-Flyby-1260x709.jpeg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/X-BAT-Flyby-1260x709.jpeg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/X-BAT-Flyby-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/X-BAT-Flyby-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/X-BAT-Flyby.jpeg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Defense tech upstart Shield AI has selected the Puget Sound region as the manufacturing hub for X-BAT, bringing AI-piloted fighter production to the region and promising 4,000 jobs by the early 2030s. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/shield-ai-selects-seattle-area-to-build-x-bat-autonomous-fighter-jet-plans-to-add-4000-jobs-by-early-2030s/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="709" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/X-BAT-Flyby-1260x709.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-954783" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/X-BAT-Flyby-1260x709.jpeg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/X-BAT-Flyby-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/X-BAT-Flyby-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/X-BAT-Flyby.jpeg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The X-BAT autonomous fighter jet will be built at a new facility in Washington state. Renderings and images via Shield AI. </figcaption></figure>
DES MOINES, Wash. — Defense tech powerhouse Shield AI is establishing a massive advanced manufacturing hub in Washington state, tapping the Seattle region’s deep aerospace and tech roots to build a next-generation autonomous fighter jet called the X-BAT. 
The project could transform the regional labor market: Shield AI says it expects to have 4,000 workers in the region by the early 2030s as it ramps up mass production of the AI-piloted, 26-foot long aircraft.

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<div style="font-size:14px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:1px;color:#c0392b;margin-bottom:8px;text-transform:uppercase;">Related</div>
<a class="callout-img" href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/meet-the-x-bat-full-specs-on-the-new-ai-piloted-fighter-jet-to-be-built-in-washington-state/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-SHI16_LaunchPad_v07_16k_00000-2-1260x709.jpeg" alt="" style="width:100%;height:auto;display:block;border-radius:4px;" /></a>
<a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/meet-the-x-bat-full-specs-on-the-new-ai-piloted-fighter-jet-to-be-built-in-washington-state/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="font-size:16px;font-weight:700;line-height:1.3;color:#1a1a1a;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:8px;">Meet the X-BAT: Full specs on the new AI-piloted fighter jet to be built in Washington state</a>
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It marks a major expansion of advanced aerospace manufacturing in the Seattle region, bringing autonomous military aviation directly into Boeing’s backyard and cementing the state’s position at the center of the AI-defined defense era.
The San Diego-based company, valued at $12.7 billion following a <a href="https://shield.ai/shield-ai-to-acquire-software-simulation-company-aechelon-and-raise-2b-at-12-7b-valuation/">$2 billion</a> venture capital round earlier this year, is looking to complete construction on a 420,000-square-foot facility in Des Moines, Wash., just south of Seattle, next spring. 
That physical footprint is expected to grow quickly. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/armorharris/?isSelfProfile=false">Armor Harris</a>, senior vice president of aircraft at Shield AI, told GeekWire that the company is actively looking to add another 1 million square feet in the region to support its long-term manufacturing push.
Named X-Forge 3, the initial facility will serve as the primary manufacturing and engineering center for the X-BAT. It’s now under construction about 15 minutes south of Sea-Tac airport in the Des Moines Creek Business Park West, at 1800 S 216th St. 
Developed by <a href="https://www.panattoni.com/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.panattoni.com/">Panattoni</a>, the site was selected by Shield AI midway through construction. The company is now taking it to completion, with Harris noting that they are “putting the roof on right now.”
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="709" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Xforge-2026_Sep_23_XFORGE3-3-no-logo-1260x709.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-954784" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Xforge-2026_Sep_23_XFORGE3-3-no-logo-1260x709.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Xforge-2026_Sep_23_XFORGE3-3-no-logo-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Xforge-2026_Sep_23_XFORGE3-3-no-logo-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Xforge-2026_Sep_23_XFORGE3-3-no-logo.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Shield AI’s new X-Forge 3 facility south of Sea-Tac airport is currently under construction with an opening date slated for next Spring. </figcaption></figure>
Unveiled last year, the X-BAT is an AI-piloted strike fighter that takes off and lands vertically, carries up to 2,000-pound class weapons in internal bays, and is designed for a 1,000-nautical-mile combat radius — which, when it takes flight, would top the estimated 590 nautical mile combat radius of the Lockheed Martin F-35A.
An economic analysis released by the company estimates Shield AI’s X-BAT program will inject roughly $73 billion into Washington state’s economy over the next two decades as production scales toward full capacity. Projections provided by the company say up to 27,000 direct and indirect jobs — including suppliers — will be generated by the expansion by 2046. 
“This is a large program,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/armorharris/">Harris</a> in an interview with GeekWire. “Building a next generation fighter jet is no small endeavor, and with the amount of interest that we’ve seen, both from our U.S. government customers and from international customers, we could be looking at building these at rates greater than fighter jets have been built in a really long time.”
Harris said he expects the first X-BAT aircraft to roll off the line in Des Moines in 2028, with full production ramping up to about 150 aircraft per year by the early 2030s.  
The company evaluated more than a dozen sites for the facility, and chose the Seattle area for a simple reason: talent. 
Harris cited the region’s robust aerospace legacy, as well as technology giants like Amazon and Microsoft and a burgeoning space and satellite industry which has taken shape in recent years. A number of fast-growing and heavily funded defense tech companies — including <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/inside-andurils-ai-warfighting-buildup-defense-giant-sees-a-path-to-1000-seattle-area-engineers/">Anduril</a>, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/startup-building-portable-ai-data-centers-for-remote-operations-grows-seattle-area-hub-to-120-people/">Armada</a> and <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-lands-another-1b-startup-heres-the-latest-arrival-in-the-industrial-ai-boom/">Nominal</a> — have also established beachheads in the region in recent years.
He described the X-BAT as a “modern sixth-generation fighter jet” that’s essentially a “flying sensor suite,” ingesting information in real time in order to make lightning-fast decisions. 
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Deep aviation and technology roots</h4>
Building that type of aircraft takes a very specialized workforce, one that Harris said is rooted across technology, aerospace, artificial intelligence, materials science and advanced manufacturing.  Those are major strengths of the Seattle area workforce. 
“We’re able to tap into that existing lineage and not have to necessarily train a workforce from the ground up, which would be hard to do on the timelines we’re trying to execute,” said Harris, who is planning to relocate to Washington state from Dallas.
To support its ambitious production schedule, Shield AI is actively recruiting across both software engineering and specialized aerospace roles. The initial hiring push for the Des Moines facility spans autonomy developers, flight-control software engineers, composite technicians, and shop-floor assembly specialists. 
In one <a href="https://wellfound.com/jobs/4734034-software-engineering-manager-hardware-test-x-bat-r6020">job listing</a> for an engineering manager to lead the X-BAT hardware test software team, the company notes that the ideal candidate “has personally built or led the development of automated hardware test systems used in production, manufacturing, qualification, or other high-consequence environments.” 
In another Seattle area <a href="https://wellfound.com/jobs/4724486-staff-engineer-fuel-systems-r5900">job listing</a> for a staff fuel engineer, the company says it is looking for a someone with “strong thermofluid fundamentals, engineering judgment, and the ability to understand fuel system behavior across demanding aircraft operating conditions while serving as the focal point between propulsion, vehicle teams, suppliers, and flight operations.”
Pay across those engineering roles ranges from $169,000 to $300,000 annually, according to the company job postings.
The company currently lists more than 110 open roles in the Seattle area, including a dozen or more in categories such as avionics and electrical; mechanical and thermal; software and networks; and aerostructures.
Choosing Washington also allowed Shield AI to buck a pervasive defense industry trend: separating engineering teams from physical factory floors to shave down labor costs. 
While shifting assembly lines to lower-cost regions can cut costs, Harris said that remote manufacturing introduces hidden operational friction when building complex, software-defined aircraft like the X-BAT. 
“We fundamentally believe in the colocation of engineering and production is the fastest way to bring capability to our customers,” said Harris, adding that combining engineering and production in a common facility is “one of the secret sauces of Shield.”
In a statement, U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) — whose district includes Des Moines — welcomed Shield AI and the X-BAT manufacturing facility to King County. 
“This hub will create high-quality jobs, strengthen Puget Sound’s expanding technology and aerospace sectors, and further diversify our local economy,” Smith said. “Reimagining aviation will have a rightful home here in Washington’s Ninth District.”
Katherine Caffrey, the city manager for City of Des Moines, welcomed the new jobs and economic investment in the community. 
“Des Moines sits at the heart of the Puget Sound aerospace industry, and these jobs and this investment reflects exactly what we want Des Moines to be, a place where families can build strong careers close to home,” Caffrey said. 
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">The ‘holy grail of deterrence’ </h4>
Shield AI officially <a href="https://shield.ai/shield-ai-unveils-x-bat-an-ai-piloted-vtol-fighter-jet-for-contested-environments/?utm_source=gemini">introduced</a> the X-BAT program to the public at an October 2025 event in Washington, D.C., unveiling the aircraft before an audience of military leaders, elected officials and defense industry partners. 
At the time, Shield AI co-founder and president Brandon Tseng, a former Navy SEAL, called X-BAT a “transformative, runway-independent aircraft” and noted that “airpower without runways is the holy grail of deterrence.”
That vision quickly gained momentum. 
Last month, the U.S. Navy backed the program through an initial <a href="https://defence-blog.com/u-s-navy-invests-50m-in-shield-ais-runway-free-strike-drone/?utm_source=gemini">$50 million development contract</a>, envisioning the autonomous fighter jets operating directly from destroyers, amphibious assault ships and converted cargo vessels to project long-range airpower without relying on traditional aircraft carriers.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="786" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-LHA8_rendering-1260x786.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-954787" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-LHA8_rendering-1260x786.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-LHA8_rendering-766x478.jpg 766w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-LHA8_rendering-1536x958.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/XBAT-LHA8_rendering-2048x1277.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Shield AI recently won a contract with the U.S. Navy for the X-BAT, designed to take off and land vertically.</figcaption></figure>
That momentum grew internationally earlier this month, when Shield AI <a href="https://shield.ai/shield-ai-signs-x-bat-letter-of-intent-with-polands-pgz-and-wzl-2/">signed</a> a five-year letter of intent with Polish defense companies PGZ and WZL-2. Under the framework, the companies are exploring plans to help build, supply, and repair the X-BAT, a partnership that could give NATO allies a fighter jet capable of operating even if local airfields and runways are destroyed or non-existent.
The X-BAT launches and lands vertically using a specialized Launch and Recovery Vehicle —a mobile trailer that erects the jet vertically, allowing it to be towed on interstate highways or loaded onto cargo ships to set up a field launch pad in minutes. 
Harris noted that while a final site selection for manufacturing the LRV trailers has not been made, expanding production into the Puget Sound region remains on the table given the area’s deep manufacturing base.
In addition to the mammoth manufacturing facility in Des Moines, Shield AI announced that it is expanding its presence in both Texas and Kansas. 
In Frisco, Texas, the company operates its X-Forge 1 site to handle core prototyping, software integration, and initial engineering for the autonomous fighter. Meanwhile, at X-Forge 2 in Newton, Kansas, Shield AI has expanded its airport footprint to serve as the program’s dedicated flight test, customer acceptance and maintenance hub.
Shield AI expects its X-Forge 2 site in Kansas to support approximately 1,800 regional jobs by the early 2030s, growing to 2,900 positions by 2046 with a projected $5 billion in regional economic impact over that period.
Addressing the cross-country logistics of moving completed aircraft from the Puget Sound assembly line to Kansas for flight testing, Harris explained that the X-BAT can be easily moved via the existing transportation corridors.
“The X-BAT is designed to be road transportable,” he said. “So we’re taking advantage of that.”
Beyond the immediate manufacturing logistics, Harris views the multi-billion-dollar expansion as a major long-term validation of the region’s industrial relevance.
“There’s been a strong narrative of like, ‘Hey, all the jobs are migrating elsewhere,’ and I think this is a big win for the region to capture a major program from a rapidly growing company like this,” Harris said. “This can be the backbone for years of growth in the future.”
That’s a message that Gov. Bob Ferguson is getting behind, saying Washington state is a place where “big ideas take flight.”
“Shield AI’s decision to build its new X-BAT manufacturing facility here is another sign that the future of aerospace is being built in Washington,” Ferguson said in a statement. “We welcome Shield AI and the thousands of good-paying jobs this investment will bring.”
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">954782</post-id> </item>
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<title>Kanu AI emerges from stealth with $11.7M to turn employee workflows into custom software</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/kanu-ai-emerges-from-stealth-with-11-7m-to-turn-employee-workflows-into-custom-software/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 14:59:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[John Cook]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Startups]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[artificial intelligence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Kanu AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[startups]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955330</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="945" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Kanu-assets_MS1999342_000001_Karan-Grover-1260x945.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Kanu-assets_MS1999342_000001_Karan-Grover-1260x945.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Kanu-assets_MS1999342_000001_Karan-Grover-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Kanu-assets_MS1999342_000001_Karan-Grover.jpg 1448w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Founded by Y Combinator alum and former machine learning engineer Karan Grover, Seattle-based Kanu AI has raised $11.7 million to solve a persistent enterprise problem: valuable operational knowledge getting trapped in employees' heads and spreadsheets. Led by Trilogy Equity Partners, the new funding will help scale Kanu's platform, which automatically converts day-to-day employee workflows into permanent, production-grade software deployed directly within a company's cloud. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/kanu-ai-emerges-from-stealth-with-11-7m-to-turn-employee-workflows-into-custom-software/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="945" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Kanu-assets_MS1999342_000001_Karan-Grover-1260x945.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955331" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Kanu-assets_MS1999342_000001_Karan-Grover-1260x945.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Kanu-assets_MS1999342_000001_Karan-Grover-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Kanu-assets_MS1999342_000001_Karan-Grover.jpg 1448w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Karan Grover is CEO of the new Seattle startup Kanu AI. (Photo via PR Newswire)</figcaption></figure>
Seattle-based Kanu AI <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kanu-emerges-from-stealth-to-build-agi-for-the-enterprise-302893866.html" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kanu-emerges-from-stealth-to-build-agi-for-the-enterprise-302893866.html">announced </a>$11.7 million in new funding on Wednesday to expand a platform that automatically turns everyday employee tasks into custom, enterprise-grade software.
Trilogy Equity Partners led the round, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z speedrun, BMW i Ventures, and Accel. 
Founded just over a year ago, Kanu AI addresses a common operational headache: valuable business knowledge getting trapped inside spreadsheets, inboxes, and individual workers’ heads. Rather than forcing companies to buy rigid off-the-shelf software or spend months on custom engineering, Kanu lets staff demonstrate how they complete work. The platform then builds, deploys, and updates those workflows directly within the customer’s cloud.
“Companies have spent decades buying software built around someone else’s idea of how they should work,” said Karan Grover, founder and CEO of Kanu AI. “Instead of renting generic intelligence from another vendor, companies can use Kanu to turn their own data, judgment, and operating expertise into an asset they own.”
Kanu reports that it has more than doubled its revenue in every quarter since launch. Its platform is currently used by enterprises across commercial real estate, insurance, financial services, and technology.
In one deployment for a national customer, Kanu said it compressed a complex data-analysis process spanning PDFs, emails, CRMs, and GIS systems from eight weeks down to under 10 minutes. The company expects the tool to cut its annual software costs by over $1 million while driving millions in new revenue.
To meet enterprise security standards, Kanu runs entirely inside the client’s own cloud infrastructure, ensuring data stays behind existing firewalls. The platform also includes human approval steps and provides full audit trails for every automated output.
Kanu AI plans to use the capital to hire across engineering and business roles. Its software is available today through the AWS and Google Cloud marketplaces. The company employs 10 people, with plans to reach about 15 employees by the end of the year. 
Before founding Kanu AI, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kgrover1/?isSelfProfile=false" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kgrover1/?isSelfProfile=false">Grover</a> was a machine learning engineer and three-time founder, as well as a Y Combinator alumnus. He previously worked as an engineer at Amazon and DoorDash. Early in his entrepreneurial career, he created a startup that built 3D audio tools to help blind individuals audibly “hear” and navigate their physical surroundings.
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<title>Pay-i rebrands as Ascerta and raises $18M to help enterprises track AI business value</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/pay-i-rebrands-as-ascerta-and-raises-18m-to-help-enterprises-track-ai-business-value/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kurt Schlosser]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=954973</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="618" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Ascerta-Co-founders.png" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Ascerta-Co-founders.png 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Ascerta-Co-founders-768x377.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> The fresh capital brings total funding to $22.9 million for the Bellevue startup, which launched in May 2025 with a $4.9 million seed round. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/pay-i-rebrands-as-ascerta-and-raises-18m-to-help-enterprises-track-ai-business-value/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="618" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Ascerta-Co-founders.png" alt="" class="wp-image-954981" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Ascerta-Co-founders.png 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Ascerta-Co-founders-768x377.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Ascerta co-founders, from left: CTO Doron Holan, CEO David Tepper, and COO Erik Winters. (Ascerta Photos)</figcaption></figure>
Bellevue, Wash.-based startup Pay-i is rebranding as <a href="https://ascerta.com/">Ascerta</a> and raising $18 million in new funding to expand its platform beyond AI cost tracking into measuring overall business ROI.
The Series A round was led by Dell Technologies Capital, with participation from Hitachi Ventures, BGV, Wipro Ventures, and existing backers. The fresh capital brings total funding to $22.9 million for the startup, which launched in May 2025 with a <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2025/roi-on-generative-ai-microsoft-vets-raise-4-9m-to-quantify-business-value-of-ai-investments/">$4.9 million seed round</a>.
Ascerta was founded in 2024 by Microsoft veterans <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-tepper/">David Tepper</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/doronholan/">Doron Holan</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikwinters/">Erik Winters</a>. Tepper, the CEO, spent 19 years at Microsoft leading generative AI strategy for internal use across Azure, while Holan spent 27 years architecting hyperscale throttling infrastructure handling hundreds of billions of requests daily.
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="719" height="258" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Ascerta-Logo-White-BG.png" alt="" class="wp-image-954983" style="width:300px;height:auto"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">(Ascerta Image)</figcaption></figure>
</div>
The company initially emerged from stealth as Pay-i last year with a focus purely on AI cost management. As enterprise adoption accelerated, the founders realized companies were struggling to figure out which tools and agents were actually driving business results — prompting the rebrand and shift toward what Ascerta calls enterprise AI management.
“Pay-i reflected our starting point in AI cost management, but customers increasingly use the platform to understand adoption, measure business outcomes and decide which AI initiatives to scale,” Tepper told GeekWire via email. “Ascerta reflects that broader role in helping enterprises manage their entire AI investment, including its people.”
Enterprise AI tools often hide unexpected costs in sub-token usage or rogue agent runs, Tepper said. In one case, an Ascerta customer running an AI agent with an average cost of $0.40 per execution discovered outliers spiking to $70 per run occurring hundreds of times a day. 
“They were immediately able to isolate that issue and save tremendously,” Tepper noted.
In another instance, a global insurance carrier used the platform to right-size its AI capacity commitments with a hyperscale cloud provider. By consolidating multiple agents onto shared capacity reservations rather than reserving them independently, the insurer saved approximately $3 million within its first few months.
Ascerta’s platform connects to existing systems and major enterprise AI tools — including Microsoft Copilot, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Salesforce Agentforce, and coding assistants like GitHub Copilot and Claude Code — to track adoption by person, team, and tool. The startup currently counts Atos, Wipro, and several global financial institutions among its customers.
Ascerta currently employs 15 people and plans to nearly triple its headcount to roughly 40 by the end of 2027. 
The startup will use the new capital to expand its platform capabilities, grow its go-to-market and engineering teams, and extend integrations to support every major enterprise AI tool.
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">954973</post-id> </item>
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<title>Fresh figures suggest Washington’s space industry has doubled its economic impact … again</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/washington-space-industry-economic-impact/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 05:06:41 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alan Boyle]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Space]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Startups]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[economic data]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Seattle Space Week]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Space Northwest]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955239</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1208" height="867" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/waspacemap1200.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="Illustration: Washington state map with logos for space ventures spread across the territory" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/waspacemap1200.jpg 1208w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/waspacemap1200-768x551.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1208px) 100vw, 1208px"> Space Northwest gathers statistics on the state of the state's space ventures — and selects eight startups for its accelerator program. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/washington-space-industry-economic-impact/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1208" height="867" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/waspacemap1200.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955241" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/waspacemap1200.jpg 1208w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/waspacemap1200-768x551.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1208px) 100vw, 1208px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Analysts have traced the economic impact produced by scores of space ventures in Washington state. (Space Northwest Illustration)</figcaption></figure>
The preliminary results of a study commissioned by <a href="https://www.spacenorthwest.org/">Space Northwest</a>, an association focused on regional space ventures, suggest that Washington state’s space economy contributes $8.1 billion in direct economic output annually.
The newly reported figures show that the space industry’s economic impact in the Evergreen State has nearly doubled since <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2022/washington-states-space-industry-doubles-its-economic-impact-in-just-four-years/">a similar study in 2022</a>. That earlier report also documented a doubling effect over the course of four years, from <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2018/economic-report-lays-strategies-boost-washingtons-1-8b-space-industry/">$1.8 billion in 2018</a> to $4.6 billion in 2022.
Kelly Maloney, Space Northwest’s co-founder and the chair of the association’s board of directors, shared the latest figures today at the Space Northwest Symposium in Federal Way, Wash. She said the preliminary findings, developed by BERK Consulting and Alliance Velocity, reinforce the view that space is not just a niche industry in Washington.
“We are effectively the Space Tech State,” Maloney said.
She said the state’s space sector directly supports about 12,300 jobs and $2.3 billion in labor income. When indirect and induced impacts are included, the figures rise to about 34,200 jobs, $12.4 billion in statewide economic output and $3.9 billion in labor income.
“For every direct space job in Washington, another 1.8 jobs are supported elsewhere in the economy,” Maloney said.
She noted that the space sector’s direct labor income averages about $188,000 per worker. 
“That is twice the statewide average,” Maloney said. “So, this is not just a growing industry in terms of employment. It is an industry generating significant economic value and exceptionally strong labor income here in Washington.”
Maloney added that 94% of the state’s direct space sector jobs are concentrated in three highly technical areas. “Nearly 6,500 people work in space vehicle and propulsion manufacturing; more than 3,000 in research, engineering and computing; and just over 2,000 in space electronics and hardware,” she said.
Washington’s space workers play a central role in the satellite industry. More than 68% of all active satellites in Earth orbit were built in the state, according to the analysis. Most of those made-in-Washington satellites were produced at SpaceX’s Starlink operation in Redmond.
The study also found that 24 space startups headquartered or operating in the state have collectively raised more than $4.3 billion, including more than $3.7 billion since 2021. 
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1258" height="1260" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/startchart-1258x1260.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955259" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/startchart-1258x1260.jpg 1258w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/startchart-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/startchart-767x769.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/startchart-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/startchart-400x400.jpg 400w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/startchart-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/startchart-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/startchart.jpg 1533w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1258px) 100vw, 1258px" /></figure>
Space Northwest is lending support to eight space startups through a new program called the Space Technology Accelerator for Growing Entrepreneurship, or <a href="https://www.spacenorthwest.org/snwaccelerator">STAGE</a>. The selected startups will participate in a 12-week program, with each startup receiving three hours of personalized coaching alongside specialized workshops. 
STAGE’s first cohort includes:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://beyonders.space/">Beyonders:</a> “We’re opening the door to the wonder of cosmic discovery by creating your own spacecraft … gram-scale picosatellites,” said founder Mike Antares. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.godel.space/">Godel Space:</a> Founded by Vikash Kodati and named after famed mathematician Kurt Gödel, this startup is building autonomous AI agents for satellite payloads.</li>
<li><a href="https://kynthos.space/">Kynthos:</a> Co-founders Selvan Viswanathan and Priya Srinavasa are working on software that maintains continuous custody of high-value assets and non-cooperative space objects.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.luthien.space/">Luthien Space:</a> “We are in the business of making lunar landings and missions safe with a decision-grade intelligence tool that is physics-validated,” said founder Tammy Payne.</li>
<li><a href="https://orabiomedical.com/">Ora Biomedical:</a> “What Ora Biomedical is focused on is creating the therapies that enable longer, safer spaceflight and crewed missions,” said co-founder and CEO Ben Blue.</li>
<li><a href="https://orabiomedical.com/">Signal Sights:</a> This venture is developing systems that convert radio frequency signals into intuitive visual information to improve situational awareness and decision making.</li>
<li><a href="https://comotion.uw.edu/startups/sqk-inc/">SQK:</a> This three-year-old startup provides guided computational AI to reconstruct and validate complex scientific data from noisy, incomplete or low-signal measurements.</li>
<li><a href="https://wmlaunch.space/">Wave Motion:</a> “What we want to do is turn the rocket equation on its head. … We essentially take the rocket fuel and beam it to the rocket as it’s needed,” said co-founder James Penna.</li>
</ul>
The preliminary findings reported by Space Northwest were produced by BERK Consulting and Alliance Velocity. Additional data sources include company-reported information, Crunchbase, and satellite data from Jonathan McDowell. The full report is still pending.
Check Space Northwest’s website for a <a href="https://www.spacenorthwest.org/seattle-space-week">schedule of Seattle Space Week events</a>.
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">955239</post-id> </item>
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<title>‘I’m not sure we’d make the same decision’: A rocket maker’s reality check for the Seattle region</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/im-not-sure-wed-make-the-same-decision-a-rocket-makers-reality-check-for-the-seattle-region/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 17:33:53 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Todd Bishop]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Space]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Andy Lapsa]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[bob ferguson]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[creative destruction lab]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Howard Schultz]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Seattle Space Week]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Stoke Space]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Washington Space Council]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955126</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="841" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/andy-lapsa-1260x841.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/andy-lapsa-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/andy-lapsa-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/andy-lapsa-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/andy-lapsa-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Stoke Space CEO Andy Lapsa, whose company is building a fully reusable rocket, told a Seattle audience he isn't sure he'd start the company in Washington state today. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/im-not-sure-wed-make-the-same-decision-a-rocket-makers-reality-check-for-the-seattle-region/">Read More</a>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="2624" height="1752" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/andy-lapsa.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955149" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/andy-lapsa.jpg 2624w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/andy-lapsa-767x512.jpg 767w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/andy-lapsa-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/andy-lapsa-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/andy-lapsa-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 2624px) 100vw, 2624px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Stoke Space CEO Andy Lapsa speaks Monday at a Creative Destruction Lab-Seattle event at Alexandria’s Eastlake Avenue building in Seattle, calling on Washington state to do more to support the next generation of founders. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)</figcaption></figure>
Making the entrepreneurial leap is hard enough, let alone launching a company into orbit. Andy Lapsa gave up a well-paying job, spent his family’s nest egg and went 15 months before paying himself half his old salary to get <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2024/uncommon-thinkers-stoke-space-ceo-andy-lapsa-explores-an-innovative-route-to-rocket-reusability/">Stoke Space</a> off the ground.
He said Stoke chose Washington state for its world-class talent in software, aerospace and manufacturing, and for a virtuous cycle in which iconic global companies bring talent and suppliers to the region, and their alumni go on to start companies of their own.
But if Lapsa and co-founder Tom Feldman were starting the Kent, Wash.-based rocket company today, he told a Seattle audience Monday, he’s not sure they’d do it here.
Lapsa cited factors including a political climate that vilifies successful companies and their founders; a state that does less than others to court promising startups; Seattle’s public schools, which he described as a failed institution; and the push for a wealth tax on unrealized gains, which he said would put startups out of reach for anyone who isn’t already wealthy.
“What will it take to ensure the next Stoke builds here, too? If Stoke were starting today, I’ll be straight honest with you: I’m not sure we’d make the same decision,” he said.
Lapsa delivered the keynote at “Manufacturing the Future in the PNW: Space, Defense & Robotics,” a Seattle Space Week event hosted by <a href="https://creativedestructionlab.com/locations/seattle/">Creative Destruction Lab-Seattle</a>.
The speech, which he read from multiple sheets of printed paper, drew on his family’s story and at one point left him choked up. The crowd gave him a standing ovation at the end. The talk was the buzz of the afternoon and the Space Week kickoff at the Museum of Flight in the evening.
Echoes of Schultz: Lapsa’s remarks tracked closely with a July <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/will-washington-state-choose-stagnation-over-growth-48b15adb?st=Xb39MC&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">op-ed</a> in the Wall Street Journal by former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who singled out Stoke as a test for the state.
“We should all be watching Stoke Space,” Schultz wrote, to see whether it and other companies “decide that Washington is the best place for them to grow.”
Schultz, who <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/whats-howards-end-former-starbucks-ceo-is-ripping-washington-state-again/">moved to Miami</a> earlier this year, came up in Lapsa’s speech, too. Lapsa cited him and Jeff Bezos as examples of successful founders the region has vilified, and he pointed to Boeing’s headquarters move and Amazon’s HQ2 as part of the same pattern.
Other states calling: Lapsa said South Carolina, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Idaho and Illinois had all emailed him in the past week or two trying to get Stoke to open up shop there.
“I’ve never received the same in Washington state,” he said. 

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<div style="font-size:14px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:1px;color:#c0392b;margin-bottom:8px;text-transform:uppercase;">Related</div>
<a class="callout-img" href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/washington-governor-sets-up-space-council-to-boost-business-ventures-targeting-the-final-frontier/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260928-kickoff.jpeg" alt="" style="width:100%;height:auto;display:block;border-radius:4px;" /></a>
<a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/washington-governor-sets-up-space-council-to-boost-business-ventures-targeting-the-final-frontier/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="font-size:16px;font-weight:700;line-height:1.3;color:#1a1a1a;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:8px;">Washington governor sets up council to boost space ventures</a>
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To be clear, in questioning whether he would make the same decision today, Lapsa was speaking hypothetically about founders starting new companies, and didn’t suggest that Stoke plans to leave Washington, where the company has been expanding its operations.
Hours later, Lapsa was among the 23 members of Gov. Bob Ferguson’s new Washington Space Council, introduced at the Space Week kickoff event, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/washington-governor-sets-up-space-council-to-boost-business-ventures-targeting-the-final-frontier/">as GeekWire reported</a>. Speaking there, Lapsa struck a similar tone, stressing the need for the state to move quickly.
“States like Florida and Texas and Colorado want this industry, and they want it bad,” he said. “They compete for it every day. Washington has every advantage it needs to lead them all, and the window to use those advantages is open right now.”
A rocket ship: Lapsa’s comments carry additional weight because of Stoke’s trajectory.
Stoke is developing Nova, a rocket designed so that both of its stages can return and fly again, with the goal of making access to space cheaper and more frequent. It’s only the second company to pursue full reusability, after SpaceX, which reuses the first stage of its Falcon 9 but hasn’t yet achieved full reuse with its much larger Starship.
The company <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/stoke-space-billion-upsize-nova-rocket/">announced</a> a roughly $1 billion Series E round this month, bringing its total funding to about $2.3 billion. It has more than 350 employees in Washington state, a 168,000-square-foot factory in Kent, and a <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2023/stoke-space-test-rocket-hop-moses-lake/">test site</a> in Moses Lake that it’s expanding from 75 to 550 acres.
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Milestones in Review 🚀 | Stoke Space" width="800" height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4zDPaPfDVkQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>
The first Nova launch is scheduled for early 2027 from Cape Canaveral.
The personal stakes: Lapsa made his case against a wealth tax by telling a personal story that he said he had never told before.
His father grew up in a post-war refugee camp and waited 12 years to immigrate to the U.S., arriving without speaking English. He became a university researcher, but Lapsa’s mother still worked a minimum-wage job to help put Lapsa and his two siblings through college. Lapsa and his wife graduated from college about $200,000 in debt and spent about a decade paying it off.
When he left Blue Origin to start Stoke in 2019, he gave himself nine months to get on track to earn a living wage. Small-business grants and a few angel investors kept the company going.
That’s why proposals to tax unrealized gains worry him. When a startup raises money, its founders become wealthy on paper overnight, he said, without a dime of cash to pay the resulting tax bill.
“It makes it so that the only people who can afford to start a company are the people who are already rich,” he said.
Washington doesn’t tax unrealized gains. However, Lapsa noted that the idea of a wealth tax has been popularized in California and to some extent locally. A one-time tax on California billionaires’ net worth is on the November ballot there, and wealth-tax bills introduced in Olympia haven’t advanced. 
Washington’s new 9.9% tax on income over $1 million, which takes effect in 2028 if it survives legal and ballot challenges, applies to income, not to the paper value of a founder’s shares.
A note of optimism: Lapsa closed by urging the audience to look past the headlines in their feeds and think critically about the consequences of the policies being proposed. He warned that political extremism harms the country and benefits its adversaries, and that both sides of the aisle are feeding a dangerous cycle of rhetoric.
Americans have more in common than their differences, he said. The freedoms they share, including the ability to change public policy when it isn’t working, are what made the U.S. the greatest country in history, he added.
“These are the reasons I stubbornly cling to the hope that Washington state will come around,” he concluded, “and the next Stoke Space decides here is their place.”
Updated at 3:56 p.m. to clarify that Washington does not tax unrealized gains, and to add context about wealth-tax proposals and the state’s new tax on high earners.
]]></content:encoded>
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">955126</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>‘Losing a piece of my life’: As Amazon’s Mechanical Turk shuts down, gig workers recall the HITs</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/losing-a-piece-of-my-life-as-amazons-mechanical-turk-shuts-down-gig-workers-recall-the-hits/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 16:11:22 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kurt Schlosser]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[gig work]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Mechanical Turk]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=954883</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="709" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/mturk-gig-workers-illustration-v2-1260x709.png" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/mturk-gig-workers-illustration-v2-1260x709.png 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/mturk-gig-workers-illustration-v2-768x432.png 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/mturk-gig-workers-illustration-v2-1536x864.png 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/mturk-gig-workers-illustration-v2.png 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Launched in 2005 as a platform where human workers could perform quick digital chores that early software couldn't handle, the marketplace became a fixture for researchers, remote freelancers, and data labelers worldwide — and its exit is triggering a wave of nostalgia and anxiety across online forums. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/losing-a-piece-of-my-life-as-amazons-mechanical-turk-shuts-down-gig-workers-recall-the-hits/">Read More</a>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/mturk-gig-workers-illustration-v2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-954964" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/mturk-gig-workers-illustration-v2.png 1600w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/mturk-gig-workers-illustration-v2-1260x709.png 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/mturk-gig-workers-illustration-v2-768x432.png 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/mturk-gig-workers-illustration-v2-1536x864.png 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">(Amazon logo via <a href="https://www.mturk.com/">mturk.com</a>; Claude Opus 5.5 Illustration)</figcaption></figure>
An early pillar of the gig economy and the hidden labor behind modern tech is officially coming to an end as Amazon is permanently shuttering <a href="https://www.mturk.com/">Mechanical Turk</a> on Wednesday after 21 years in operation.
Launched in 2005 as a platform where human workers could perform quick digital chores that early software couldn’t handle, the marketplace became a fixture for researchers, remote freelancers, and data labelers worldwide — and its exit is triggering a wave of nostalgia and anxiety across online forums.
Built around the concept of “Human Intelligence Tasks” (HITs) — small jobs like transcription, image labeling, and survey responses often paying just cents apiece — the service bridged the gap between human judgment and computing power long before generative models existed.
But as modern AI tools began automating those exact simple tasks, and with workers themselves increasingly turning to AI to complete assignments, the platform’s original utility blurred. Amazon stopped onboarding new clients earlier this summer before quietly confirming the full closure, leaving a dedicated base of long-time “turkers” scrambling for alternative flexible work.
Across forums like Reddit’s <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/mturk/">r/mturk</a>, long-time workers and community members shared their surprise, nostalgia, and disappointment over the platform’s closure. We rounded up a selection of reactions from online discussions reflecting on the end of MTurk:
“End of an era. MTurk was a huge part of my daily routine for a long time, and seeing it shut down genuinely feels like losing a piece of my life. It wasn’t just about the extra cash — it was the habit, the community, and knowing I could log on anytime to put work in.”
“I had to leave my job when our twins were born and in the nicu. I didn’t know what we were going to do. We barely kept our heads above water until I found Turk. I made enough to pull us out of the debt we created and then I was able to do enough to cover our mortgage and car. It was a huge blessing at that time. I haven’t worked on there since 2021 when it started going downhill, but I will always be so thankful for it. I’m so sad about it shutting down.”
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<div class="embed-x"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">"If the AI can't book a haircut without a human backup, what exactly are investors paying trillions of dollars for?" It seems they're paying trillions of dollars for Mechanical Turk with a blue logo. <a href="https://t.co/0EP74wr9wZ">https://t.co/0EP74wr9wZ</a>— Wogan (@WoganMay) <a href="https://x.com/WoganMay/status/2102755200461377754?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 23, 2026</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
</div></figure>
“Mturk gave me time to recover during a very rough patch in my life and was the gateway to being able to work remotely for the last ten years. I stopped using it regularly around 2023, and last did any hit around March, but will always be thankful for the impact that it had.”
“I once got paid $5 to listen to recordings of robots laughing and rate each one for how realistic it sounds. Each and every audio clip was the stuff of nightmares.”
“I made almost $700 in a day once off a batch of MLData HITs where I had to rate clothes and shoes on different aspects. I used it to buy myself a new laptop!”
“I truly am sad to see this place go. I found it years ago when a very close loved one passed away. It took my mind off the loss and I made $15k doing it part time whenever I had the energy. I was always so grateful for it. That’s why I hate to see it go. I really appreciated it. I wonder why Amazon didn’t just sell it to another company.”
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-bluesky wp-block-embed-bluesky"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:snaxo4dhow6layarg7gqyuzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtx6e74jxc2c" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreib6mytkxfrlw3xvsx4zkht7ktuj56srfwjorg6y42s4ghqlcp3q34">Mechanical Turk may be shutting down, but AI will always depend on data workers whose knowledge trains and tunes models. AI runs on extracted cultural skills and knowledge, and culture is always changing.Less the end of an era, but the end of an early prototype.— <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:snaxo4dhow6layarg7gqyuzz?ref_src=embed">Lilly Irani (@gleemie.bsky.social)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:snaxo4dhow6layarg7gqyuzz/post/3mtx6e74jxc2c?ref_src=embed">2026-08-26T01:24:23.386Z</a></blockquote><script async src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>
“I have to admit this announcement hit me harder than it really should. I’ve barely done any turking over the last four years yet losing turk altogether feels like such a huge change. It’s just always been there for so long.”
“It also helped me quit smoking because my rule when I quit was, I could go buy cigarettes but had to make the money for them on MTurk first. And seriously, after grinding out to make that money, no f*ckin’ way I was going to go blow that money on cigs!”
“Ended up making 19.6k on this site. Was hoping to get to 20k but it just slowed down so much over the last two years. … Ended up making 11k in one month back in 2023, and still have some of it saved. I don’t if I’ll ever experience pay like that again.”
“I remember my highest paying hit was like $20 and it felt like CHRISTMAS.”
“Still waiting for that email from MTurk saying they’ve reversed their decision and will continue the platform with new updates and improvements.”
]]></content:encoded>
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">954883</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>Meadow AI lands $7M to scale ‘digital secret shopper’ platform for physical retailers and restaurants</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/meadow-ai-lands-7m-to-scale-digital-secret-shopper-platform-for-physical-retailers-and-restaurants/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kurt Schlosser]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Startups]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[brick and mortar]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Max Jai Sim]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[meadow ai]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Restaurants]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[retail]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=954812</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="946" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Meadow-AI-Founders-1260x946.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Meadow-AI-Founders-1260x946.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Meadow-AI-Founders-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Meadow-AI-Founders-1536x1153.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Meadow-AI-Founders-2048x1537.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Meadow AI develops an artificial intelligence "co-manager" platform that gives operators real-time visibility into physical locations. The software ingests video and audio feeds alongside labor and inventory data to continuously monitor team execution, service speed, and overall store conditions. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/meadow-ai-lands-7m-to-scale-digital-secret-shopper-platform-for-physical-retailers-and-restaurants/">Read More</a>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="946" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Meadow-AI-Founders-1260x946.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-954817" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Meadow-AI-Founders-1260x946.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Meadow-AI-Founders-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Meadow-AI-Founders-1536x1153.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Meadow-AI-Founders-2048x1537.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Meadow AI’s co-founders, from left: Dragos Velicanu, Max Jai Sim and Abbas Guvenilir. (Meadow AI Photo)</figcaption></figure>
Seattle startup <a href="https://www.meadow.ai/">Meadow AI</a> has raised $7 million in new funding to scale its AI-powered operational software for physical retailers and restaurants.
The seed round was led by Ulu Ventures, with participation from York IE, Flying Fish, TenOneTen Ventures, Leadout Capital, and Wedbush Ventures. The financing includes the conversion of $6 million in Simple Agreements for Future Equity (SAFEs) from <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2025/seattle-startup-meadow-ai-emerges-from-stealth-with-6m-to-help-physical-retailers-monitor-operations/">earlier pre-seed financing</a>, bringing Meadow AI’s total funding to date to $13 million.
Meadow AI develops an artificial intelligence “co-manager” platform that gives operators real-time visibility into physical locations. The software ingests video and audio feeds alongside labor and inventory data to continuously monitor team execution, service speed, and overall store conditions.
Dubbed a “digital secret shopper,” the technology flags bottlenecks and delivers live prompts and coaching to frontline employees while customers are still on-site. It also automates repetitive administrative tasks, freeing up managers to stay on the floor.
Founded in 2023, Meadow AI was launched by repeat entrepreneurs <a href="http://linkedin.com/in/maxjaisim">Max Jai Sim</a> and <a href="http://linkedin.com/in/abbasguvenilir">Abbas Guvenilir</a> alongside CTO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dragos-velicanu-95999169">Dragos Velicanu</a>. Sim and Guvenilir previously co-founded real estate technology startup Modus, which raised $14 million before being acquired by Compass in 2020, while Guvenilir went on to lead AI and engineering teams at Nordstrom. Velicanu holds a Ph.D. in physics from MIT, where he analyzed particle physics data at CERN, and previously led engineering at Dave AI.
The startup aims to eliminate a persistent blind spot for brick-and-mortar businesses, which lack the deep customer journey analytics available to e-commerce sites. While traditional point-of-sale systems track what was bought, Meadow’s technology reveals why a customer had a poor experience — such as waiting too long in line or going ungreeted.
“Physical businesses generate an enormous amount of information, but most operators still don’t have a clear, real-time understanding of what’s happening across their locations,” Velicanu said in a news release. “We’re trying to make the physical world as understandable and actionable as the digital world.”
Meadow AI says its software grew by 6x over the past year and projects another 5x growth over the next 12 months. The platform has expanded to more than nine brands across the restaurant, retail, hospitality, and entertainment sectors, generating over $3 million in contracted annual recurring revenue and more than $1.4 million in live ARR.
Alongside the funding, Meadow AI announced that former Toast VP of Enterprise Solutions <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanvirbhangoo/">Tanvir Bhangoo</a> has joined as chief revenue officer to oversee enterprise expansion across restaurant and retail accounts.
Meadow AI has grown to 17 employees and is hiring, with plans to use the new capital to expand its engineering, product, and go-to-market teams.
]]></content:encoded>
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">954812</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>Climate Week NYC: Amazon’s Kara Hurst on AI data centers; Earthshot’s Jason Knauf on climate optimism</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/from-ai-data-centers-to-nasa-beating-wildfire-tech-5-lessons-from-climate-week-nyc/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 13:04:22 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa Stiffler]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Sustainability]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Climate change]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Climate Pledge]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Climate Week NYC]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Franco Rodríguez Viau]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Jason Knauf]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Kara Hurst]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Satellites on Fire]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[The Earthshot Prize]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=954651</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="845" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/nyc-climate-1-1260x845.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/nyc-climate-1-1260x845.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/nyc-climate-1-768x515.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/nyc-climate-1-1536x1030.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/nyc-climate-1-2048x1373.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> As Climate Week NYC buzzed over the environmental toll of the AI boom, GeekWire’s Positive Charge podcast moderated a private panel with Amazon Chief Sustainability Officer Kara Hurst and Earthshot Prize CEO Jason Knauf to tackle the world's mounting carbon challenges. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/from-ai-data-centers-to-nasa-beating-wildfire-tech-5-lessons-from-climate-week-nyc/">Read More</a>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="845" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/nyc-climate-1-1260x845.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-955110" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/nyc-climate-1-1260x845.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/nyc-climate-1-768x515.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/nyc-climate-1-1536x1030.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/nyc-climate-1-2048x1373.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">From left: Franco Rodríguez Viau, CEO and co-founder of Satellites on Fire; Lisa Stiffler, Geekwire reporter and Positive Charge host; Kara Hurst, chief sustainability officer for Amazon; and Jason Knauf LVO, CEO of The Earthshot Prize, at a Climate Week NYC session held at The Climate Pledge Hub on Sept. 24, 2026. (GeekWire Photo / Laura Scott)</figcaption></figure>
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NEW YORK — Even as the environmental toll of the AI data center boom and geopolitical strife loomed over Climate Week NYC, business, nonprofit and government leaders gathered at hundreds of events across the city to look for hope in collaboration and chart paths forward.
At The Climate Pledge Hub in Midtown Manhattan, executives from organizations worldwide that have vowed to cut their carbon emissions to net zero by 2040 met Thursday for a conversation on scalable climate solutions.
“There was a period of time where it was like, ‘Well, we don’t know how to do some of this,'” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/karahhurst/">Kara Hurst</a>, chief sustainability officer for Amazon. The sustainability sectors have evolved. “The innovation has skyrocketed,” she added. “The number of people working on these industries is phenomenal, and so the solutions are available.”
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://omny.fm/shows/positive-charge/from-ai-data-centers-to-nasa-beating-wildfire-tech-5-lessons-from-climate-week-nyc/embed?media=audio&size=wide&style=cover" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; fullscreen" allowfullscreen width="100%" height="180" frameborder="0" title="From AI data centers to NASA-beating wildfire tech: 5 lessons from Climate Week NYC "></iframe>
Hurst was joined on the panel by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-knauf-lvo-b47a106b/">Jason Knauf</a>, CEO of <a href="https://earthshotprize.org/">The Earthshot Prize</a>, a 10-year initiative launched in 2020 by Prince William, the Prince of Wales. The effort recognizes 15 finalists each year for their work on environmental solutions and selects five winners who each receive a $1.4 million (1 million British pounds) award.
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/franco-viau/?locale=en">Franco Rodríguez Viau</a>, CEO and co-founder of <a href="https://www.satellitesonfire.com/">Satellites on Fire</a> and an Earthshot finalist this year, also participated as a special guest. 
I moderated the session, which is available on <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/positivecharge/">GeekWire’s “Positive Charge” podcast</a> and will be released as a video. Here are five highlights from the conversation:
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">AI boom vs. climate goals</h4>
Across Climate Week, attendees discussed serious concerns about the impacts of AI data centers — from the construction of new gas power plants to the carbon-intensive concrete and steel used in building them. The scale is massive. Amazon alone is spending $200 billion this year on data center expansion, and last year the company’s carbon emissions rose <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/the-cost-of-the-ai-boom-amazon-emissions-jump-16-as-company-stands-by-net-zero-pledge/">16%</a>.
The surge leaves many wondering whether net-zero goals for 2040 remain achievable. Hurst acknowledged the difficulty.
“So that is a real challenge,” Hurst said, “and we’re here to meet the moment. I’m not saying that it’s going to be easy, and I’m not saying it’s going to be linear. But we’re going to put everything we have behind that.”
To counter those impacts, Amazon has invested in 700 renewable energy projects worldwide that can generate 42 gigawatts of power and continues to add facilities. The company is also procuring lower-carbon building materials, including mass timber.
“We are absolutely committed to our goal of 2040,” Hurst said, “and it is challenging.” 
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="945" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/IMG_2670-long-shot-1260x945.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-954994" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/IMG_2670-long-shot-1260x945.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/IMG_2670-long-shot-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/IMG_2670-long-shot-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/IMG_2670-long-shot-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A live Positive Charge podcast recording at a Climate Week NYC session held at The Climate Pledge Hub. (GeekWire Photo / Laura Scott)</figcaption></figure>
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Power in numbers</h4>
Panelists said the key to addressing climate change and reaching carbon goals lies in partnerships that aggregate buying power to invest in and adopt clean technologies.
“We’re all trying to go as fast as we can at this climate challenge to decarbonize our operations, to change our businesses, to change the world,” Hurst said. “And here we have a collection of individuals trying to do the same with innovative solutions. So what we’re trying to do is partner up, highlight those and make them visible.”
That includes The Climate Pledge, which Amazon co-launched and has grown to more than 700 signatories, as well as the <a href="https://www.shipzemba.org/">Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA)</a>, a buyer group supporting low-carbon maritime shipping. 
Amazon Web Services, Earthshot and investment firm Plug and Play <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sarah-dimson-tararuj_meet-velocity-the-climate-pledges-new-ugcPost-7508542278332829696-LxLp/">recently launched </a>Velocity, a collaboration helping late-stage climate tech companies find customers. The program has two focus areas: materials innovation in sectors including fashion waste and construction; and energy independence spanning batteries, grid technology and other infrastructure.
Four Velocity winners will each receive up to $100,000 in AWS credits and their solutions will be promoted to Climate Pledge signatories.
And beyond its cash awards, Earthshot mobilizes a global network to help its portfolio of thousands of sustainable solutions find support through investors and corporate customers, as well as policy support for wider adoption.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="945" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/IMG_2697-kara-and-jason-1260x945.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-954996" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/IMG_2697-kara-and-jason-1260x945.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/IMG_2697-kara-and-jason-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/IMG_2697-kara-and-jason-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/IMG_2697-kara-and-jason-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Hurst and Knauf at a Climate Week NYC panel held at The Climate Pledge Hub. (GeekWire Photo / Laura Scott)</figcaption></figure>
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Climate change as a unifying force</h4>
Addressing climate change is undeniably difficult and politically divisive, but Knauf said focusing solely on polarization misses the larger point. “The biggest story in the world right now is that this set of issues is the unifying mission in human history,” he said.
While climate impacts are felt acutely at the local level — whether from rising sea levels in Bangladesh’s Sundarbans mangrove region or along the beaches of Miami — the shared threat can bring people together rather than pull them apart, he added.
“Be open-minded. Talk to people who disagree with you. Don’t shut them down. Find common ground. Invite people in,” Knauf said. 
Both Knauf and Hurst emphasized the need to lead with shared values that transcend politics. People across the political spectrum ultimately want a “healthy, livable planet for your children with clean air and clean water,” Hurst said.
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Youth-led breakthroughs </h4>
Rodríguez Viau and two friends co-founded Satellites on Fire in Argentina at age 16 after family friends lost their homes to wildfires. Through interviews with firefighters and forest rangers, they learned that slow detection in remote areas was allowing blazes to turn catastrophic.
In response, they built a system using AI to analyze data from 13 satellites every five minutes, instantly sending location alerts to first responders via WhatsApp or text message.
“AI that we developed …. is nowadays detecting fires hours faster than NASA, which is the most used system globally for wildfires,” Rodríguez Viau said. 
The startup, which launched in 2020, is operating in 21 countries on five continents and continues to expand its footprint.
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Positive tipping points </h4>
Historically, the climate sector has focused on negative tipping points, such as the Amazon rainforest degrading until swaths of lush jungle turn into dry savanna. But new research from Earthshot and the University of Exeter in England highlights positive tipping points, such as solar power becoming so cheap that adoption grows exponentially.
The study identifies 51 sustainability objectives — restoring wetlands, preventing and composting food waste, and shifting to electric vehicles, to name a few — that can trigger rapid, favorable shifts to address critical environmental challenges.
“There’s some positive systems that if we actually put all of our efforts together and focus over the next few years, we know we can tip them into irreversible positivity,” Knauf said. 
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">The final word</h4>
The session closed with a question asking what message or action should listeners take with them. 
Knauf: “Invite people in. Let’s grow this movement. Let’s stop pushing people away. And use it to support each other and feel like we’re part of something bigger.”
Hurst: “When you find something that works, publish a case study. And when you find something that doesn’t work, talk about it also. Because we can move really fast when we know what the solutions are, but we can move really, really fast when we know what doesn’t work and we can avoid it.”
Rodríguez Viau: “I was listening when you were speaking about the 2040 goal, and I was thinking, ‘I don’t know if we will reach the goals that we want to reach or not, but at least I want to feel that I did everything I could.'” 
Editor’s note: The Climate Week panel and this episode of Positive Charge were sponsored by The Climate Pledge and Amazon.
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Sources and references</h4>
Interviews:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/karahhurst/">Kara Hurst</a>, chief sustainability officer for Amazon</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-knauf-lvo-b47a106b/">Jason Knauf</a>, CEO of <a href="https://earthshotprize.org/">The Earthshot Prize</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/franco-viau/?locale=en">Franco Rodríguez Viau</a>, CEO and co-founder of <a href="https://www.satellitesonfire.com/">Satellites on Fire</a></li>
</ul>
Additional sources:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://earthshotprize.org/news/the-tipping-points-playbook-the-earthshot-prize-and-the-university-of-exeter-reveal-how-to-make-environmental-repair-unstoppable/">“The new tipping points playbook: The Earthshot Prize and the University of Exeter reveal how to make environmental repair unstoppable”</a>, The Earthshot Prize</li>
</ul>
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<title>Washington governor sets up space council to boost business ventures targeting the final frontier</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/washington-governor-sets-up-space-council-to-boost-business-ventures-targeting-the-final-frontier/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 06:15:32 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alan Boyle]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Space]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Gov. Bob Ferguson]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Space Northwest]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Washington Space Council]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=955046</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="781" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260928-kickoff-1260x781.jpeg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="Gov. Bob Ferguson surrounded by Washington Space Council members at Museum of Flight" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260928-kickoff-1260x781.jpeg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260928-kickoff-768x476.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260928-kickoff-1536x953.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260928-kickoff-2048x1270.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Gov. Bob Ferguson introduces the 23-member Washington Space Council during the kickoff for Seattle Space Week. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/washington-governor-sets-up-space-council-to-boost-business-ventures-targeting-the-final-frontier/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="781" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260928-kickoff-1260x781.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-955048" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260928-kickoff-1260x781.jpeg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260928-kickoff-768x476.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260928-kickoff-1536x953.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260928-kickoff-2048x1270.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson kicks off the Washington Space Council, surrounded by the council’s members and 10-year-old Sebastian Yu. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)</figcaption></figure>
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson has created a public-private council to elevate the Evergreen State’s profile as regional clusters compete for primacy in America’s space industry.
The 23-member Washington Space Council was introduced tonight at the Museum of Flight during a kickoff event for <a href="https://www.spacenorthwest.org/seattle-space-week">Seattle Space Week</a>, a celebration organized by <a href="https://www.spacenorthwest.org/">Space Northwest</a>.
“The council will help keep us competitive by comparing Washington with other leading states in the industry and identifying ways we can continue to improve and compete,” Ferguson said.
Washington state already ranks as one of the nation’s space industry hotspots. “We’re proud to have a cluster of more than 90 space companies employing more than 13,000 workers, generating over $4 billion in annual economic activity and $1.6 billion in annual payroll,” Ferguson said.
But Andy Lapsa, co-founder and CEO of Kent, Wash.-based <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/tag/stoke-space/">Stoke Space</a>, told tonight’s crowd that several other regions are competing with the Pacific Northwest for space-related investments. “States like Florida and Texas and Colorado want this industry, and they want it bad,” he said. “They compete for it every day. Washington has every advantage it needs to lead them all, and the window to use those advantages is open right now.”
Boeing has historically been the state’s leading venture in aerospace, but when you focus on ventures that concentrate strictly on space, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/tag/blue-origin/">Blue Origin</a> is <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/washington-nasa-fy21-eir-state-sheet.pdf?emrc=6abb4415cfa02">high on the list</a>. Seattle is particularly strong in the satellite sector: More than half of the world’s satellites are built in the Seattle area, thanks to SpaceX’s Starlink facilities in <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/spacex-is-churning-out-70-starlink-satellites-a-week-in-redmond-and-other-tidbits-from-its-ipo-filing/">Redmond</a> and <a href="https://x.com/CyberMikeOG/status/2080304625845186991?lang=ca">Woodinville</a>, plus Amazon Leo’s factory in <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2024/vips-amazon-project-kuiper-satellite-factory-kirkland/">Kirkland</a>, BlackSky’s production plant in <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2021/blackskys-latest-satellite-delivers-first-pictures-ai-insights-just-hours-launch/">Tukwila</a> and Xplore’s operation in <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2025/xplore-hyperspectral-north-korea-satellite/">Bellevue</a>.
<a href="https://www.geekwire.com/tag/gravitics/">Gravitics</a>, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/tag/interlune/">Interlune</a>, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/tag/portal-space-systems/">Portal Space Systems</a>, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/tag/starcloud/">Starcloud</a> and <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/tag/starfish-space/">Starfish Space</a> are among other space ventures represented on the Washington Space Council. The list also includes elected officials, union leaders, educators and investors, plus representatives from space-related tech companies and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><a href="https://www.commerce.wa.gov/economic-development/washington-space-council/"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="774" height="1003" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/council3.png" alt="" class="wp-image-955054" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/council3.png 774w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/council3-768x995.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 774px) 100vw, 774px" /></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The 23-member Washington State Council includes representatives from government, academia and the space industry. Click on the image to get the <a href="https://www.commerce.wa.gov/economic-development/washington-space-council/">full list from the Washington State Department of Commerce</a>.</figcaption></figure>
Ferguson said the council will “identify barriers for the industry and find opportunities for growth.”
“That includes, by the way, workforce development, infrastructure and much more,” he said. “And the council will look for ways we might be able to develop Washington-based commercial launch capabilities. That would be a very exciting addition to what we’re doing right here in Washington.”
Ferguson brought a member of the audience, 10-year-old Sebastian Yu, to the stage when he signed the executive order that officially created the council. After the signing, the governor handed the pen to Yu.
“Your assignment, Sebastian, is that when we do that first launch, you have to save this pen and bring it with you to the first launch,” Ferguson said. “Take care of this pen, OK? I’m going to expect to see it again someday.”
Notes from the kickoff:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Space Northwest presented three awards to recognize contributions to the region’s space industry. The Shooting Star award for municipal support went to the city of Kent, Wash. Portal Space Systems won the Rising Star award for emerging space companies, and SpaceX won the North Star Award for large space companies.</li>
<li>Kent Mayor Dana Ralph noted that her city’s connection to the space industry goes back to <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/resting-places-boeing-built-moon-rovers-win-washington-state-landmark-status/">Boeing’s work on the lunar rovers for NASA’s Apollo moon missions</a> in the 1970s, while acknowledging that Kent can’t rest on its laurels. “Our job is to make it possible for companies to build and grow and hire. That means reinvesting in the basics: roads, great mobility, water, sewer, plentiful and easily accessible energy and industrial land,” she said.</li>
<li>Mehran Mesbahi, professor and chair of the University of Washington’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, highlighted efforts to boost careers in the space industry. “We have <a href="https://huskysat.org/">Husky Satellite Lab</a>, a group of energized students at UW, and we’re going to create a certificate program around space systems going forward,” he said.</li>
</ul>
Seattle Space Week continues on Tuesday with the <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/calendar-event/space-northwest-symposium/">Space Northwest Symposium</a> at the Federal Way Performing Arts & Event Center.
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<title>Seattle-based sales tech company Outreach to move HQ to Adobe’s campus in Fremont neighborhood</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-based-sales-tech-company-outreach-to-move-hq-to-adobes-campus-in-fremont-neighborhood/</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2026 17:49:32 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Todd Bishop]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Real Estate]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Abhijit Mitra]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Adobe]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Kilroy Realty]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[outreach]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Salesforce]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Tableau]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=954913</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="840" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/701-1260x840.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/701-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/701-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/701-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/701-2048x1366.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> Sales technology company Outreach confirmed plans to move its headquarters from Interbay to Seattle's Fremont neighborhood early next year, joining a campus that Adobe has anchored since the late 1990s. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-based-sales-tech-company-outreach-to-move-hq-to-adobes-campus-in-fremont-neighborhood/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="840" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/701-1260x840.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-954935" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/701-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/701-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/701-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/701-2048x1366.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">701 N. 34th St. in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, where Outreach plans to move its HQ early next year. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)</figcaption></figure>
<a href="https://www.outreach.ai/">Outreach</a> confirmed plans to move its headquarters from Interbay to Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood early next year, joining a campus that Adobe has anchored since the late 1990s.
The sales technology company, which was <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2021/outreach-lands-200-million-pushing-valuation-sales-software-startup-4-4-billion/">valued at more than $4.4 billion</a> in a 2021 funding round, has grown to about 800 employees from 680 in late 2024.
The company will take one floor at <a href="https://kilroyrealty.com/properties/fremont-lake-union-center/">Fremont Lake Union Center</a>, a three-building, roughly 424,000-square-foot campus on North 34th Street owned by Kilroy Realty. Outreach’s new space is at 701 N. 34th St., a four-story building next door to Adobe’s longtime Seattle office. 
Outreach CEO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitrasaab">Abhijit Mitra</a> disclosed the move to the <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2026/09/24/outreach-headquarters-interbay-fremont-mitra.html">Puget Sound Business Journal</a>, saying it would bring more face-to-face collaboration. Outreach confirmed the plans to GeekWire. The company is currently based at 333 Elliott in Interbay, where it <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2018/fast-growing-sales-automation-startup-outreach-scoops-big-fish-games-office-space-new-seattle-hq/">leased the top three floors</a> of the Martin Selig Real Estate building in 2018. It has since cut back to two floors, the PSBJ reports.
The move will bring Outreach back to Fremont. Before 333 Elliott, the company occupied about 26,000 square feet in the neighborhood, subleased from Tableau, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2018/fast-growing-sales-automation-startup-outreach-scoops-big-fish-games-office-space-new-seattle-hq/">GeekWire reported</a> at the time.
Adobe, which established its Seattle presence by <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/pagemaker-pioneer-paul-brainerd-1947-2026-aldus-founder-devoted-his-second-chapter-to-the-planet/">acquiring PageMaker maker Aldus</a> in 1994, moved to the Fremont campus from Pioneer Square in 1998, becoming the anchor tenant of what was then called Quadrant Lake Union Center.
Adobe <a href="https://www.connectcre.com/stories/gms-cruise-takes-375k-sf-with-kilroy-in-san-francisco/">renewed and extended its lease</a> on 163,000 square feet in 2018. The campus has seen other changes more recently: Salesforce-owned Tableau <a href="https://therealdeal.com/national/seattle/2024/08/12/salesforce-unit-tableau-to-exit-former-hq-in-seattle/">left the 837 N. 34th St. building</a> in 2024, and co-working company <a href="https://kiln.com/communities/fremont/">Kiln</a> is preparing to open its <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2025/co-working-company-kiln-opening-first-washington-state-location-in-tech-heavy-seattle-neighborhood/">first Washington location</a> in the building, with doors set to open late this year.
Tableau remains in the neighborhood. The Salesforce unit <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/salesforces-tableau-renews-fremont-office-lease-signaling-long-term-seattle-commitment/">renewed its lease</a> in July on roughly 114,000 square feet at its Data 1 building, 744 N. 34th St.
Google <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2025/google-sets-long-term-plan-to-exit-seattles-fremont-neighborhood-consolidate-in-south-lake-union/">plans to eventually leave</a> its longtime Fremont offices and is in the process of consolidating its Seattle employees in South Lake Union, GeekWire reported last year.
Founded in 2014, Outreach makes AI tools that research prospects, take notes during sales meetings, coach reps in real time and update CRM systems. Its customers include Zoom, Siemens and Snowflake. Co-founder Manny Medina <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2024/outreach-ceo-manny-medina-steps-down/">stepped down as CEO</a> in 2024, and Mitra, who joined in 2023 as president of product and technology, took over.
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<title>Seattle outranks major global cities to land at No. 4 in report that cites economy, quality of life, and more</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-outranks-major-global-cities-to-land-at-no-4-in-report-that-cites-economy-quality-of-life-and-more/</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2026 17:14:38 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kurt Schlosser]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Oxford Economics Global Cities Index 2026]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Quality of Life]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=954900</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1260" height="933" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/55423783822_6aaacd6670_k-1260x933.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/55423783822_6aaacd6670_k-1260x933.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/55423783822_6aaacd6670_k-768x569.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/55423783822_6aaacd6670_k-1536x1138.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/55423783822_6aaacd6670_k.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px"> The Emerald City landed at No. 4 overall in the newly released Oxford Economics Global Cities Index 2026, which scored 1,000 major urban centers across economics, human capital, quality of life, environment, and governance. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle-outranks-major-global-cities-to-land-at-no-4-in-report-that-cites-economy-quality-of-life-and-more/">Read More</a>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="2048" height="1517" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/55423783822_6aaacd6670_k.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-954908" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/55423783822_6aaacd6670_k.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/55423783822_6aaacd6670_k-1260x933.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/55423783822_6aaacd6670_k-768x569.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/55423783822_6aaacd6670_k-1536x1138.jpg 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The Seattle skyline and waterfront along Elliott Bay. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)</figcaption></figure>
Seattle, take a bow. You’re officially trailing only New York, London, and Paris on the world stage.
The Emerald City landed at No. 4 overall in the newly released <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260923-the-worlds-top-cities-for-2026-and-why-they-stand-out">Oxford Economics Global Cities Index 2026</a>, which scored 1,000 major urban centers across economics, human capital, quality of life, environment, and governance.
Seattle eclipsed San Francisco, Dublin, Boston, San Jose, Tokyo, and Zurich, Switzerland, to round out the top 10.
Much of the city’s global pull stems from an economics score that is fourth worldwide, fueled by a corporate ecosystem that features tech powerhouses Microsoft and Amazon alongside industrial titan Boeing and retail staples like Starbucks, Costco, and Nordstrom.
That heavy concentration of high-value employers gives Seattle the fourth-highest income per person in the world at $152,000 and underpins its human capital performance (top 10 nationally, top 50 globally). 
In total, the 4.2 million-person metro area generated $632 billion in GDP in 2025.

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<div style="font-size:14px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:1px;color:#c0392b;margin-bottom:8px;text-transform:uppercase;">Related</div>
<a class="callout-img" href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/opinion-its-time-for-seattle-to-believe-in-seattle/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/20170703_Fireworks_barge_70.jpg" alt="" style="width:100%;height:auto;display:block;border-radius:4px;" /></a>
<a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/opinion-its-time-for-seattle-to-believe-in-seattle/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="font-size:16px;font-weight:700;line-height:1.3;color:#1a1a1a;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:8px;">Opinion: It’s time for Seattle to believe in Seattle</a>
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The global accolades follow a blockbuster summer in which Seattle hosted six 2026 FIFA World Cup matches — generating $889 million in regional economic impact while offering a high-profile boost to a city navigating local friction over business taxes, housing and public safety policies, and the revival of downtown.
Beyond pure balance sheets, the report cites Seattle’s high quality of life (22nd globally, second in the U.S.), which relies heavily on a cultural footprint that spans the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Symphony, and Seattle Opera. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and the city’s grunge roots even get a shout out.
The report also spotlighted physical urban additions like the newly completed 20-acre Waterfront Park along Elliott Bay — which replaced the former Alaskan Way Viaduct with expansive walkways, community piers, and dedicated bike lanes. Add in clean air, low emissions intensity, and quick access to Lake Washington and Puget Sound, and the city notched an environment rank of 28th.
The news wasn’t all glowing, however. Seattle tumbled to 198th in the governance category — a drag fueled by broader national political friction — while lower income equality, high housing costs, and elevated crime rates were flagged as ongoing vulnerabilities. 
Oxford Economics also warned that potential shifts in federal immigration policy could crimp international talent inflows, posing a long-term risk to the region’s human capital growth.
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<title>Nimbus Aerospace tests quarter-scale prototype in Oregon as hybrid-electric race ramps up</title>
<link>https://www.geekwire.com/2026/nimbus-aerospace-tests-quarter-scale-prototype-in-oregon-as-hybrid-electric-race-ramps-up/</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2026 15:02:28 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa Stiffler]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Sustainability]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Nimbus Aerospace]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[sustainable aviation]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.geekwire.com/?p=954371</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<img width="1104" height="826" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/NX1-in-Air-1-1.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/NX1-in-Air-1-1.jpg 1104w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/NX1-in-Air-1-1-767x574.jpg 767w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1104px) 100vw, 1104px"> Seattle-based startup Nimbus Aerospace has completed successful test flights of its quarter-scale hybrid aircraft prototype in Oregon as it works toward a 2028 full-scale build. By combining pre-certified parts, high-lift wings, and an AI certification tool, the team aims to bring a fuel-efficient six-to-eight passenger plane to market by late 2030. <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/nimbus-aerospace-tests-quarter-scale-prototype-in-oregon-as-hybrid-electric-race-ramps-up/">Read More</a>]]></description>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1104" height="826" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/NX1-in-Air-1-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-954881" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/NX1-in-Air-1-1.jpg 1104w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/NX1-in-Air-1-1-767x574.jpg 767w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1104px) 100vw, 1104px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Nimbus Aerospace’s NX1, a one-quarter size prototype in a test flight this summer near the Pendleton Airport UAS Range in Oregon. (Nimbus Photo)</figcaption></figure>
The team at Seattle-based <a href="https://www.nimbusaerospace.com/">Nimbus Aerospace</a> had planned to finish testing its quarter-scale prototype earlier in the summer, but struggled to schedule one of the few pilots skilled in remote-controlled flight.
“Not many people wanted to fly this thing,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-groos-373320149">Adrian Groos</a>, co-founder and CEO of Nimbus. “It was a $1 million-plus model that was significantly bigger than anything else most people have flown, as well as heavier.”
The startup is developing a hybrid-electric aircraft with high-lift wings designed to improve fuel efficiency. Nimbus plans to build a six- to eight-passenger aircraft with a 1,500-mile range that uses half as much fuel as a comparable conventional plane.
In June and August, the startup conducted two test flights of its NX1 prototype at the Pendleton Airport UAS Range in Oregon. The aircraft, which has a 15-foot wingspan and weighs 200 pounds, flew for 3 minutes 42 seconds in the first flight and 6 minutes in the second.
The tests achieved their goals of demonstrating the company’s manufacturing capabilities and the aircraft’s aerodynamics and stability, Groos said.
Nimbus has started engineering a full-scale prototype, with test flights targeted for 2028. The team is still deciding where to build the aircraft, considering Seattle against other locations around the country.
The ultimate goal is to begin delivering aircraft to customers in late 2030.
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To get there, the team is working to navigate the Federal Aviation Administration’s certification process as smoothly as possible. The company has built a system called the ACT (AI Certification Tool) Platform to streamline and expedite FAA certification, and a former FAA deputy director of aircraft certification sits on the startup’s advisory board.
While the Nimbus product has a unique hybrid powertrain, components such as landing gear and lights use already-approved, pre-certified parts that will also be cheaper and easier to fix.
“We’re not trying to build a super novel design. That’s just a certification nightmare,” Groos said. “We’re trying to bring an aircraft to market that solves the needs that the people are asking for.”
And what customers want is a plane that burns less fuel and requires less maintenance, he added.
Aviation is one of the most difficult industries to decarbonize. It contributes <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/global-aviation-emissions">2.5% of the greenhouse gases</a> emitted annually, but that percentage is expected to increase as other sectors go low-carbon and air travel increases. In addition to battery- and hydrogen-powered aircraft, sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, is seen as the most promising solution for larger planes.
Washington state is also home to sustainable aircraft startup <a href="https://www.magnix.aero/">magniX</a>, though others have shut down. Electric-aviation startup <a href="https://zunum.aero/">Zunum Aero</a> and <a href="https://outbound.aero/">Outbound Aerospace</a> folded, and <a href="https://www.zeroavia.com/">ZeroAvia</a> largely <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2026/hydrogen-aviation-startup-zeroavia-retreats-from-seattle-area-as-it-scales-back-ambitions/">ceased operations</a> in the state earlier this year, though it remains active in the United Kingdom. California-based <a href="https://hydrogen.aero/">Universal Hydrogen</a>, which test-flew a hydrogen-fueled plane in Moses Lake, Wash., closed in 2024.
“People created products that weren’t really ready for prime time,” Groos said. That’s particularly the case for hydrogen-powered aircraft — the fuel is in limited supply and the path to certification is uncharted, he added. 
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1260" height="709" src="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/NX1-POV-above-Runway-1-1260x709.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-954641" srcset="https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/NX1-POV-above-Runway-1-1260x709.jpg 1260w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/NX1-POV-above-Runway-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/NX1-POV-above-Runway-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/NX1-POV-above-Runway-1.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The Nimbus NX1 prototype flying over the runway at the Pendleton Airport. (Nimbus Photo)</figcaption></figure>
Other companies in the hybrid-electric space include Heart Aerospace, Electra.aero and Ampaire.
Groos and Nimbus co-founder and Chief Technology Officer <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/akim-niyonzima-9059ab1b4/">Akim Niyonzima</a> met on LinkedIn and began working on a sustainable aircraft in 2023. The five-person team also includes Chief Marketing Officer <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/eno-oduok/">Eno Oduok</a>. The startup, a past Techstars participant, has raised about $4 million from an unnamed family office. The company hopes to add six engineers over the next year.
Nimbus is going to move its NX1 to the Pendleton Airport UAS Range hangar, where it will be displayed alongside the Airbus Vahana eVTOL, a prototype all-electric, single-seat aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing. 
 
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