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June 05, 2015 - 01:04 PM
Musk v. Altman: Inside the courthouse as Microsoft’s $13B OpenAI bet goes on trial

Musk v. Altman: Inside the courthouse as Microsoft’s $13B OpenAI bet goes on trial

April 27, 2026

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, left, and President Greg Brockman as photographed through the windows of the federal courthouse in Oakland as they arrived for jury selection in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Altman, OpenAI, and Microsoft. (GeekWire Photos / Todd Bishop) OAKLAND — Did Microsoft knowingly...

Microsoft and OpenAI revamp partnership, with trial in Elon Musk suit set to begin

Microsoft and OpenAI revamp partnership, with trial in Elon Musk suit set to begin

April 27, 2026

A crowd of lawyers and reporters waits outside the U.S. Courthouse in Oakland for the start of jury selection Monday in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman, OpenAI and Microsoft. OAKLAND — Microsoft and OpenAI announced a major amendment to their partnership Monday morning, just as jury...

Oprah goes Prime: Amazon secures multi-year rights to talk show queen’s video podcasts

Oprah goes Prime: Amazon secures multi-year rights to talk show queen’s video podcasts

April 27, 2026

Oprah Winfrey’s video podcast will be available across Amazon platforms. (Wondery Photo) Amazon has landed talk show queen Oprah Winfrey and her video podcasts for its suite of streaming services. “Long before the term ‘creator’ existed, Oprah was building a direct and deeply personal...

Late-night name drop: Seattle startup Tin Can achieves cultural milestone

Late-night name drop: Seattle startup Tin Can achieves cultural milestone

April 27, 2026

Tin Can co-founder and CEO Chet Kittleson. (Tin Can Photo) Jimmy Kimmel was riffing on presidential social media habits last week when he offered a suggestion that doubled as an unscripted product endorsement. “I wonder if they’ve considered getting him one of those Tin Can phones like the...

Microsoft earnings preview: After a $357B wipeout, tech giant gets another chance

Microsoft earnings preview: After a $357B wipeout, tech giant gets another chance

April 27, 2026

The last time Microsoft reported earnings, it seemed to do everything right, at least by the traditional metrics. Revenue was up 17%, profits soared 24%, and the company’s closely watched Azure cloud business beat internal forecasts. And then it got absolutely...

Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of April 19, 2026

Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of April 19, 2026

April 26, 2026

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 April 19, 2026. Sign up to receive these updates every Sunday in your inbox by subscribing to our GeekWire Weekly email newsletter. Most popular stories on...

An AI hater’s guide to keeping LLMs as far from your workflow as possible in 2026

An AI hater’s guide to keeping LLMs as far from your workflow as possible in 2026

April 26, 2026

Clippy almost deserves an apology, now that we’ve seen what came next. (Original cartoon: Amadeo Garcia III for GeekWire) Longtime GeekWire readers might recognize my byline from my frequent coverage of the PNW’s video game industry, as well as occasionally dipping into the arts. I am also not a...

AI, fungi, and the future of enterprise tech: Industry vet Bill Hilf on his debut novel, ‘The Disruption’

AI, fungi, and the future of enterprise tech: Industry vet Bill Hilf on his debut novel, ‘The Disruption’

April 25, 2026

Bill Hilf, board chair of the Allen Institute for AI and American Prairie, and author of the new novel “The Disruption.” (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Bill Hilf has spent decades working inside some of the biggest names in tech — bringing open source software into Microsoft when it was heresy,...

Internal memo: Five senior execs out at Qualtrics as new CEO restructures leadership team

Internal memo: Five senior execs out at Qualtrics as new CEO restructures leadership team

April 25, 2026

Qualtrics is based in Provo, Utah, and downtown Seattle (above). (GeekWire File Photo) Qualtrics CEO Jason Maynard shook up the company’s senior leadership team on Friday at its dual headquarters in downtown Seattle and Provo, Utah, less than three months after taking the helm of the experience...

Tech Moves: Expedia names CFO; former Tune CEO leaves Roku; Amazon and Microsoft departures

Tech Moves: Expedia names CFO; former Tune CEO leaves Roku; Amazon and Microsoft departures

April 24, 2026

Derek Andersen. (Expedia Photo) — Expedia Group named Derek Andersen as its new chief financial officer starting May 11. He succeeds Scott Schenkel, who is stepping down after more than two years in the role. The Seattle-based travel giant hired Andersen from Snap, the company behind...

Meta signs multibillion-dollar deal to use Amazon’s Graviton chips for agentic AI

Meta signs multibillion-dollar deal to use Amazon’s Graviton chips for agentic AI

April 24, 2026

An AWS Graviton chip. (Amazon Photo) Facebook parent Meta signed a deal to use Amazon’s Graviton chips for agentic AI, the latest indication of growing demand for the tech giant’s growing silicon business. Bloomberg reports that the deal is worth billions of dollars over multiple years. It...

Seattle HR leader’s candid book offers practical insights for building a business without losing yourself

Seattle HR leader’s candid book offers practical insights for building a business without losing yourself

April 24, 2026

Mikaela Kiner’s new book is “The Reverb Way: How to Build a Thriving Business Without Sacrificing It All.” (Photo courtesy Mikaela Kiner) The dreamy part of Mikaela Kiner‘s life is easy to picture. She has spent her recent winters working from a small Costa Rica beach town, taking surfing...

It’s just Xbox: Microsoft gaming leaders start new era with old name, new metric, and challenger mindset

It’s just Xbox: Microsoft gaming leaders start new era with old name, new metric, and challenger mindset

April 23, 2026

The new Xbox logo, featuring glass effects, part of the “We Are Xbox” strategy shift. (Microsoft Image) Microsoft is changing the way it measures success in its Xbox business, focusing on daily active players rather than longer periods of time — a tighter measure that reflects the way the...

A nuclear first: TerraPower officially starts construction on next-gen Natrium plant in Wyoming

A nuclear first: TerraPower officially starts construction on next-gen Natrium plant in Wyoming

April 23, 2026

TerraPower is celebrating the start of construction on its nuclear plant in Kemmerer, Wyo. (TerraPower Photo) TerraPower announced Thursday that it has started construction on its Natrium plant, making it the first company in the U.S. to break ground on an advanced nuclear power...

Brute-force attack linked Rec Room user phone numbers to online identities

Brute-force attack linked Rec Room user phone numbers to online identities

April 23, 2026

Rec Room gift cards in a retail kiosk in Seattle. The social gaming platform, which is shutting down June 1, experienced a previously unreported brute-force attack on its friend-finder feature earlier this year that linked user phone numbers to their online identities. (GeekWire Photo / Todd...

Microsoft will offer voluntary retirement to thousands of employees in a first for tech giant

Microsoft will offer voluntary retirement to thousands of employees in a first for tech giant

April 23, 2026

Time to hang it up? Microsoft will be giving some employees that chance. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Microsoft is offering a one-time voluntary retirement program for the first time in its 51-year history, giving thousands of long-serving U.S. employees a chance to leave with a financial...

Opinion: Which capitalism are we defending?

Opinion: Which capitalism are we defending?

April 23, 2026

Editor’s Note: Nick Hanauer is a Seattle entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and founder of Civic Ventures. He was an early investor in Amazon and is co-founder of Second Avenue Partners. This piece is a reply to Chris DeVore’s “Make Democracy Capitalist Again.” Nick Hanauer. (Civic Ventures...

Iridius, led by Microsoft and AWS vets, raises $8.6M to crack AI’s regulatory compliance bottleneck

Iridius, led by Microsoft and AWS vets, raises $8.6M to crack AI’s regulatory compliance bottleneck

April 23, 2026

Iridius CEO and co-founder Mike Kropp. (Iridius Photo) Many companies in regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals are pouring money into AI. But a lot of that work ultimately doesn’t see the light of day, due to the compliance, validation, and audit requirements that govern every system they...

Amazon names AWS exec Prasad Kalyanaraman to S-team, promotes Dave Brown to SVP

Amazon names AWS exec Prasad Kalyanaraman to S-team, promotes Dave Brown to SVP

April 23, 2026

Prasad Kalyanaraman, VP of AWS Infrastructure Services, has been named to Amazon’s senior leadership team. (Amazon Photo) Amazon added a new member to its senior leadership team Wednesday, naming AWS infrastructure chief Prasad Kalyanaraman to the group known as the S-team or “steam,” while also...

LinkedIn CEO change: Daniel Shapero takes the helm as Microsoft broadens leadership team

LinkedIn CEO change: Daniel Shapero takes the helm as Microsoft broadens leadership team

April 22, 2026

New LinkedIn CEO Daniel Shapero, left, and Ryan Roslansky, EVP of LinkedIn and Microsoft Office, at LinkedIn headquarters. (LinkedIn Photo) LinkedIn has a new CEO for the first time in six years. Daniel Shapero, the company’s chief operating officer since 2021, is stepping into the top job,...

Washington state flunks school phone policy rankings

Washington state flunks school phone policy rankings

April 22, 2026

(BigStock Photo) A new scorecard rating school cellphone policies nationwide gave Washington state and four others a failing grade. Washington lacks statewide rules setting limits on phone use in the classroom and on campus, allowing districts to set their own policies. The rankings, first...

Seattle report says gig worker pay law is working, countering claims by DoorDash and Uber 

Seattle report says gig worker pay law is working, countering claims by DoorDash and Uber 

April 22, 2026

GeekWire File Photo Updated below with DoorDash statement. Seattle’s gig worker pay law, requiring minimum pay rates for app-based delivery workers, has been one of the most contentious labor experiments in the country for more than two years. Now the city is pushing back on critics —...

From the ‘scurfy’ mouse to the Nobel Prize: How a Seattle biotech pioneer’s long game paid off

From the ‘scurfy’ mouse to the Nobel Prize: How a Seattle biotech pioneer’s long game paid off

April 22, 2026

Fred Ramsdell, left, speaking with moderator Karen Tkach Tuzman at the Life Science Innovation Northwest 2026 conference in Seattle on April 21. (GeekWire Photo / Lisa Stiffler) The biotech industry is increasingly shaped by computer-designed drugs and investor pressure to move...

Brev raises $3.3M for AI agents that keep companies on track with goals

Brev raises $3.3M for AI agents that keep companies on track with goals

April 22, 2026

Brev co-founders Vic Hu (left) and Chris Pitchford. (Brev Photo) Brev, a startup with roots in Seattle’s tech community, has raised $3.3 million in pre-seed funding for its AI tools that automatically track how companies are performing against goals. The company’s AI agents join standups,...

Seattle high schooler’s Google Doodle pays tribute to hair and family history as a superpower

Seattle high schooler’s Google Doodle pays tribute to hair and family history as a superpower

April 22, 2026

Google Doodle artwork by Kameirah Johnson of Renton, Wash. (Google Image) Kameirah Johnson, a senior at Seattle’s Lakeside School, is one of five students nationwide whose artwork will appear on the Google homepage later this month, after being selected as a finalist in the annual Doodle for...

Starbucks cuts tech jobs as new CTO reshapes organization

Starbucks cuts tech jobs as new CTO reshapes organization

April 22, 2026

Starbucks is cutting an unspecified number of tech jobs. (GeekWire File Photo) Starbucks is cutting jobs in its technology organization, restructuring the team under a new chief technology officer who joined the coffee giant from Amazon four months ago. Several affected employees posted about...

Microsoft’s new Xbox chief makes first major change, cutting Game Pass price, but with a catch

Microsoft’s new Xbox chief makes first major change, cutting Game Pass price, but with a catch

April 21, 2026

Asha Sharma and Matt Booty, the new leadership team for Microsoft Gaming. (Microsoft Photo) Asha Sharma’s first big move as Microsoft’s gaming chief is a trade-off. The company is cutting the price of its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription by $7 a month, from $29.99 to $22.99. However,...

Tech Moves: Microsoft quantum lead joins IonQ; Heptio co-founder now CTO at Stacklok; Amazon departure

Tech Moves: Microsoft quantum lead joins IonQ; Heptio co-founder now CTO at Stacklok; Amazon departure

April 21, 2026

Jeff Henshaw. (LinkedIn Photo) — Former Microsoft quantum lead Jeff Henshaw has joined IonQ as senior vice president of quantum compute products. Henshaw said on LinkedIn that he has advised “dozens of quantum companies, from early-stage startups to industry titans,” and cited IonQ’s rapidly...

Former advisor to Steve Jobs says new Apple CEO is exactly what’s needed: an engineer from the inside

Former advisor to Steve Jobs says new Apple CEO is exactly what’s needed: an engineer from the inside

April 21, 2026

John Ternus, left, and Tim Cook at Apple Park. (Apple Photo) Tim Cook’s plan to step down as Apple’s CEO, announced Monday, will put the tech giant in the hands of a hardware engineer, John Ternus, returning Apple’s top job to its product roots after nearly 15 years under a leader who made his...

PowerLight’s laser power beaming system keeps a drone in the air for hours during Pentagon test flights

PowerLight’s laser power beaming system keeps a drone in the air for hours during Pentagon test flights

April 21, 2026

A KHA K1000ULE drone receives power via PowerLight’s laser power beaming system during a flight test. (PowerLight Photo) Kent, Wash.-based PowerLight Technologies says its laser power beaming system has been used successfully to keep a military-grade, fixed-wing drone in the air for hours during...

Amazon doubles down on Anthropic with $25B investment, mirroring its OpenAI cloud deal

Amazon doubles down on Anthropic with $25B investment, mirroring its OpenAI cloud deal

April 20, 2026

Amazon and Anthropic announced an expanded partnership Monday that includes up to $25 billion in new investment and more than $100 billion in cloud commitments over 10 years. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) Amazon is now running the same playbook with both of the world’s top AI labs. Two...

Opinion: You can’t blame data centers in Seattle for our skyrocketing electricity prices

Opinion: You can’t blame data centers in Seattle for our skyrocketing electricity prices

April 20, 2026

Power lines, storm clouds, and shoes over Seattle. (Kurt Schlosser Photo) After a vague report that some companies were seeking to build “large” data centers in Seattle, Mayor Katie Wilson is exploring a moratorium on new data centers. This seems like the typical performative, hypocritical...

Seattle-area billboard takes a page from Bay Area playbook: ‘Startup energy should be more visible’

Seattle-area billboard takes a page from Bay Area playbook: ‘Startup energy should be more visible’

April 20, 2026

A billboard for Bellevue, Wash., startup Summation, visible from SR 520 in Bellevue. (Photo courtesy of Summation) A Bellevue, Wash.-based startup that came out of stealth last fall is really trying to get noticed now, taking a page out of a playbook that’s more prevalent in Silicon...

In a first, Blue Origin uses a recycled rocket to send a satellite into orbit — unfortunately, it’s the wrong orbit

In a first, Blue Origin uses a recycled rocket to send a satellite into orbit — unfortunately, it’s the wrong orbit

April 19, 2026

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket rises from its Florida pad, sending an AST SpaceMobile satellite into space. (Blue Origin via YouTube) Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture used a previously flown New Glenn rocket booster to send a satellite into space today, marking a first for the company....

Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of April 12, 2026

Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of April 12, 2026

April 19, 2026

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 April 12, 2026. Sign up to receive these updates every Sunday in your inbox by subscribing to our GeekWire Weekly email newsletter. Most popular stories on...

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