June 29, 2024
Seattle Seahawks are for sale as Paul Allen estate seeks buyer shortly after Super Bowl win
February 18, 2026
Paul Allen is credited with saving the Seahawks for the city of Seattle when he purchased the team in 1997. He was inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor at Lumen Field in October 2019. (GeekWire File Photo) The Seattle Seahawks are officially for sale. A week after parading through the city...
Tech Moves: Sana hires CFO; Aptevo names new CEO; Violett founder departs; and more
February 18, 2026
— Brian Piper, a longtime biotech leader, is the new CFO at Seattle-based Sana Biotechnology. Piper was previously CFO at Antares Therapeutics, Scorpion Therapeutics, and Prelude Therapeutics. Piper was also given an executive vice president title at Sana, a cell and gene therapy...
Seattle startup Griptape acquired by creative software firm Foundry
February 18, 2026
Griptape CEO and co-founder Kyle Roche. (LinkedIn Photo) Griptape, a Seattle-based startup founded in 2023 by former Amazon Web Services executives, has been acquired by Foundry, a London-based company whose software is used in visual effects and animation across Hollywood. Terms of the deal...
Airbnb offering $750 to attract new hosts during World Cup in Seattle this summer
February 18, 2026
The Seattle skyline looking north from Lumen Field, which will play host to FIFA World Cup matches. (GeekWire File Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Airbnb is incentivizing people to open up their homes this summer to FIFA World Cup visitors, offering $750 to new hosts in Seattle and other cities hosting...
Cloud and AWS cost consultant Duckbill expands to software, raises $7.75M for new Skyway platform
February 18, 2026
Duckbill co-founders Corey Quinn, left, and CEO Mike Julian. (Duckbill Photo) “We’ve raised a pile of money, and we’re building a product.” That’s the characteristically deadpan announcement Wednesday morning from Corey Quinn, the cloud cost consultant who has built a second career,...
AWS accelerator initiatives will offer $100M in credits to federal agencies for cloud and AI services
February 17, 2026
Cloud computing and AI can come into play in advanced manufacturing and shipbuilding for the U.S. military. (NIWC Pacific Illustration) Amazon Web Services has launched two credit programs worth up to $100 million to help federal agencies leverage AWS cloud services and generative AI...
San Francisco-based Binti opens office on Seattle’s Lake Union ‘to tap into city’s great talent pool’
February 17, 2026
The waterfront view from Binti’s new Seattle office overlooking Lake Union and the Aurora Bridge. (Binti Photo) Binti, a San Francisco-based startup that develops software tools for child welfare agencies, opened a new office on Seattle’s Lake Union. In the shadow of the Aurora Bridge...
Former Avalara exec leads new Seattle-area startup inspired by Washington’s estate tax
February 17, 2026
Legata CEO Alesia Pinney. (Legata Photo) After a decade helping Avalara scale its tax software business, Alesia Pinney is taking aim at a different kind of tax headache. Pinney is CEO and co-founder of Legata, a Seattle-area startup helping affluent households create estate plans. She...
Don’t take success for granted: Seattle Chamber CEO Joe Nguyen on tech’s evolving storyline
February 17, 2026
Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Joe Nguyen. (Legislative Support Services Photo) When Joe Nguyen left his role as director of the Washington State Department of Commerce at the end of last year, it wasn’t because he was done fighting for the state’s economic...
Temporal raises $300M, hits $5B valuation as Seattle-area infrastructure startup rides AI wave
February 17, 2026
Temporal co-founders Samar Abbas (left), CEO, and Maxim Fateev, CTO. (Temporal Photo) Temporal has raised $300 million in a Series D funding round at a $5 billion valuation, positioning the company as a key infrastructure provider for the emerging wave of AI agents moving into real-world...
GeekWire’s AI summit to feature key leaders from Amazon, Microsoft, and more, on March 24 in Seattle
February 17, 2026
From left, Charles Lamanna of Microsoft, Theresa Piasta of Outreach, Swami Sivasubramanian of AWS, and Kiana Ehsani of Vercept will be among the speakers at GeekWire’s Agents of Transformation summit on March 24 in Seattle. GeekWire’s Agents of Transformation summit is a little more than a month...
Seattle startup Certivo raises $4M to automate supply chain compliance with AI
February 17, 2026
Certivo CEO Kunal Chopra. (Certivo Photo) Seattle startup Certivo raised $4 million in seed funding to expand its AI-powered platform aimed at automating supply chain compliance. Boston-based Suffolk Technologies, which specializes in construction technology investments, led the round....
Zillow teams up with ‘World of Warcraft’ to exhibit virtual homes inside popular game
February 17, 2026
(Zillow Image) Real estate company Zillow has partnered with the company behind the long-running online game World of Warcraft in order to showcase players’ creativity by exhibiting their virtual homes. A new microsite, “Zillow for Warcraft,” allows users to explore an assortment of designs...
Proposed income tax on high earners advances in Washington state
February 16, 2026
Washington state’s Legislative Building in Olympia. (GeekWire Photo / Brent Roraback) The so-called “millionaires tax” was approved by Washington’s Senate on Monday, advancing a measure that would create a 9.9% tax applied to taxable, personal annual income that exceeds $1 million. Gov. Bob...
‘We’re experimenting aggressively’: How Expedia sees AI reshaping travel — and its own business
February 16, 2026
Expedia’s headquarters in Seattle, Wash. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) Expedia is responding to the AI era by making sure it’s testing new ways to reach travelers — and also using it aggressively inside its own business. In its newly filed 10-K annual report, the Seattle-based company...
Spokane startup Blaze Barrier heats up with new funding for quick-deploy wildfire defense system
February 16, 2026
Members of the Blaze Barrier team, from left: Jacob Schuler, founder and CEO; Jennifer Fanto, chief operating officer; and Cody Schuler, head of production and safety. (Blaze Barrier Photo) Jacob Schuler is not a firefighter. But in 2021 he heard from a friend who was first on scene to a barn in...
Washington state has embraced data centers – but now it’s looking to set terms of engagement
February 16, 2026
Racks of servers inside an AWS data center in 2023. (AWS Photo / Noah Berger) Lisa Karstetter grew up in Eastern Washington’s agricultural country. By the mid-2000s, she was running the Quincy Valley Chamber of Commerce when she started getting calls from tech companies eager to build facilities...
Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of Feb. 8, 2026
February 15, 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 Feb. 8, 2026. Sign up to receive these updates every Sunday in your inbox by subscribing to our GeekWire Weekly email newsletter. Most popular stories on...
GeekWire Podcast in Fremont: Seahawks, AI, and Seattle’s future
February 14, 2026
The crowd at Fremont Brewing for a live recording of the GeekWire Podcast. (GeekWire Photo / Curt Milton) We took the GeekWire Podcast on the road this week, but not very far — recording the show in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, the “Center of the Universe,” just a few blocks from our own...
Tech Moves: Smartsheet CTO departs; Overland AI taps legal lead; Zillow, Comcast promote execs
February 13, 2026
Cynthia Tee. (LinkedIn Photo) — Cynthia Tee has left Smartsheet, where she was chief technology officer at the work management software giant. Tee was CTO since February 2025; before that she was senior vice president of engineering for nearly four years. The Bellevue-based company has not...
Washington nonprofit supporting global development tech and philanthropy to shutter after 16 years
February 13, 2026
The opening keynote presentation at the 2017 Global Washington conference. (Megan Swann / Global Washington Photos) The nonprofit Global Washington announced on Friday it’s closing after 16 years of supporting philanthropy, technology, businesses and academics working in global development....
Ring cancels Flock partnership amid broader surveillance concerns
February 13, 2026
Ring is cancelling a partnership with Flock Safety that would have allowed law enforcement using Flock’s system to request footage from Ring camera owners for voluntary sharing through the Ring Neighbors app. (Ring Photo) Amazon-owned Ring has canceled its planned partnership with Flock Safety,...
RFK Jr. calls Carbon Robotics’ laser weed zapper the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ in herbicide fight
February 13, 2026
A Carbon Robotics LaserWeeder working in a field of onions. (Carbon Robotics Photo) The weed-zapping lasers from Seattle agriculture-tech startup Carbon Robotics are on the radar of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In an appearance on the Theo Von podcast “This Past...
Report: Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy is not pursuing additional funds for a key initiative
February 13, 2026
Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy, headquartered in Seattle, is not currently pursuing additional capital for Catalyst, its initiative that funds ready-to-scale climate technology projects, Axios reported Friday. Catalyst raised an initial fund of $1.5 billion. Breakthrough Energy...
Cleveland’s mayor, Seattle’s future: A conversation about what happens when a city’s economy shifts
February 13, 2026
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb. (City of Cleveland Photo) A guest column on GeekWire warning Seattle not to become “the next Cleveland” has taken on a life of its own — culminating in a phone call Thursday morning between the author of the piece and the mayor of Cleveland himself. On the call,...
‘I’m tired of that narrative’: Seattle VC pushes back on tech exodus talk
February 13, 2026
The AI House in Seattle held a launch party when the startup hub opened last year along the waterfront. (GeekWire File Photo / Taylor Soper) Enough with the hot takes about Seattle’s tech downfall. That’s the message from Jacob Colker, managing director at the AI2 Incubator, who published a...
Startup Radar: Meet Seattle founders building software for coding agents, music tech, video editing, and more
February 13, 2026
From top left, clockwise; Gatefolded founder Jasen Samford; StackIQ founder Jana Schuster; SageOx co-founder Ajit Banerjee; Vivu founder Shawn Neal; HYV Social co-founder Jason Lee; and PrimeOrbit founder Mahadev Alladi. We’re back with our latest spotlight on early stage Seattle-area startups....
Helion reaches record 150 million degrees Celsius as it strives for ambitious commercial fusion launch
February 13, 2026
Helion Energy’s Polaris fusion reactor operating with tritium and deuterium fuel. (Helion Photo) Helion Energy on Friday announced two milestones for the company and commercial fusion sector: reaching a plasma temperature of 150 million degrees Celsius and being the first private venture to test...
Expedia quarterly revenue climbs 11% to $3.55B; shares fall 3%
February 12, 2026
(GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) Expedia Group topped estimates for its fourth quarter results, posting revenue of $3.55 billion, up 11% year-over-year, and adjusted earnings per share of $3.78. Analysts expected $3.41 billion in revenue and EPS of $3.37. Gross bookings rose 11% to $27...
Opinion: Here’s what’s missing from the tax debate in Washington state
February 12, 2026
The Legislative Building in Olympia, Wash., is home to the state’s Legislature. (GeekWire Photo / Lisa Stiffler) Editor’s note: GeekWire publishes guest opinions to foster informed discussion and highlight a diversity of perspectives on issues shaping the tech and startup community. If you’re...
Highspot merging with rival Seismic in major sales software deal
February 12, 2026
(Highspot Photo / David Kennedy) Seattle-based company Highspot plans to merge with Seismic in a deal that will combine two of the biggest players in sales and revenue enablement software. The companies announced Thursday that they’ve signed a definitive agreement to merge. Once the...
Q&A: Bellevue’s new mayor wants to move at the speed of innovation in growing AI hub
February 12, 2026
“We want people who work here actually be able to live here,” says Bellevue Mayor Mo Malakoutian, center. (City of Bellevue Photo) Mo Malakoutian has been mayor of Bellevue, Wash., for about a month. He’d like to take credit for the Seattle Seahawks making it to (and winning) the Super Bowl, the...
This Seattle startup wants to turn AI prompts into shareable software
February 12, 2026
Prom.dev lets users share and browse various AI prompts. (Prom Image) Seattle startup Prom.dev is emerging from stealth with $1.5 million in funding to build a platform for sharing and discovering AI prompts. Pioneer Square Labs and Mayfield led the pre-seed round. Founded in...
Microsoft closes its Visitor Center in Redmond in latest HQ change
February 12, 2026
The longtime Microsoft Visitor Center in Building 92 has closed and been sealed off. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Microsoft’s Visitor Center, a hands-on tech showcase and historical exhibit in Redmond that was a destination for guests and employees for many years, has permanently...
Pacific Science Center sells real estate to help fund upgrades and an innovation-focused star attraction
February 12, 2026
Pacific Science Center, or PacSci, is selling less than 25% of its campus to Space Needle LLC. (GeekWire Photo / Lisa Stiffler) Pacific Science Center, an educational nonprofit centered on innovation and discovery, confirmed it’s selling a wedge of its campus to help keep operations afloat and...
