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 July 19, 2026.

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Most popular stories on GeekWire

Veteran Microsoft security executive joins AWS amid broader reshuffle in Redmond

Rudra “Rudy” Mitra, who led Microsoft’s Purview data-security business, is joining Amazon Web Services as vice president of security services. … Read More

‘The Odyssey’ isn’t on IMAX 70mm in Seattle — is it worth a journey for the summer’s biggest film?

Want to see “The Odyssey” as director Christopher Nolan intended? … Read More

Jimothy keeps on giving: Amazon and others match winning bid for raccoon art, to benefit food bank

A painting of the short-spined raccoon by prolific Seattle artist Ryan Henry Ward attracted a winning bid of $6,543.21 in an informal Instagram auction this weekend, with all proceeds directed to the Ballard Food Bank. … Read More

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

Amazon confirmed layoffs in its artificial general intelligence organization, the group behind its Nova models, as the company sharpens its AI focus toward tools for business customers. … Read More

8-bit ‘Jimothy’: Viral sensation raids trash cans, eludes paparazzi in Seattle creator’s video game

Jimothy, the short-spined Seattle raccoon, has become a global sensation whose likeness has been immortalized in artwork, clothing, songs and tattoos — and now a video game created in the creature’s hometown. … Read More

Microsoft 2.5: New security business chief Hayete Gallot on the company’s push into the agentic era

Hayete Gallot, who rejoined Microsoft in February to lead its security business, is pushing the company toward “agentic security” — systems that spot threats and act on them without waiting for a human. … Read More

Grammy-winning artist and entrepreneur Diplo invests in Seattle startup Copper

Seattle startup Copper is getting a high-profile boost from Grammy-winning artist and entrepreneur Diplo, who has invested in the company as it expands its consumer rewards platform. … Read More

UK data center startup Nscale bets big on Bellevue for U.S. engineering hub amid AI boom

AI infrastructure company Nscale is expanding its presence in Bellevue with a new U.S. … Read More

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

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

Microsoft 2.5: A new series on the people shaping the company’s future

Mary Jo Foley is launching a GeekWire series profiling the people and priorities behind Microsoft’s evolution. … Read More

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 July 12, 2026.

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Most popular stories on GeekWire

Seattle indie hit ‘Stardew Valley’ is coming to ‘Magic: The Gathering’

Stardew Valley, the blockbuster farming sim from solo Seattle developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone, is coming to Magic: The Gathering via a three-part Secret Lair drop from Renton-based Wizards of the Coast — with original pixel art from Barone himself. … Read More

Tech Moves: Former Amazon exec joins F5; Microsoft security CVP departs; Qualtrics adds leadership

F5 names former Amazon executive as its chief people officer; Rudra Mitra departs as a Microsoft CVP after more than 27 years; and Qualtrics adds leaders. … Read More

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

Dave Brown is leaving Amazon Web Services after nearly 19 years, departing at the end of July for a new role outside the company. … Read More

Grunge meets slop: An AI time traveler visits 1992 Seattle when music, not tech, ruled the city

The AI-generated video is an interesting study in how technology that’s very much being built and hyped in Seattle can be used to illustrate what the city sort of looked like more than three decades ago. … Read More

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

Apptio co-founders Sunny Gupta and Kurt Shintaffer launched Thira, a Bellevue-based enterprise AI startup, with $21 million in seed funding led by Madrona. … Read More

JPMorgan Chase bets on Seattle to build its AI control layer

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

Tech Moves: Remitly CMO departs; Temporal names EVP; Veeam and Qualtrics leadership changes

Rina Hahn leaves role as Remitly’s CMO; Temporal promotes Preeti Somal to EVP amid reorganization; and Veeam and Qualtrics make leadership changes. … Read More

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

Dave Brown, the senior AWS executive whose departure Amazon announced this week, is joining Meta to work on its data center build-out, according to a Wall Street Journal report. … Read More

As General Fusion makes historic Nasdaq debut, report shows global funding surged to $4.5B

General Fusion’s stock is trading up after it became the first fusion energy company to go public on a major exchange, debuting Monday on Nasdaq. … Read More

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

Seattle-area startups raised $2.7 billion in the first half of 2026, down 40% from a year ago, even as U.S. … Read More

Live-shopping unicorn Whatnot is expanding its AI capabilities with the acquisition of Shaped, a startup that builds real-time recommendation and search technology.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Shaped founder and CEO Tullie Murrell will join Whatnot to lead a new applied AI research team focused on improving how buyers discover live streams, sellers and products across the marketplace. Before co-founding Shaped in 2021, Murrell worked on machine learning and recommendation systems at Meta.

Backed by Seattle venture firm Madrona, Shaped developed AI technology designed to deliver highly personalized recommendations in real time — a key capability for Whatnot’s fast-moving live shopping platform, where inventory and buyer interest change by the second.

The acquisition comes as Whatnot continues to invest heavily in engineering and AI. Last year, the company announced plans to significantly expand its Seattle engineering hub after leasing new downtown office space following a $225 million funding round that valued the company at $11.5 billion.

The company has said Seattle will serve as one of its key engineering centers as it continues to scale its platform. The Whatnot offices in Seattle are led by head of engineering Daniel Bear, the former head of infrastructure at Snap.

Whatnot is based in Culver City, California. The offices in the Seattle area are one of more than 100 engineering centers in the region, as tracked by GeekWire.

For Madrona, the deal represents another exit for a portfolio company applying AI to solve core business problems, reinforcing the firm’s continued focus on infrastructure and enterprise AI startups.

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 July 5, 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

Opinion: The WALL-E Economy

HashiCorp co-founder Armon Dadgar argues that convenience-driven apps and AI are pushing us toward the dystopia depicted in Pixar’s 2008 film, and makes the case for regulation and intentional living as the antidote. … Read More

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

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

Microsoft cuts 4,800 jobs, about 2% globally, revamps salesforce and launches massive Xbox overhaul

Microsoft is cutting 4,800 jobs and overhauling its Xbox gaming business in what its new gaming CEO calls the biggest restructuring in Xbox history, while reshaping its sales and consulting division amid record AI spending and a 30% stock slide. … Read More

Former GitHub CEO’s startup Entire unveils its answer to the crush of AI coding agents

Former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke’s startup Entire is rolling out a distributed network for mirroring code repositories, making the case that centralized platforms like he once ran as part of Microsoft can’t handle the demands of AI coding agents on their own. … Read More

Tech Moves: Seattle tech exec named Dropbox CPO; Xbox VP among layoffs; C-suite changes at T-Mobile

Past exec at Amazon, Microsoft and Google is now Dropbox’s first CPO; T-Mobile appoints a new C-suite leader and promotes another; and Xbox VP Kevin LaChapelle is laid off in Microsoft’s big round of layoffs. … Read More

Etzioni on AI: Elon Musk promised humanoid robots, but China delivered

While American tech giants are valued for the anticipation of perfect prototypes, Chinese manufacturers are winning the robotics race by getting paid for delivery. … Read More

Chicago software company plants flag in Seattle area as new leadership team seeks AI talent

Governance, risk and compliance software company LogicGate recently signed a lease in Bellevue with space for up to 25 employees and expects to have about 20 people working there by the end of the year. … Read More

Elon Musk’s Mars illusion

A look at the science behind Elon Musk’s goal of a million-person city on Mars, and why planetary scientists say terraforming the planet to make it habitable would take centuries, if it’s possible at all. … Read More

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

He’s obsessive about talent, fiercely loyal to the leaders he picks, and relentless when told no. … Read More

Filing shows Amazon cut 57 tech jobs in Washington state in recent weeks

Amazon is cutting 57 jobs in Washington, including roles at the director and senior manager levels. … Read More

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 June 28, 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

Choosing their own moment: Why these longtime Microsofties are taking the buyout 

GeekWire spoke with several longtime Microsoft employees who are taking the company’s first-ever voluntary retirement program, about why they decided to leave and what they’re doing next. … Read More

Gov. Bob Ferguson taps Amazon, Microsoft and others as concerns over Washington economy grow

The group includes leaders from technology, aerospace, organized labor, higher education, tribal governments, ports and economic development organizations who will advise the governor on policies aimed at strengthening Washington’s economy. … Read More

Microsoft unveils $2.5B ‘Frontier Company’ to embed AI engineers inside customers

“Microsoft Frontier Company” is a $2.5 billion initiative that will embed engineers inside customer organizations to build and run their AI systems. … Read More

Nvidia recruits longtime Microsoft sales leader Nick Parker with $40M+ pay package

Nick Parker, a 26-year Microsoft veteran who led its worldwide commercial sales business, is joining Nvidia as executive vice president of worldwide field operations, succeeding retiring sales chief Jay Puri. … Read More

Microsoft set for new round of job cuts next week, spanning Xbox, sales and consulting

Microsoft is preparing another round of layoffs, spanning Xbox, sales and consulting, as it holds down operating costs while pouring more than $100 billion into AI infrastructure. … Read More

Tech Moves: Amazon Music names VP; Microsoft departures and a Copilot shakeup; Veeam adds exec

Amazon Music names VP of product and tech; Microsoft’s corporate VP of Security, Compliance, Identity, Management & Privacy steps down while its Copilot platform undergoes a shakeup; Veeam appoints a chief marketing and customer AI officer; and Read More … Read More

Xbox at a crossroads: 25 years later, Microsoft is done playing around

Microsoft is pressing its Xbox business for growth and stronger profits after 25 years of losses and thin margins. … Read More

Taiwanese AI startup sets up North American HQ in Bellevue, with potential for 500 employees

The company said it eventually envisions its Bellevue office growing into a core edge AI research and development center with more than 500 employees over the next decade. … Read More

Anthropic expands in Seattle as AI boom offers hope for struggling office market

The maker of the Claude AI model recently finalized a lease at Dexter Yard North in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, capping months of speculation about the company’s expansion plans in the region. … Read More

Zoom snaps up Seattle startup Common Room to bolster AI-powered sales tools

Common Room emerged from stealth in 2021 with $52 million in funding and was the 2022 GeekWire Awards Startup of the Year. … Read More