Recording artist, DJ and entrepreneur Diplo invested in Copper. Photo via BusinessWire
Seattle’s Copper has landed a high-profile new backer as it looks to accelerate growth of its consumer rewards platform, announcing Tuesday that Grammy-winning artist, DJ and entrepreneur Diplo has invested in the company.
Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.
“I’m always looking for things that actually make sense for people,” Diplo said in a statement. “Copper’s one of those — you’re already on your phone, you’re already spending money, and this gives something back. That’s real.”
Copper says more than 4 million members use its platform to earn money through mobile games, cash-back offers and purchases.
Copper CEO Eddie Behringer, who previously co-founded Snap! Raise, said the company is building an alternative to consumer apps that monetize users’ attention.
“Most consumer apps are designed to take more from the user — more time, more money, more attention,” Behringer said in a LinkedIn post. “At Copper, we’re building the opposite.”
Founded in 2019, Copper originally launched as a banking app for teenagers. GeekWire covered the startup in 2022 after it raised $29 million in funding to expand into investing products, at a time when the company had nearly 1 million users.
The startup has since evolved into a broader consumer rewards platform. Copper has raised $42 million to date and recently ranked No. 2 among the Pacific Northwest’s fastest-growing companies in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 rankings, based on three-year revenue growth.
Diplo, whose real name is Thomas Wesley Pentz, has built a business portfolio that extends beyond music, investing in technology and consumer startups while launching ventures such as Diplo’s Run Club, a series of 5K races paired with music festivals.
He’s a three-time Grammy winner, and has collaborated with artists like Labrinth and Sia as part of the musical group LSD and worked with musician Mark Ronson on Silk City. He’s also the founder of record label Mad Decent.
In 2024, Copper discontinued its banking services following the collapse of fintech infrastructure provider Synapse, forcing the startup to pivot away from its original business. “Despite our prior planning, this event has forced us to close banking accounts much sooner than anticipated,” Behringer wrote at the time.
The company has since rebuilt around its rewards platform, which it says now serves millions of users.
Behringer said that the company’s mission was always about helping families improve their financial lives.
“As household costs rose, we saw an even bigger opportunity to help the person making everyday spending decisions earn more from the things they were already doing—from buying groceries to shopping in-store and spending time on their phone,” Behringer tells GeekWire via email. “Diplo’s investment is meaningful validation of how far that evolution has come.”
Fresh off a $2 billion fundraising and $900 million line of credit, London-based data center startup Nscale is planning a big expansion at a new engineering office in Bellevue, Wash.
Nscale, one of the fastest-growing companies building AI computing infrastructure, recently inked a deal for nearly 24,000 square feet of space at The Eight office tower in downtown Bellevue.
The office is slated to open in January 2027. It will serve as Nscale’s primary engineering hub in the United States, a company spokesperson said. The company currently employs about 50 people in the Seattle area, and the new office will be able to accommodate up to 250 people.
The company earlier this year hired Nidhi Chappell, the former Microsoft corporate vice president who led Azure AI and high-performance computing infrastructure, including the supercomputers that power ChatGPT. As Nscale’s new president of AI infrastructure, based in the Seattle area, Chappell will oversee the company’s global engineering and data center operations.
“I’ve had a front-row seat to some of the biggest moments in AI over the past several years, but one thing has always stood out: the world remembers the breakthroughs, but it’s the people building the infrastructure behind the scenes who make them possible,” Chappell wrote in a LinkedIn post last week announcing the company’s first “onboarding” event in Seattle.
Nscale, which is also preparing to open an office in New York, said it selected Bellevue because of the Seattle region’s concentration of AI infrastructure talent and its proximity to major customers.
Microsoft is one example. Earlier this year, the companies announced an expanded collaboration to deploy Microsoft’s next-generation AI infrastructure across Europe, including large-scale installations of NVIDIA Vera Rubin GPUs in Norway, Portugal and other locations. Nscale said it would be among the first providers outside of Microsoft to deploy the Vera Rubin platform, supporting Microsoft’s growing AI cloud infrastructure.
The new office is the latest sign of Bellevue’s growing role in the AI economy. The Eastside has become a magnet for companies building AI applications and infrastructure, with xAI, OpenAI, Databricks, CoreWeave, Armada, Anduril and others establishing and expanding offices.
AI companies have been giving a boost to the regional office market overall. Claude maker Anthropic, for example, recently announced an expansion of its offices in Dexter Yard in Seattle.
Nscale was founded in 2024. Its $2 billion funding round earlier this year valued the company at $14.6 billion, believed to be the largest Series C financing ever raised by a European technology company. The capital is being used to expand Nscale’s AI cloud platform, GPU infrastructure and data center footprint across North America and Europe.
Its backers include Astra Capital Management, Citadel, Dell, Jane Street, Lenovo, Linden Advisors, Nokia, NVIDIA and Point72.
News of the Nscale office in Bellevue was first reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Defense giant Anduril is operating its autonomous naval vessel manufacturing facility at the old Foss Shipyard on the Lake Washington Ship Canal in Seattle. Demonstrators plan to protest a different location, Anduril’s downtown Seattle office. (GeekWire Photo / John Cook)
A coalition of activists and community organizations plans to rally Sunday outside Anduril’s Seattle office, protesting the defense technology company’s development of artificial intelligence-powered military systems and its growing presence in the region.
“The rally will respond to urgent developments in the expansion of AI weapons companies in Washington State and will expose Anduril as an engine of U.S.-led wars of aggression and a domestic threat to migrant and working class communities,” the organizations said in a statement.
Anduril said it recognizes the right to protest, while defending its work supporting the U.S. military and service members.
“We respect the right to free speech and we understand that protests are a hallmark of democratic expression,” Anduril said in a statement provided to GeekWire. “That said, it is perplexing when people choose to protest a company dedicated to supporting the very military that safeguards those rights.”
The company’s statement continued:
“At Anduril, we’re proud of our role in helping the brave men and women who risk their lives to defend the freedoms that we all enjoy, freedoms that include the right to stand outside and protest our existence. We’ll continue to honor those serving our country, even when others stand in opposition.”
The protest comes as Anduril expands its operations in the Seattle area, including a new maritime manufacturing and testing operation along Seattle’s historic Lake Washington Ship Canal. GeekWire reported earlier this year that the company has taken over the former Foss shipyard, where it is thought to be testing autonomous vessels for the U.S. Navy.
Founded in 2017 by entrepreneur Palmer Luckey, Anduril has become one of the most prominent defense technology companies in the country, developing autonomous aircraft, maritime systems, surveillance technologies and AI-powered software platforms for military and national security customers.
The company’s Seattle expansion has drawn attention because of the region’s long history as a hub for aerospace, maritime engineering, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing. The new maritime facility on the south bank of the Ship Canal represents a new chapter for a site with deep roots in Seattle’s shipbuilding history.
In announcing the rally, organizers cited the company’s work on autonomous systems, including underwater and surface vessels, and raised concerns about the role of artificial intelligence in global conflicts.
The groups also pointed to the ongoing Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) military exercises, a multinational naval exercise held in and around Hawaii. The exercise runs through July 31 and includes participation from dozens of nations.
Anduril has increasingly positioned itself as a technology company focused on modernizing defense capabilities, arguing that faster adoption of advanced software, autonomy and AI can improve the effectiveness and safety of military operations.
Sunday’s event is expected to include speeches, testimonials and cultural performances from participating community organizations.
The rally adds a new point of public debate around Anduril’s expansion in Seattle, as the company builds out its presence in a region already home to major technology companies, aerospace firms and a growing defense innovation sector.
In addition to the new facility at the Foss shipyard, Anduril operates facilities in downtown Seattle and Bellevue, where it expanded last summer with a lease for 39,851 square feet of space at Skyline Tower.
Anduril also is rapidly expanding its operations in California, where the company is headquartered. And it is building a massive facility just south of Columbus, Ohio, that it dubs Arsenal-1, described by the company as “the future of American defense manufacturing.”
In May, the company raised a $5 billion funding round from Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and others at a $61 billion valuation.
Maggie Hollinbeck and James Wagar are leading the charge on Month Offline Seattle, a move to get people off their smartphones.
Seattle helped create the modern smartphone era. Now, nearly 40 people in the heart of one of the world’s biggest technology hubs are voluntarily putting theirs away.
The inaugural Month Offline Seattle cohort challenges participants to swap their smartphones for flip phones — or other “dumb phones” — for 35 days, gathering weekly for what organizers describe as part happy hour, part support group.
What started as a niche experiment in Washington, D.C. and Brooklyn has found an enthusiastic audience in Seattle, where organizers expected 10 to 20 participants but have already attracted the largest cohort outside those two cities.
Weekly programs are scheduled during the month-long detox from July 28 to Sept. 1, with activities on Tuesday evenings like bocce ball, bowling and mini golf slated to connect people in real time. There are also themed programs during the week, starting in week one with orientation and goal setting, and followed by topics such as “communication and relationships,” and “attention and boredom.” You can register here.
For a region like Seattle that’s home to Microsoft, Amazon, T-Mobile and a booming AI industry, the idea might sound almost rebellious. But organizers say the goal isn’t to reject technology — it’s to rethink how much of our lives should revolve around our smartphones.
James Wagar, a former investment banker and self-described techno-optimist who has carried a flip phone alongside his smartphone for years, teamed up with therapist and coach Maggie Hollinbeck, who describes herself as a techno-skeptic, to get the Seattle cohort launched. Together, they’re leading the gatherings, serving as the guides to those ready to take a break from their always-connected lifestyles.
“We (finally) seem to be at the beginning of a cultural moment with more people seriously evaluating their relationships with technology,” Wagar tells GeekWire. “Those using flip phones and simpler devices may be the canaries in the coal mine. While I remain a techno-optimist, the attention economy is not sustainable.”
Pick your favorite flip phone and disengage next month with Month Offline Seattle. Photos via James Wagar and Maggie Hollinbeck
Hollinbeck said she remembers when smartphones felt like a convenience — a way to replace multiple devices with one. But over time, she felt that same “rectangle of glass” had become harder to put down, prompting her to rethink her relationship with technology. She’s already ditched her Facebook and Instagram accounts, and was ready for the next step.
“I’m here to reclaim my time and attention, and I’m doing it in this way because I’ve found that it’s actually pretty hard to disentangle myself from this pocket-sized dementor,” said Hollinbeck. “It’s gonna take a village, so we’re building one.”
The concept has been spreading nationally through the Month Offline movement, but Seattle’s response has surprised the organizers. Most participants found the group not through social media, but through flyers, word of mouth, and conversations at neighborhood pubs during the FIFA World Cup.
Cohort members can use their own flip phone or purchase one at a discounted price of $10, and a commitment to subscribe for four months of discounted wireless service from dumb.co. That’s a total commitment of $42.
Denver, Austin, Los Angeles and Philadelphia also are jumping on the “Month Offline” bandwagon — which is kind of best described as a dry January for the tech obsessed. The organization says it is united by a common mission — “our commitment to attention liberation.”
Wagar and Hollinbeck are also encouraging a GeekWire reporter to join the movement.
So far, no takers.
Note: I actually tried a digital detox for one day back in 2013. Not sure I am ready for 35 days, 13 years later.
A tribute to venture capitalist S. “Soma” Somasegar before the Sounders FC match. (GeekWire Photo / John Cook)
The Seattle Sounders paused before Thursday night’s rivalry match against the Portland Timbers to honor one of their own.
Before the match at Lumen Field, the club paid tribute to S. “Soma” Somasegar, the longtime Microsoft executive, Madrona venture capitalist and Sounders minority owner who died in May at age 59. Fans stood in silence as Somasegar’s image appeared on the stadium video boards.
Somasegar joined the Sounders ownership group in 2019, part of a wave of Seattle tech leaders — including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella — who bought in that year.
After his death, the club said Somasegar viewed sports as a way to bring people together, and credited him and his wife, Akila, with strengthening the Sounders and Seattle Reign communities.
GeekWire chronicled the outpouring of tributes after Somasegar’s death, as colleagues, founders and friends remembered the former Microsoft executive and venture capitalist for his humility, generosity and commitment to helping others succeed.
During his 27 years at Microsoft, he helped lead the company’s developer tools business before spending more than a decade at Madrona, where he backed and advised a new generation of cloud and AI startups.
Part of the Seattle skyline as seen from the waterfront. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
For the first time in several years, there are indications that the worst may be over for the Seattle region’s battered office market — and artificial intelligence companies appear to be playing a leading role.
The regional office market (spanning Seattle, Bellevue and the surrounding Eastside) posted positive net absorption during the second quarter, meaning companies occupied more office space than they vacated, according to a new report from commercial real estate firm JLL. It’s a notable shift after years of downsizing driven by remote work, layoffs and corporate cost-cutting.
Technology companies accounted for 42.5% of all leasing activity during the quarter, easily outpacing every other industry. JLL said AI-related leasing is on track for a strong year as companies establish engineering hubs in the Seattle region to tap its deep talent pool while taking advantage of office costs that remain well below San Francisco and New York.
In fact, leasing by AI companies has accounted for 21.6% of activity in the Seattle and Eastside year to date, and now the entire AI footprint in the region is 855,000 square feet. That’s double the amount in 2024, according to JLL.
The Seattle-area office market turned a corner in 2026, with companies filling more space than they emptied for the first time in four years, as indicated by the positive net absorption for the quarter. (JLL Graphic)
The quarter’s largest deals reflected that trend.
Databricks signed a 142,000-square-foot lease at Four106 in downtown Bellevue, the biggest office transaction of the quarter.
DocuSign committed to 116,000 square feet at Seattle’s JPMorgan Chase Center.
Pokémon moved into The Eight office tower in Bellevue, taking 369,800 square feet of space.
The Pokémon deal helped push the region to 372,000 square feet of positive net absorption for the quarter — reversing a run of quarters in which tenants gave back more space than they took.
The numbers offer an encouraging change after years of gloomy office market reports, but they hardly signal a full recovery. Regional vacancy remains elevated at 23.9%, while overall availability sits at 25%.
Companies continue to consolidate space, landlords are still offering concessions, and asking rents remain under pressure as tenants retain significant negotiating leverage, JLL said in the report
Still, there are indications the market’s fundamentals are improving.
Availability has now declined for two consecutive quarters and has fallen from a peak of 26.5% a year ago. At the same time, JLL reports there is currently no new speculative office construction under way — buildings started without tenants committed — meaning even modest growth in demand could have a greater impact on occupancy than in previous years.
Rather than signaling a broad-based office comeback, the latest leasing data suggests a more nuanced story: AI companies and other fast-growing technology firms are helping stabilize a market that had spent years moving in the opposite direction.
The report reinforces a trend GeekWire has been tracking over the past year as AI companies expand their presence across the Seattle region. Alongside Microsoft and Amazon, companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Armada and Anduril have been building engineering teams in the area, drawn by one of the country’s deepest concentrations of AI and cloud computing talent.
Whether that momentum continues will depend on how quickly AI hiring expands and whether more companies decide they need additional space for a new generation of engineers. But after several years defined by shrinking footprints and empty offices, the second quarter offered the first meaningful indication that Seattle’s office market may finally be finding its footing.
Tableau’s Data 1 building in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood. (Weber Thompson Photo)
Salesforce’s Tableau business has renewed its lease for roughly 114,000 square feet at the Data 1 office building in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, extending its long-term home in the city.
The lease renewal takes effect after the current agreement expires in 2029, according to an announcement Monday first reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal. It marks the largest office lease renewal in Seattle this year.
The renewal continues Tableau’s long association with Fremont, where the company added offices over the years to accommodate its rapid growth before its $15.7 billion acquisition by Salesforce in 2019. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff once said the Seattle region would become the company’s “HQ2” with the Tableau deal.
However, the years following the acquisition brought significant change. Salesforce conducted multiple rounds of layoffs that affected Tableau employees and trimmed its Seattle office footprint as hybrid work reshaped demand for office space.
Former Tableau CEO Mark Nelson also departed in 2024 after leading the business for two years. Before the acquisition, Tableau had grown to about 4,200 employees worldwide, about half of them in the Seattle region.
Salesforce originally planned to sublease the Data 1 building at 744 N. 34th St., which Tableau opened in 2018. But it then quickly reversed course in 2023, instead choosing to put its nearby Fremont headquarters building on the sublease market.
The Tableau news also comes at a changing time for Fremont.
Last year, Google announced plans to leave its Fremont campus, bringing all of its employees in Seattle together at its South Lake Union campus. At the time, it cited a desire for better collaboration and community. The pending departure has meant a large chunk of prime office space remains available for lease along the Lake Washington Ship Canal.
However, other companies and organizations have discovered the so-called “Center of the Universe.” Chip maker Nvidia recently leased 28,000 square feet of space at The Fremont Lake Union Center building and the global biotech nonprofit PATH last year took over offices formerly occupied by Tableau in Fremont’s West Dock building.
We’ve reached out to Salesforce about the Tableau lease, and we will update this post as we learn more.
UPDATE with statements from Salesforce and Hess Callahan Grey Group:
“Data 1 has been a critical hub for our local employees and customers, and we are thrilled to continue our presence in Fremont,” said Rob McCorkindale, VP of Global Real Estate Portfolio & Transactions at Salesforce. “This renewal underscores our continued investment in the Seattle region and our focus on creating spaces that inspire our people to do their best work.”
“Salesforce has been an exceptional tenant and a valued presence in the Fremont community since Data 1 was completed,” said Mark Grey, partner at Hess Callahan Grey Group. “Their decision to extend their commitment to the building speaks to the enduring appeal of Fremont and the importance of creating great environments for leading employers. Salesforce is an integral part of the neighborhood’s technology ecosystem, and we are proud to continue supporting their long-term presence in Seattle.”
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota)
For the second time in the past 60 days, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has penned an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal that takes direct aim at the state’s political leadership, calling Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson “inept” and noting that Gov. Bob Ferguson continues to “burden businesses with one tax increase after another.”
In his piece, Schultz points specifically to Kent-based Stoke Space, the reusable rocket startup that has raised more than $1 billion in funding, as the kind of company Washington needs to fight to keep.
Schultz, who decamped for Miami earlier this year, is obviously concerned about the well-being of his former state. And the one-time presidential hopeful certainly has a lot of ideas for the place he just left — arguing that the reindustrialization of the U.S. could be sparked by matching entrepreneurs with young people seeking apprenticeship opportunities in the trades.
Schultz makes some good points, and he echoes the statements of many in the business community who are concerned about the current direction. We’ve also reported recently on how other states — including Ohio — are out to eat the lunch of Washington state.
And we’ve pointed out the the long slide in Washington state’s business climate, reporting on CNBC’s report this week that ranks Washington No. 11 for business. That’s down from No. 2 four years ago, and No. 1 in 2017.
But you have to wonder: Is the coffee magnate really the best messenger for what ails Washington state? And what’s his end game? It seems his words would carry more weight had he decided to stick around, and try to fix the broken system.
Then again, Florida has its own challenges. Perhaps his next editorial will tackle a few of those.
Seattle’s skyline, the economic engine of Washington state. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
For much of the past year, the narrative surrounding Washington state’s business climate has taken a decidedly negative turn.
Business leaders have criticized a wave of new taxes approved by lawmakers. High-profile companies have announced expansions elsewhere. Entrepreneurs have questioned whether Washington remains as welcoming to innovation as it once was, prompting Gov. Bob Ferguson to launch a new Economic Development Council aimed at strengthening the state’s competitiveness.
But a new national ranking released Thursday complicates that narrative.
Washington climbed three spots to No. 11 in CNBC’s annual America’s Top States for Businessrankings, up from No. 14 last year, suggesting that many of the state’s underlying competitive strengths remain intact even as debate over its business climate has intensified.
That’s the good news. The bad news: Just four years ago, Washington ranked No. 2 in the same survey. In 2017, the state was No. 1
Certainly, Washington is at a crossroads when it comes to how it thinks about its business community. The CNBC ranking and the big fluctuations over the past four years speak to the seesaw-like narrative that has taken shape.
The business climate also has been front-and-center in GeekWire’s recent coverage.
Washington lawmakers approved billions of dollars in new taxes during this year’s legislative session, including new taxes affecting many technology companies.
Ferguson subsequently created the Economic Development Council composed of leaders from companies including Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing and T-Mobile to identify ways to strengthen the state’s economy amid growing concerns about competitiveness. (GeekWire contributing columnist Charles Fitzgerald questioned why the council did not include anyone from the startup community in his recent piece: Governor’s new economic council snubs startups, forgets AI).
We also recently traveled to Cleveland to examine why Ohio has emerged as one of the country’s fastest-growing destinations for business investment and technology jobs. State leaders there have aggressively positioned Ohio as an alternative to coastal technology hubs, touting lower costs, business-friendly policies and major investments in manufacturing, semiconductors and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
That strategy appears to be paying off.
Ohio claimed CNBC’s top spot this year, overtaking last year’s winner to become America’s Top State for Business in 2026. It has been an historic climb for the Buckeye state, which ranked No. 30 in the inaugural survey in 2007 and just cracked the top 10 last year.
One of GeekWire’s key takeaways from our visit to northeast Ohio is that the entire community is unified, rowing in one common direction, from Gov. Mike DeWine to real estate developers to entrepreneurs to philanthropic organizations.
“I don’t give advice to other areas,” DeWine told us on our recent visit. “But my advice to people is, come to Ohio. Come work in Ohio. You will not find a better place, better people, quality of life. Cost of living is low compared to the two coasts.”
The ranking also comes as several prominent Washington employers have announced significant investments outside the state. Starbucks recently unveiled plans for a major corporate expansion in Nashville, while aerospace supplier Janicki Industries said it will build a large new manufacturing campus in Montana, fueling concerns among some business leaders that Washington is becoming a more difficult place to grow.
At the same time, CNBC’s methodology highlights many of the advantages that have long made Washington one of the country’s leading innovation economies. Here’s how Washington ranked per CNBC:
CNBC graphic
The network evaluates states across 10 categories using 138 metrics, including workforce, infrastructure, economy, technology and innovation, business friendliness, education, cost of doing business and quality of life. The methodology is updated annually to reflect the factors companies say matter most when making investment decisions.
While Washington continues to face challenges related to business costs and taxes, it remains home to one of the nation’s deepest concentrations of technology talent, world-class research universities, global companies including Microsoft and Amazon, and a robust startup ecosystem — strengths that continue to score well in CNBC’s analysis.
The results also underscore how different rankings can produce different conclusions depending on what they measure. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation, which focuses specifically on state tax policy, ranked Washington 45th in its 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index, citing the state’s gross receipts-based Business & Occupation tax, taxation of business inputs and recent changes to its capital gains tax.
Seattle also recently declined in a new ranking of the best places in the U.S. to attract foreign businesses and investment. The fifth annual list compiled by British newspaper Financial Times and stock market index Nikkei ranked Seattle 13th among 95 U.S. cities — a drop of 11 places from last year’s second-place position.
Together, the rankings illustrate the complexity of evaluating a state’s business climate.
Washington continues to enjoy many of the assets that have made it one of the nation’s leading centers for technology and innovation. At the same time, business leaders have become increasingly vocal that higher taxes and rising costs could erode those advantages over time if policymakers fail to address competitiveness.
Enterprise software company LogicGate is establishing a Bellevue, Wash., office and rapidly expanding its Seattle-area executive team, betting on the region’s deep technology talent pool as it embarks on a new chapter under newly appointed CEO Diego Panama.
The Chicago-based governance, risk and compliance software company 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.
It also recently recruited two Seattle-area executives to its leadership team: veteran marketing executive Michael Schultz as chief marketing officer and David Rostov as chief financial officer, whose appointment is being announced today.
“The tech talent market here is really second to none,” said Panama, the former LiveRamp and Microsoft sales leader who took the helm of the company in April. “As we looked to create a hub with a vibrant office culture, Bellevue is really a stand-out option.”
The expansion comes as Panama succeeds co-founder Matt Kunkel in a planned leadership transition that the company hopes will position LogicGate for its next phase of growth.
“We are eyes wide open — this is hard to get right — and really proud/excited about how we are going about it,” said Panama. One of his main goals as CEO is to transform LogicGate from a cloud-based software-as-a-service business into an AI-centric company where agents and humans work seamlessly together.
David Rostov, the newly appointed CFO at LogicGate.
Founded in 2015 and now employing about 200 globally, LogicGate develops governance, risk and compliance software used by enterprises to manage regulatory, cybersecurity and operational risk.
Rostov is a longtime Seattle technology finance executive who previously served as CFO at Avalara and Identity Digital before co-founding Aurion Biotech. Based in Seattle, he will oversee LogicGate’s finance and legal organizations while helping expand the company’s Pacific Northwest operations.
“We have a leadership team that can match the ambition of what we’re creating at LogicGate,” Panama said in a statement.
Rostov said he was drawn by both the market opportunity and the company’s strategy around AI.
“Enterprise GRC is at an inflection point, and companies need a trusted AI-focused platform that scales alongside their risk and compliance demands,” he said in a statement.
The Bellevue office reflects the company’s belief that the Seattle region’s concentration of enterprise software, cloud computing and AI talent can help fuel its next stage of growth as it expands both its leadership team and its AI capabilities.
LogicGate’s investment also adds another enterprise software company to a growing roster of firms choosing the Seattle area as a base for executive leadership, alongside engineering and product talent. GeekWire’s engineering center list now includes more than 100 companies with outposts in the region.
Anthropic’s booth at AWS re:Invent in 2025. Its new Seattle lease puts it just up the street from Amazon. (GeekWire File Photo)
Anthropic is embarking on a major expansion in Seattle, underscoring how artificial intelligence companies are emerging as one of the few bright spots in the region’s 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.
Terms of the deal were not publicly disclosed, but CoStar News reports that the company leased 113,000 square feet of space across multiple floors in the north tower at 700 Dexter Avenue North. CoStar called it one of the largest office deals of the year so far in Seattle.
The expansion would significantly increase Anthropic’s footprint in Seattle, where the San Francisco-based company established an engineering office in 2024 as it recruited talent from the region’s deep pool of AI researchers and software engineers.
It would also place Anthropic next door to Amazon. The companies in April expanded their existing partnership: Amazon committed to invest up to $25 billion in Anthropic, which simultaneously made a $100 billion-plus spending commitment to AWS over 10 years.
The following month, Anthropic announced $65 billion in funding at a $965 billion valuation, thought to be the last venture round before an initial public offering later this year.
On Thursday, Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5, which the company says “can make plans, use tools like browsers and terminals, and run autonomously at a level that, just a few months ago, required larger and more expensive models.”
Anthropic’s Seattle lease provides hope that demand from AI companies could help revive parts of Seattle’s office market after several years of elevated vacancy driven by remote work and tech industry cutbacks. Seattle’s office vacancy rate inched up to 28% during the first quarter, the highest in the region.
Other AI firms, including OpenAI and Databricks, have also expanded their Seattle-area office footprints in recent months. In those instances, the companies chose to grow in nearby Bellevue.
Dexter Yard, a two-building office and life sciences campus developed by BioMed Realty, opened in 2022 and was designed to accommodate both technology and biotech tenants. The north tower contains approximately 163,000 square feet of office and lab space.
Anthropic has a number of open engineering roles spread across Seattle, New York and San Francisco. The company says it expects all staff to be in one of their offices at least 25% of the time.
A spokesperson for Anthropic acknowledged the new lease, but did not respond to requests for additional comment.
Gov. Bob Ferguson announcing the new Economic Development Council. (Washington Office of Financial Management Photo)
Gov. Bob Ferguson last week recruited top executives from Microsoft, Amazon, T-Mobile, Boeing and other major employers to help shape Washington state’s economic strategy, launching a new advisory council as concerns mount that the state is becoming less competitive for business.
The 26-member Governor’s Economic Development Council is the first such governor-led economic advisory body in roughly two decades, reviving an approach last used under former Gov. Christine Gregoire in 2006. 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. (See full list below).
One missing ingredient: No members from Washington’s venture capital or startup ecosystem are on the council, even though they are often considered the bench strength of a growing economy.
The announcement comes as executives, startup founders and business organizations have increasingly warned that higher taxes, rising costs, permitting delays and an uncertain regulatory environment are making Washington a more difficult place to build and grow companies. Ferguson recently signed the so-called “millionaires tax” — a proposed 9.9% tax applied to taxable, personal annual income that exceeds $1 million.
Some of the region’s wealthiest and most prominent entrepreneurs — including Zillow and Expedia co-founder Rich Barton; Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz — have publicly announced moves out of Washington state in recent years.
Starbucks also recently announced a major expansion in Nashville, and Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte of earlier this month announced that Sedro Wooley, Wash.-based Janicki Industries chose Great Falls for the site of an $800 million manufacturing center expected to create 1,000 jobs.
“Washington is our home, and that is not changing,” said John Janicki, president of Janicki Industries, in a press release. “Our footprint in Washington has continued to grow but is slowing due to ever-increasing regulations and lack of business understanding at an executive and legislative level.”
Meanwhile, a recent survey from the Association of Washington Business found that 24% of businesses are considering a relocation out of the state, up from 17 percent in the prior quarter.
Washington’s economic climate was also one of the reasons why GeekWire recently traveled to Cleveland, where we explored how the Midwestern city was positioning itself for a changing economy, and the lessons that Washington could learn from it.
“We cannot take our strength for granted,” Ferguson said in announcing the council. “I’m launching a historic convening of top leaders from around Washington state to help guide the next chapter of economic prosperity for our state.”
The council will help develop Washington’s long-term economic strategy, identify opportunities to create family-wage jobs, evaluate the state’s competitiveness against other states and global markets, recommend ways to attract new employers and review regulatory barriers that may be slowing economic growth. The group will meet quarterly and submit recommendations to the governor.
The council’s creation comes after months of growing unease within Washington’s technology and business community.
GeekWire has reportedextensively on criticism surrounding this year’s tax package, which raised business taxes on many employers and expanded the sales tax to additional services, including advertising. Business groups warned the measures could discourage investment and expansion in Washington, while lawmakers argued the revenue was necessary to close a multibillion-dollar budget gap and preserve essential public services.
The broader economic backdrop remains mixed. Washington continues to rank among the nation’s strongest state economies and remains home to global leaders in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, aerospace and life sciences. At the same time, employers are navigating higher borrowing costs, federal policy uncertainty, trade tensions and intensifying competition from states aggressively courting new investment.
As one example, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recently encouraged people and businesses from places like Washington to consider Ohio.
“Come work in Ohio,” DeWine noted after a question from GeekWire about advice he’d provide to Washington. “You will not find a better place, better people, quality of life. Cost of living is low compared to the two coasts.”
In the press release announcing Janicki Industries’ Montana expansion, Gianforte was a bit more blunt.
“The Treasure State is proud to attract job creators like Janicki that choose to expand from high-tax, high-regulation blue states to take advantage of our unmatched quality of life, lower taxes, and strong workforce,” he said. “I look forward to seeing the impact of this significant investment.”
Ferguson has sought to make economic development a central priority during his first year in office. His administration has highlighted efforts to speed permitting across state agencies, increase housing production and invest in sectors including quantum computing, advanced manufacturing and clean energy.
However, some have argued that the governor’s efforts come a bit too late, and are only be instituted in response to criticism. Gov. Ferguson shot back at that contention in the press conference last week, saying he doesn’t worry about critics and he’s interested in “solving problems.”
“I didn’t wake up last week and think about forming this council,” he said. “To be clear, as I mentioned in my talking points, this was an effort we really started last year and was an outgrowth of having conversations with many of the folks behind me and many other people across the state.”
Whether the new council ultimately leads to meaningful policy changes remains to be seen. But its creation sends a signal that Ferguson intends to place economic competitiveness — and closer engagement with Washington’s business community — near the center of his administration.
Amazon Chief Global Affairs and Legal Officer David Zapolsky, a member of the newly created council, called the formation of the group an “important step.”
“When the public and private sectors align around shared goals, communities benefit,” he said.
Governor’s Economic Development Council members:
Michael Cade — Incoming Board Chair, Washington Economic Development Association; Executive Director, Thurston County Economic Development Council
Dr. Betsy Cantwell — President, Washington State University
Leonard Forsman — Chairman, Suquamish Tribe
Denny Heck — Washington State Lieutenant Governor
Kris Johnson — President, Association of Washington Business
Trevor Johnson — CEO, Blackwood Homes
Dr. Robert Jones — President, University of Washington
Mike Katz — Chief Business & Product Officer, T-Mobile
Mary Kipp — President & CEO, Puget Sound Energy
Heather Kurtenbach — Executive Secretary, Washington State Building & Construction Trades Council
Dr. Thomas J. Lynch Jr. — President & Director, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Julianna Marler — CEO, Port of Vancouver
West Mathison — President & CEO, Stemilt Growers
Stephen Metruck — Executive Director, Port of Seattle
Denise Moriguchi — President & CEO, Uwajimaya
Stephanie Pope — President & CEO, Boeing Commercial Airplanes
Heather Rosentrater — President & CEO, Avista
Michael Senske — Chairman & CEO, Pearson Packaging Systems
April Sims — President, Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Brad Smith — Vice Chair and President, Microsoft
Rachel Smith — President, Washington Roundtable
Bill Sterud — Chairman, Puyallup Tribe
Shane Tackett — President and Chief Financial Officer, Alaska Airlines
Monique Valenzuela — Executive Director, Ventures
Dr. Rebekah Woods — President, Columbia Basin College
David Zapolsky — Chief Global Affairs & Legal Officer, Amazon
Login
