GeekWire

On this week’s show, Todd and John react to the sudden downfall of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who resigned Thursday after reports of extramarital affairs, including one with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy. They discuss the governance gaps at the world’s most valuable chipmaker, the long but low-profile Microsoft career of interim CEO Colette Kress, and who could take over permanently, including candidates from Microsoft, Amazon and the chip industry.

In the second segment, Todd explains how AI tools are changing the way he reports, with help in live interviews, research in news archives and an analysis of GeekWire’s coverage that shows Pacific Northwest M&A and IPO activity picking up this fall.

Inspired by Colette Kress's new role, the GeekWire Trivia Challenge looks at what some of Microsoft’s former finance executives have done after leaving the company.

We recorded this episode Thursday afternoon, before the full scale of the Microsoft 365 outage was clear and before Friday’s FAA ground stop. GeekWire has full coverage of both stories.

Related links:

• Nvidia’s interim CEO spent 13 years behind the scenes at Microsoft
• Seattle VC firm Ascend closes $17M fund to back ‘Third Act’ startups in physical AI and hardware
• ‘We’re still here’: Technology Access Foundation keeps opening doors for students of color, 30 years later
• ‘A huge pain in the ass’: Microsoft 365 starts to recover after a day of global email turmoil
• Officials blame aging FAA telecom gear as U.S. airspace reopens, see no link to Microsoft or AI

With John Cook and Todd Bishop; edited by Curt Milton; music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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This week: Shield AI, the defense tech company building its X-BAT autonomous fighter jet south of Seattle, agrees to acquire Kirkland-based radar maker Echodyne in a deal valued at up to $5.3 billion. We discuss what it means for the Seattle region’s rise as a defense tech hub, how the midterm results could affect the sector, and the Mercer Island roots of Shield AI co-founders Brandon and Ryan Tseng.

Voters backed limits on data center development in 40 of 41 local ballot measures across the country, more than half of them in Ohio. We talk about the backlash, reports that foreign actors are amplifying it, and what it means for Amazon as it plans its first data centers in Washington state.

Seattle startup Suplari is acquired by Docusign, nearly three years after Microsoft spun it back out to its founders. Along with the Echodyne deal and Agility Robotics’ public listing, it could be a sign that M&A is picking up.

And in the GeekWire Trivia Challenge: how did Nobel Prize winner Mary Brunkow, one of this year’s GeekWire Uncommon Thinkers, find out she had won?

Related stories and links

• Shield AI to buy Bill Gates-backed radar maker Echodyne in $5.3B deal, doubling down on Seattle area
• Amazon plans its first data centers in Washington state as residents raise concerns
• A rare second exit: AI startup Suplari acquired by Docusign nearly 3 years after Microsoft spinout
• Agility Robotics co-founder on its Nasdaq debut, lessons from Amazon, and the future of work
• Uncommon Thinkers: Curiosity led Mary Brunkow to an immune breakthrough — and a Nobel Prize
• GeekWire Gala, Dec. 10

With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton. Music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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This week: Microsoft is offering buyouts to about 60,000 employees, roughly a quarter of its workforce, including some executives. We discuss what's behind the offer, why buyout stories draw so much interest from readers, and how it fits with a blockbuster quarter that included $10 billion in revenue from OpenAI.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy predicts that AWS and Amazon's stores business could each reach $1 trillion in annual revenue in the next five to 10 years, even as the cost of Amazon's AI buildout cuts into its profits.

Todd also tests Amazon's new Bee AI wearable, which listens to the first part of the show, summarizes the conversation and offers a critique of its own. John starts to come around on the device, with reservations about its shopping-related features.

Plus, our Halloween costumes, and a GeekWire Trivia Challenge about T-Mobile perks.

Related stories and links

• Microsoft makes new ‘voluntary exit’ offer to about a quarter of its workforce, including some execs
• Bigger than Bing or Xbox: Microsoft’s OpenAI haul reaches $10B in quarterly revenue
• Choosing their own moment: Why these longtime Microsofties are taking the buyout
• Andy Jassy’s prediction: Amazon could have two $1 trillion businesses within a decade
• AWS growth hits 39%, its fastest in nearly five years, as Amazon misses on earnings
• Amazon’s new AI devices can listen to conversations and suggest things to buy — if you opt in
• Amazon’s new Bee AI devices have a bystander problem, says former AWS security engineer
• T-Mobile’s new ‘T-Mix’ plans let customers trade phone deals for Netflix, ESPN and other perks

With Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton. Music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week: Microsoft’s longtime communications chief, Frank X. Shaw, looks back on nearly three decades of telling the company’s story as he prepares to leave at the end of the year. Joined by veteran Microsoft reporter and GeekWire contributing writer Mary Jo Foley, Shaw talks about working for Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Satya Nadella, the mistakes he’d handle differently, and what companies of any size can learn about the evolution of communications and working with reporters.

Related Stories and Links

• Microsoft comms chief Frank Shaw to exit after nearly three decades shaping the company’s message
• Internal memos: Microsoft shakes up communications as Nadella makes a push to build in public
• Microsoft’s ‘lost decade’: Vanity Fair piece accurate but incomplete
• Frank X. Shaw: Things I’m Thinking About
• Mary Jo Foley’s GeekWire stories

With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Edited by Curt Milton. Music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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We start this week's GeekWire Podcast by opening the listener mailbag, highlighting some recent comments and emails that set a new standard for critical feedback, in different ways.

We discuss Vayo, the AI travel venture Booking Holdings is launching in Seattle, home of its biggest rival, Expedia. Led by recent guest Mike Fridgen, Vayo uses AI agents to manage your trips. It's an example of the broader push to build personalized AI agents, even as more companies wall off their sites from rival agents.

Then we take on LinkedIn’s list of the top Seattle startups, where four of the top 10, including No. 1 Anthropic, aren’t headquartered in the region.

And in the final segment, we talk about Amazon’s new Bee AI wearables, which can turn things you say into shopping suggestions on Amazon.com if you opt in and pay $12 a month. That leads into the GeekWire Trivia Challenge, about an earlier Amazon wristband that listened to you.

Related links:

• Booking Holdings unveils AI travel startup Vayo, based in Seattle, with a planned $100M investment
• LinkedIn just released its list of the top 10 Seattle startups: One problem, nearly half aren’t based in the region
• Amazon’s new AI devices can listen to conversations and suggest things to buy — if you opt in
• Amazon’s Halo disappears: Tech giant discontinues health devices and service, promises refunds

Edited and produced by Curt Milton; Music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we take the GeekWire Podcast to Front Burner Studios near Pike Place Market, where our host is studio co-owner Seth Paul, who's also co-founder and CEO of the Seattle security startup Qinsay.

We discuss the White House crackdown on Microsoft’s green-card sponsorships, hours before President Trump honored Satya Nadella. We also talk about record Seattle startup funding and Shield AI’s plans to build AI-piloted fighter jets in Des Moines, Wash., where a city FAQ assures residents it’s not a data center.

Seth tells us about the vintage console he drove from Detroit, and how he brings a musician’s approach to the startup world. Plus, the return of the GeekWire Trivia Challenge.

Related links:

• Microsoft responds to White House immigration crackdown as Trump honors Nadella
• From H-1B to CEO: How Satya Nadella traveled the path the U.S. just cut off for Microsoft workers
• Seattle-area startups raise a record $3.5B as national VC funding cools
• Shield AI selects Seattle area to build X-BAT autonomous fighter jet
• Shield AI lands $150M Navy contract for AI-piloted fighter jet

With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop.

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This week, GeekWire co-founder John Cook joins University of Washington historian Margaret O'Mara, author of "The Code," and San Francisco journalist Jonathan Weber, author of "City on the Edge," for a live joint taping with the Blue City Blues podcast at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle. With Blue City Blues hosts David Hyde and Sandeep Kaushik, they trace the rise of Microsoft and Amazon, the backlash against big tech, the record of both cities' mayors, and Seattle's place in an AI boom that's largely originating in San Francisco.

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This week: Amazon is blocking Meta's new Muse AI assistant from shopping on Amazon.com, saying the agent doesn't identify itself and violates the site's conditions of use. We explain why the standoff is an early sign of a much bigger fight over whether AI agents can use websites and apps on people's behalf, and why Amazon has so much riding on the answer.

For the definitive word on the issue, we ask Muse what it has to say for itself, and get an impressively sophisticated and evenhanded answer. 

We recorded this week's show live at Daniel's Broiler in downtown Seattle, in front of a room of startup founders and CEOs, at a dinner hosted and sponsored by Northern Trust.

Mike Fridgen, a longtime Seattle entrepreneur and Madrona venture partner now working on a stealth startup, joins us to talk about whether Seattle is still a good place to build a company. The conversation covers the region's talent, its history and the debate over taxes including Seattle's JumpStart payroll tax, which Mayor Katie Wilson's new budget holds flat.

Then we take questions from the room. Ridge AI CEO Ellie Fields asks how business leaders can engage productively in building the region, Latch CEO Stefan Kalb asks why Seattle has less venture capital than the Bay Area and ACME Brains founder Mary Jesse asks how to get past polarization.

We close with a satellite-themed GeekWire Trivia Challenge and an unexpected announcement from Starfish Space co-founder Austin Link.

Related links

• Amazon blocks Meta's Muse AI assistant in new standoff over agentic shopping
• Facing 'seismic shifts' in tech sector, Seattle mayor freezes JumpStart tax rates in new budget
• 'The warning signs are flashing': New regional partnership calls for cohesive Seattle-area tech strategy
• Data visualization all-stars unveil Ridge AI with $2.6M to fix the analytics problem for SaaS apps
• With NASA's backing, Starfish Space is getting ready for the orbital debut of its flagship Otter spacecraft

With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop. Music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's show, recorded live at Atmosphere Seattle on the shores of Lake Union, Zillow Senior Vice President of Engineering Toby Roberts joins us to talk about what AI is doing to the business of buying and selling homes.

The show was recorded in partnership with Real Estate At Work, the networking group hosted by Leka Devatha, a broker with Real Residential and founder of the redevelopment firm Rehabit Homes, in front of a room of brokers, investors and technologists.

Roberts runs Zillow's core technology with a team of about 650 engineers. He says AI agents will work as a copilot for real estate agents rather than replace them — freeing up their time for the more human aspects of the job, helping people navigate the biggest transaction of their lives. We also talk about the line between AI and reality in home listings, and the tech industry's sudden push to slow AI down.

Then it's the GeekWire Trivia Challenge: four extraordinary Zillow listings for unusual buildings converted into homes. Three are real. One is an AI deepfake. Check out the handout here with the four listings, and see if you can tell the difference. 

With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited and produced by Curt Milton.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week: A study commissioned by the City of Seattle warns that the city is not in decline but is in danger, finding that 10 companies, nine of them in tech, pay three-quarters of the payroll tax on large employers, and that the tax structure uniquely penalizes the hiring of senior, high-compensation workers.

The report says Seattle should be most concerned about AI but most active in cleantech, the one industry the city can actually shape, since it owns the electric utility and controls permitting, building codes and land use.

Meanwhile, the Seattle Times and Newsday sue Microsoft and OpenAI, accusing them of copying hundreds of thousands of articles to train their AI models, putting Microsoft's hometown paper against a company that helps fund some of its journalism.

And Apple's first foldable arrives as the iPhone Duo, reviving the name of the dual-screen phone Microsoft gave up on in 2023, with Surface fans arguing Apple took more than the name.

Which leads us to a new GeekWire Trivia Challenge on the Microsoft products that Apple later turned into categories.

Upcoming Event: GeekWire, in partnership with Real Estate at Work, is recording the GeekWire Podcast live at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, with Toby Roberts, SVP of Engineering at Zillow. Grab a ticket. 

With John Cook and Todd Bishop. Edited by Curt Milton. Music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.