An AirTag in a rare book leads to a secret Amazon site

How to find a secret warehouse: 404 Media hid an Apple AirTag in a rare book and followed it to a Las Vegas warehouse where Amazon cuts the bindings off books and scans them. Amazon won’t say whether the scans train its AI models. A Seattle nonprofit pioneered the technique a decade ago, using GPS trackers to catch a local recycler shipping e-waste to Hong Kong.

Highspot merger closes: Highspot, the Seattle sales technology company, completed its merger with San Diego-based Seismic, ending its run as an independent business. Seismic will keep Highspot’s Seattle and Vancouver offices, and says the combined company will have about 1,700 employees. It’s evaluating the organization for areas of overlap.

From engineering to elected office: India’s 80th Independence Day drew a governor’s proclamation, declarations from four mayors, and a line around the block. Harini Gokul, who came to the U.S. as an engineer and now serves on the Medina City Council, explains how the same talent pool that filled engineering teams has risen to CEO offices and council seats.

An AI rev share for scientific datasets: Adaptive Biotechnologies co-founder Harlan Robins raised $15 million for a new Bellevue startup, Harell Data, building a platform that pays research groups a cut of the revenue when AI teams train models on their proprietary scientific data.

Hot Links:

• Seattle VC Leslie Feinzaig, who reads every deck that comes in through Graham & Walker’s website, has had it with the AI-generated ones. She says it doesn’t have to be pretty, or even be a deck, as long as it answers three things: why this, why you and why now. (Venture with Leslie)
• An estimated 56 data centers now operate in Quincy, the Central Washington town where Microsoft opened its first about 20 years ago. Take a look inside one. (Cascade PBS)
• Maritime Blue’s long-delayed innovation center and startup hub in the Port of Seattle’s 112-year-old Ship Supply Building at Fishermen’s Terminal is now aiming for a summer 2027 opening, with tenant improvements waiting on fundraising. (PSBJ)
• Yoodli CEO Varun Puri, who left Google to build his AI communication coaching startup in Seattle rather than the Bay Area, lays out why: easier hiring, a less transient community, and fewer distractions. (LinkedIn)
• Anthropic’s annualized revenue run rate topped $65 billion at the end of July — a sevenfold increase from the end of last year — putting the AI lab ahead of OpenAI as it heads toward a potential IPO this fall. (Axios)

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