Catch up on the week's biggest storylines, including a tough week of layoffs at Zillow, Google and Salesforce, Jeff Dean's exit from Google after 27 years, a leadership change at UW's Allen School, and Amazon crossing $3 trillion.
Elon Musk's Starlink swagger: SpaceX reported its first quarter as a public company, and Elon Musk predicted that Starlink could deliver a majority of the world's internet within a decade, leveraging the company's production facilities in Redmond. Musk also explained SpaceX’s data center ambitions, calling terrestrial infrastructure a trivial problem next to reusable rockets.
- On this week's GeekWire Podcast, we listen to highlights from Musk’s comments and reflect on an earlier effort to beam internet connectivity from space by the Seattle-area company Teledesic, as memorialized on a 2009 poster of Seattle tech (above). Read more and listen here, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Latest tech layoffs: It was a difficult week for tech employment in the region with a few major employers trimming headcount.
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Zillow Group: The online real estate company cut over 500 positions — roughly 7% of its workforce — including 91 jobs in Washington state, with senior positions predominantly impacted. It all led to a $4 million net loss despite Q2 revenue rising 18% in the company’s latest earnings.
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Google: A state filing revealed 52 job cuts at campuses in Seattle, Kirkland, and Redmond.
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Salesforce: The latest round of layoffs at the enterprise software giant hit 59 employees in Seattle and Bellevue, including some at Tableau.
Automating the scientific method: University of Washington alumnus and longtime Google chief scientist Jeff Dean is leaving the search giant after nearly three decades to launch Discovery Loop. Joined by three top AI researchers, the new public benefit corporation aims to build AI tools that autonomously formulate experiments, test hypotheses, and accelerate research breakthroughs — backed by seed funding and dedicated computing support from Google itself. Read more.
UW’s Allen School announces leadership shift: Director Magdalena Balazinska is changing gears after nearly seven years at the helm of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering to take a sabbatical before returning to research and teaching. Longtime faculty member and vice director Dan Grossman will step in as interim director while the university evaluates how to structure its broader computing and AI programs. Read more.
Taming 'Copilot Palooza': In the latest installment of GeekWire’s Microsoft 2.5 series, executive vice president Charles Lamanna outlined how Microsoft plans to streamline its disparate AI products into a unified "Copilot Super App." Conceived as a primary workspace operating much like a browser or OS, the platform aims to consolidate coding, chat, and autonomous agents while anchoring the tech giant's evolution into a dedicated Copilot company. Read more.
Amazon crosses $3 trillion market cap: Extending a strong market rally following last week’s earnings, Amazon officially surpassed a $3 trillion valuation for the first time, while Microsoft shares jumped 5% early in the week. Despite record-setting capital expenditures on artificial intelligence data centers, investors embraced both tech giants thanks to robust cloud revenue growth and surging enterprise demand. Read more.
Rooftop reality check on climate tech: High above Seattle during Pacific Northwest Climate Week, the latest episode of GeekWire’s Positive Charge podcast gathered candid perspectives from local investors and entrepreneurs. Rather than leaning on wishful thinking, attendees outlined four key principles driving the sector forward — from prioritizing clear business fundamentals and navigating shifting policy landscapes to finding pragmatic paths toward commercializing clean tech. Read more.
KEXP doubles down on human curation: The independent Seattle radio station is leaning into its slogan "Some things are better without AI" as algorithmic music platforms proliferate. Newly appointed Chief Product and Technology Officer Jyoti Shukla — a veteran of SiriusXM, Nordstrom, and Starbucks — is focused on building digital tools centered on human connection rather than automated playlists. Read more.
Reimagining AI on the big screen: As debates over AI’s role in creative work intensify, the second annual Seattle AI Film Festival is betting that artists don’t have to choose between human ingenuity and new tech. Returning to McCaw Hall on Aug. 29-30, the event features 200 films that explore what happens when filmmakers embrace both human storytelling and generative tools. Read more.
Jimothy’s big week: Seattle’s internet-famous raccoon raided the corporate pantry, helping draw a $200,000 donation from Amazon and more than $70,000 from 10 other companies for the Ballard Food Bank. Read more.
Help us recognize the Seattle area’s boldest innovators: GeekWire, in partnership with Greater Seattle Partners, is once again honoring Uncommon Thinkers — the inventors, scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs who are transforming industries and driving positive change throughout the world. Read more and submit a nomination.
Upcoming events: Tech and startup community gatherings on our radar in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
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Thanks for subscribing, and have a great weekend. — GeekWire editor Todd Bishop, [email protected]; reporter Kurt Schlosser, [email protected]; and reporter Lisa Stiffler, [email protected].
