Inside Microsoft’s ‘Super App’ bet: Charles Lamanna, who leads Microsoft's Copilot, agents, and platform work, is helping build the forthcoming Copilot Super App — a single front door meant to unify the company's sprawling AI products. In the latest installment of our Microsoft 2.5 series, he talks with Mary Jo Foley about the plan, the "Copilot Palooza" it's meant to fix, and why Microsoft wants to be "the Copilot company."
Read more.
AI tutor raises $6M: Seattle startup Wild Zebra’s AI education platform guides students toward answers with questions rather than supplying them, and frames math and reading problems around topics the student picks, boosting engagement. Trilogy Equity Partners led the round, bringing the company's total funding to $8 million. Read more.
Zillow profits hit by restructuring: Despite second-quarter revenue climbing 18% to $772 million, Zillow Group slipped into a $4 million net loss due to restructuring costs from laying off 7% of its workforce. The online real estate company also reshuffled its executive ranks, including expanding CFO Jeremy Hofmann's role to include COO. Read more.
Disaster hits home: Major Washington state employers — including Amazon, F5, Boeing, T-Mobile, Microsoft and Starbucks — are mobilizing essential supplies, satellite AI tracking, free connectivity, and financial aid to support displaced residents and relief efforts after wildfires devastated Spokane. (Above: Amazon Disaster Relief supplies are shipped from a hub in California to wildfire victims and responders in Washington.) 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.
Hot Links:
-
Two professors in the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering have taken home prestigious awards: Jerry Li and collaborators were awarded the 2026 Gödel Prize; Shayan Oveis Gharan won the 2026 IMU Abacus Medal.
-
Meta is backing out of another office building in Bellevue’s Spring District, offering the roughly 212,000-square-foot Block 13 building for sublease. (The Seattle Times)
-
The Seattle Orcas Women’s T20 Exhibition team landed Maiden Cricket, a cricket kit, teamwear and equipment company for women and girls, as official sponsor. (X)
-
Bellevue-based Apptio, which was acquired by IBM in 2023, rolled out a preview of a new tool that tracks whether AI spending is actually producing results. (IBM)
-
Amazon Web Services added vector search to its DynamoDB database, letting AI apps find items by meaning rather than exact keywords, avoiding the second, specialized database developers used to need. (AWS)
-
Sustainability data platform Measurabl and private-markets data firm Inveniam are partnering to turn real estate records into verifiable data for AI using DGML, the document format that Kirkland, Wash.-based Docugami recently open-sourced. (Measurabl)
Thanks for subscribing, and have a great day. — GeekWire editor Todd Bishop, [email protected]; reporter Kurt Schlosser, [email protected]; and reporter Lisa Stiffler, [email protected].
