You made it to Saturday. The top storylines from the week include Microsoft betting on agents over apps, Helion scoring a massive funding round, Amazon at No. 1 on the Fortune 500, and Zuckerberg's yacht sailing off.
What if the next computer isn't a computer? Microsoft pulled back the curtain this week on Project Solara, a new platform for devices that run AI agents instead of apps — built on Android, designed to go places a phone or PC can't, and already headed to pilots with Best Buy, CVS Health, Target and others. GeekWire got a behind-the-scenes look at two concept devices: a desktop hub that recognizes your face and surfaces your day's priorities, and a wearable badge that records conversations and runs agents tailored to a specific job.
- Also unveiled at Microsoft Build: seven homegrown AI models, including MAI-Thinking-1, a reasoning model the company says matches Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.6 in blind testing — a step toward what AI chief Mustafa Suleyman called "long term self-sufficiency" from OpenAI and Anthropic.
- More on the GeekWire Podcast, with special guest Mary Jo Foley. Listen here, and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
- Meanwhile, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman will not stand for re-election to Microsoft's board after nine years, telling Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella he's shifting into "founder mode" to focus on his cancer drug-discovery startup.
Above: Nadella at Build in San Francisco. (Photo by Dan DeLong for Microsoft)
The Allen Institute spent two decades building a map of the human brain. Now it's planning to follow the map to cures. The Seattle-based research organization is launching a $400 million Brain Health Accelerator — backed in part by $100 million from the Bezos family — to develop gene therapies for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, ALS, and Lewy body dementia. The goal: a clinical trial in five years.
Fusion's biggest bet yet: Everett-based Helion Energy raised $465 million this week — the largest venture capital round in the Pacific Northwest so far this year — pushing its valuation to $15.5 billion. The company has a deal to supply fusion-generated electricity to a Microsoft data center in Central Washington by 2028, and has already broken ground on the plant in Malaga. Key unknowns remain, and skeptics are vocal, but Helion is pressing ahead.
Amazon is No. 1: The Seattle company topped $700 billion in revenue in 2025 to knock Walmart from the Fortune 500's top spot for the first time in 13 years — joining General Motors, ExxonMobil, and Walmart as the only companies to ever hold the title in the list's 72-year history. Amazon made its debut on the list at No. 492 just over two decades ago.
Last call at the Rec Center: Rec Room, the Seattle social gaming platform where 150 million players built worlds and friendships over the past decade, shut down Monday after the company couldn't figure out the economics. Players spent the final hours signing each other's virtual yearbooks, exchanging Discord handles, and gathering in the Rec Center one last time.
A lighter note:
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Superyacht heads north: After more than a week in Seattle, drawing crowds and no shortage of criticism, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's 387-foot Launchpad quietly left Elliott Bay, headed north and anchored off Everett.
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Google alert: Kameirah Johnson, an 18-year-old from Renton, Wash., beat tens of thousands of submissions to win the 2026 Doodle for Google contest. Her artwork, titled "Hair Power: The Crown That Grows from Us," celebrates hair as a cultural touchstone.
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Scoreboard in the sky: Can't make it to Lumen Field for a World Cup match? Look up. Visit Seattle is launching a drone scoreboard near the Space Needle that will light up match results for each of Seattle's six games, starting with Belgium vs. Egypt on June 15.
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Thanks for subscribing, and have a great weekend. Feedback and news tips: [email protected]. — GeekWire editor Todd Bishop, [email protected]; reporter Kurt Schlosser, [email protected]; and reporter Lisa Stiffler, [email protected].
