Sometimes a story lands in your lap, and sometimes it floats through your neighborhood. The arrival of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's 387-foot "Launchpad" caused a stir at Seattle’s Ballard Locks on Tuesday evening, and we literally sprinted (or as close as we get to sprinting these days) to make sure we didn't miss it. Turns out we didn't need to run: it takes quite a bit of time to maneuver a $300 million superyacht through an 80-foot-wide concrete channel.
Zuck didn’t seem to be on board, but that didn't stop onlookers from heckling, given the general sentiment about billionaires these days — especially one whose company made nearly 1,400 job cuts in the region earlier in the day. Check out our photos and video of the scene.
NASA has awarded Blue Origin an initial $188 million contract to deliver two crew-carrying lunar rovers to the moon's south pole via its robotic Blue Moon Mark 1 lander as part of a broader initiative to establish a permanent lunar base. Read more.
Amazon starts selling its retail AI playbook: A new Agentic Shopping Assistant tool from AWS lets retailers build AI shopping experiences using the same technology behind Amazon's Alexa for Shopping, which drove nearly $12 billion in incremental sales last year. Read more.
Eli Lilly has agreed to acquire Bothell, Wash.-based Curevo Vaccine for up to $1.5 billion in cash, a deal centered on a Phase 3-ready shingles vaccine candidate designed to significantly reduce side effects compared to current market leading shots. Read more.
CodeIntegrity raised a $5 million seed round to build runtime guardrails designed to prevent unpredictable agentic AI applications from leaking sensitive enterprise data. The San Francisco-based startup was co-founded by Seattle tech vets who relocated. Read more.
A team of Seattle teens is competing in an international underwater robotics competition in Canada next month, where they will test their custom-built vehicles against real-world ocean sustainability and sea-ice monitoring challenges. Read more.
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Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist David Horsey examines Jeff Bezos’ recent comments about Donald Trump, asking how the Amazon founder concluded that the president is “more mature, more disciplined” in his second term. (The Seattle Times).
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Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta are partnering with the climate investment nonprofit Elemental Impact to back startups developing tech to reduce data centers' environmental footprint. (Axios)
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Fortune’s 2026 “Most Powerful Women in Business” list highlights Microsoft CFO Amy Hood at No. 38, recognizing her continued influence at the center of the company’s AI-era spending boom. Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser was named No. 1, followed by General Motors CEO Mary Barra, AMD CEO Lisa Su and Accenture CEO Julie Sweet. (PR Newswire)
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Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown has joined a bipartisan coalition of 44 attorneys general in opposing the federal KIDS Act, arguing that the bill would shield Big Tech from accountability and strip states of their authority to enforce stronger online safety protections for children. (AG’s Office)
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Radar firm Echodyne and law enforcement tech company Axon are partnering to build drone security infrastructure for U.S. and global markets. (Business Wire)
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