Happy Saturday. The week had a little bit of everything, from historic IPOs and AI billions to a Rust Belt road trip and the Seattle City Council sending a message on data centers. Here are the top storylines of the week from GeekWire.
Former Amazon leaders, new AI ambitions: Adam Selipsky (above, left) and Jeff Bezos both made major moves in AI this week — a reminder that some of the biggest bets on the technology's future are being placed by people who built the infrastructure it runs on.
- Bezos' startup Prometheus raised $12 billion at a $41 billion valuation, with Bezos and co-CEO Vik Bajaj making their first joint public appearance to describe their plan to build an "artificial general engineer" for designing and manufacturing physical objects.
- Meanwhile, former AWS CEO Selipsky launched Helix Digital Infrastructure, a new $10 billion-plus venture backed by KKR and Nvidia to build AI data centers for tech giants struggling to keep pace with demand.
Seattle’s statement on AI infrastructure: The Seattle City Council voted 9-0 this week to impose a one-year emergency moratorium on new large data centers in the city, with one councilmember saying she'd halt AI and data center development entirely if she could. More than 50 people testified — not one in favor. Read more.
Lessons for Seattle from the Rust Belt: GeekWire's John Cook and Seattle angel investor Charles Fitzgerald — whose GeekWire column in February got lots of attention for warning Seattle not to become the next Cleveland — spent several days in Cleveland this week, talking with the mayor, the governor, and a cross-section of civic and business leaders about how the city clawed its way back. Their takeaway for Seattle: complacency kills, and the warning signs are easy to miss when times are good. Read more.
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On the GeekWire Podcast: From an abandoned former Westinghouse light-bulb factory in Cleveland, John and Charles talk about their experience in the city. Listen and watch highlights here, and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
What the SpaceX IPO means for Seattle: The region's space community stands to benefit from SpaceX's historic public debut — through newly wealthy employees at the company's Redmond satellite factory, fresh capital flowing into the sector, and a boost for local startups whose business models depend on SpaceX's launch capacity and lower costs. Read more.
Xbox hits the reset button: About 100 days into her tenure, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma went public with a stark assessment of Microsoft's gaming division — heavy spending, thin margins, and declining revenue that she said cannot go on. Reports from Bloomberg and The Verge say major layoffs are coming next month, after the close of Microsoft's fiscal year. Read more.
- CEO Satya Nadella weighed in on the situation during a podcast appearance this week in which he said that Microsoft has spent years subsidizing Xbox rather than profiting from it. "Now we have to turn this into a sustainable business," he said.
So long, Seattle: Rich Barton, co-founder of both Zillow and Expedia and one of Seattle's most prominent tech entrepreneurs, announced that he's officially relocated to Las Vegas, citing personal reasons. His departure adds to a growing list of high-profile names leaving the region amid a heated debate over taxes and the business climate. Read more.
Also this week:
Upcoming events: Tech and startup community gatherings on our radar in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
Check out the GeekWire Calendar for more.
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].
