Space unicorn: Starcloud has reached a $1.1 billion valuation after raising $170 million in Series A funding, making it the fastest company in Y Combinator history to hit the milestone. The Redmond, Wash.-based startup aims to solve Earth’s data center power crisis by launching solar-powered, AI-ready "server boxes" into orbit.
Read more. Microsoft is using Anthropic's Claude to fact-check OpenAI's GPT inside Microsoft 365 Copilot, blending its new and old AI partnerships as it tries to accelerate adoption of its AI assistant for business. The company announced the new addition to its Researcher agent today.
The opening of the Crosslake Connection and light rail service between Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond is being celebrated by tech leaders. Amazon’s global affairs chief David Zapolsky called it “transformative” for 65,000 employees in the region. Microsoft President Brad Smith touted his company’s early efforts to help make the 2 Line happen — and he rode the train from HQ to T-Mobile Park with the Mariners’ racing salmon mascots. Read more.
Microsoft VP Ravi Vedula’s new book, “Hyderabad Days,” is a memoir about cricket, colony life, and the community that surrounded him as a kid. He sees these principles and traditions as all the more important to remember as we move into the AI era. "This book isn't about the past," he says. “It’s about the value system that we carry forward into the future.” Read more.
Amazon reportedly purchased 1,300 acres on the Oregon side of the Columbia River that could one day become a massive computing campus with up to 20 data center buildings. Read more.
It's official: Gov. Bob Ferguson signed the “millionaires tax” in a ceremony Monday morning, making Washington one of the latest states to impose an income tax on high earners — 9.9% on income above $1 million, effective 2028. Read our previous explainer on the tax. (Image via FOX 13 Seattle live stream.)
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Bluesky has launched Attie, a standalone AI-powered app that allows users to create and customize their own social media algorithms and feeds using natural language prompts. (TechCrunch)
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The Seattle Mariners added another wrinkle to the team’s baseball broadcast plans this season, reaching a deal with Seattle’s KING 5 to air 10 games. (KING 5)
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Amazon MGM Studios has a certified hit: “Project Hail Mary” passed $300 million at the global box office to become the studio’s top grossing film ever. (Variety)
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The City of Redmond launched a digital translation service called Instant Language Assistant that improves accessibility at council meetings and elsewhere. (Redmond)
Thanks for subscribing, and have a great week. — GeekWire editor Todd Bishop, todd@geekwire.com, and reporter Kurt Schlosser, kurt@geekwire.com. 
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