Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of Jan. 18, 2026 – GeekWire

Internal emails, texts, slide decks, and deposition testimony show how Microsoft went from being sidelined at OpenAI’s founding to wielding decisive influence over the AI lab that launched the generative AI era — and how that power is now being tested as OpenAI emerges as a platform company with leverage of its own. … Read More

A longtime leader for Fulfillment by Amazon retires and offers parting thoughts, while former executives with Oracle, Microsoft and LevelTen take new roles. … Read More

Seattle’s ORCA transit system is rolling out an upgrade that will let riders pay fares by tapping their credit card or smartphone — no dedicated ORCA card required. … Read More

A weekend vibe-coding project by the startup leader and former Amazon Worldwide Consumer CEO sparked debate over the speed, scalability, and real‑world value of increasingly popular AI development workflows. … Read More

Amazon laid off about 14,000 workers globally in October. … Read More

The heaviest hit facility is the Reality Labs office in Redmond, followed by the Spring District office in Bellevue, according to a state filing. … Read More

The company aims to give everyday investors access to strategies traditionally reserved for hedge funds and ultra-wealthy clients. … Read More

Seattle startup Emerald Battery Labs raised just under $1.1 million in a pre-seed round to continue scaling its sodium-ion battery technology. … Read More

Amazon Quick Suite has a new vice president, Chronus named a CEO, Supio added to its C-suite, and REI got an AI lead, among other Seattle area tech moves. … Read More

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella riffed on some famous lines from tech leaders past this week in an appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and offered up his own trippy candidate to join the canon of computing metaphors.  Read More … Read More