AI founders for hire:
Foundations
, the startup community with hubs in Seattle and San Francisco, launched a service that lets businesses contract with its members to build AI systems and applications. It gives founders a new way to pay their bills as early-stage investment gets harder to raise. It also reflects how AI is changing tech, making software easier to build and leading some startups to act more like services firms.
Superhuman
gets its own Seattle office: The San Francisco company formerly known as Grammarly moved out of a coworking space and into a South Lake Union office with room for 80 people, and it’s hiring. It joins OpenAI, Anthropic and a growing list of out-of-town AI companies expanding in the region in search of technical talent.
Fighting fake hardware: Seattle-based
Chiplytics
announced $4.5 million in investments and a government award, and has opened an East Coast inspection facility to help manufacturers catch fake or defective semiconductor chips and other electronics. The startup uses AI and robotics to test every individual component rather than relying on spot checks.
Corporate exit to startup hub: A former tech leader has launched The SWELL, a downtown Seattle hub for women entrepreneurs that provides an in-person community, flexible programming and support tailored for bootstrapping. Operating out of SURF Incubator, the new community has signed up 53 members in less than 10 weeks.
- Microsoft has cut its internal Claude spending by more than a third, from a projected $1 billion-plus a year, after telling employees to rely more on its own AI tools and OpenAI models. Meta’s Claude Code users have dropped by half, to about 30,000. (The Information)
- Repligen completed its $1.5 billion acquisition of BioLife Solutions on Tuesday, a day after shareholders of the Bothell, Wash.-based cell therapy supplier approved the deal. BioLife becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of the Massachusetts life sciences company. (Investing.com)
- University of Washington professor Yiyue Luo, who leads the Wearable Intelligence Lab, is developing smart textiles and other wearable technology that can monitor health, improve rehabilitation and provide robots with a more human-like sense of touch. (UW)
- Walmart drone delivery is coming to the Seattle area in 2027 through its partnership with Wing, the Alphabet-owned drone company. Amazon is expanding its own drone delivery to nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns this year but hasn’t said when or whether it will reach its hometown. (Wing)
- Starbucks is testing a smaller cafe design that keeps the seating, after CEO Brian Niccol closed its pickup-only stores last year as “overly transactional.” Six are open so far, including in San Antonio and Manhattan. (CNN)
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