GeekWire's Most-Read Stories of the Week

Catch up on the top tech stories from this past week. Here are the headlines that people have been reading on GeekWire. ADVERTISEMENT [GeekWire]( SPONSOR MESSAGE: Washington state’s second-largest city is the hub of an ambitious regional tech community seeking to leverage new realities to achieve its longstanding goals: [Read more.]( THIS WEEK'S TOP STORIES [Prudential to shut down Assurance, the insurance tech startup it acquired for $2.35B in 2019]( Insurance giant Prudential is shutting down Assurance IQ, five years after spending $2.35 billion to acquire the under-the-radar tech startup based in the Seattle region. [DoorDash rips Seattle over minimum wage law; reports record quarterly revenue of $2.5B]( DoorDash dedicated two large paragraphs of its first quarter earnings report and spent several minutes on a call with analysts to voice opposition against controversial minimum wage laws for delivery drivers in Seattle and New York City. [Amazon earnings preview: Advertising and AWS expected to continue fueling profits]( Amazon reports its first quarter earnings on Tuesday. SPONSOR MESSAGE [Local Bank Offering A Frictionless Loan Application Process For Small Businesses in Washington State]( 40-50% of small businesses rank access to capital as their main obstacle. Unlike traditional banks that tend to be encumbered by legacy tech, community banks can bring agility and innovation to small business lending. Learn how a Seattle-based financial institution leveraged open banking to offer a frictionless loan process for small business borrowers in Washington State. [Learn More.]( [Amazon stock rises as Q1 earnings top estimates with $143.3B in revenue; AWS sales up 17%]( Amazon topped estimates for its first quarter earnings, reporting $143.3 billion in revenue, up 13% year-over-year, and earnings per share of $0.98. [Microsoft will base part of senior exec comp on security, add deputy CISOs to product groups]( Microsoft is changing its security practices, organizational structure, and executive compensation in an attempt to address a series of major security breaches, under growing pressure from government leaders and big customers. [Seattle TV station says enough already with the AI and Photoshop-generated zebra memes]( At the risk of beating a not-dead, just-missing zebra, here’s another story about the story that won’t quit this week. [Tech Moves: Docker and Qualtrics leaders join Seattle startup Mason; Beyond adds Zulily director]( Mason, a Seattle startup that offers a hardware-software platform for companies managing device fleets, hired Webb Stevens as its new CEO and John Thimsen as its new CTO. [Amazon Q adds feature to create AI apps using natural language]( Amazon says it will give non-developers the ability to create apps using natural language as part of a new feature for Amazon Q, the AI assistant unveiled by Amazon Web Services last fall. [This startup just raised funding to turn wood pulp into sustainable, biodegradable plastics]( A Vancouver, B.C.-based startup making biodegradable plastics out of wood pulp has raised up to $5 million from Brazil’s Suzano Ventures, the investment arm of a manufacturing giant turning farmed eucalyptus trees into pulp. [Internal memo: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella delivers a new mandate on security]( This the text of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's internal memo sent to employees Friday, May 3, about the company's new security initiatives. [Capital spending soars in the cloud as Microsoft, Google, and others bet big on AI demand]( Analysts, investors, and the media are suddenly focused intensely on capital expenditures by tech giants including Microsoft, Meta, Google, and others to size up the industry’s bet on the cloud and artificial intelligence. [Meet the startups that just graduated from Creative Destruction Lab’s accelerator in Seattle]( Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), a nonprofit that runs 13 startup accelerators across the world, just graduated another swath of early stage companies from its Seattle program. [Inside the Seattle courtroom where Binance’s founder received a controversial prison sentence]( Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao sat up straight in his chair inside a Seattle courtroom Tuesday morning, his hands folded on the defense table, as a federal prosecutor made the case to put him in prison for three years — twice the top end of the range for his crime under federal sentencing guidelines. [Portal Space Systems comes out of stealth with satellites that’ll be fired up by the sun]( Portal Space Systems is emerging from stealth with a plan to create a satellite platform that uses the sun's heat to spark its thrusters. [Take-Two Interactive layoffs hit Seattle area; 70 workers affected]( Take-Two Interactive, the gaming giant behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise, is laying off 70 employees in the Seattle region. GEEKWORK: TODAY'S TECH JOBS - [GeekWork: Head of Engineering]( - [INRIX: Finance Pricing Manager]( - [BRINC: Senior/Principal Backend & Platform Software Engineer]( - [BRINC: Territory Account Executive, PacNW]( - [INRIX: Account Executive, Public Sector]( - [GeekWork: ML Engineer]( - [AdaptX: Vice President of Engineering]( - [BRINC: Principal / Senior Software Test Engineer]( [FIND MORE JOBS ON GEEKWORK]( [HIRING? BUY A FEATURED LISTING TO APPEAR HERE]( [About GeekWire]( [Contact Us]( [Advertise]( Copyright © 2024 GeekWire LLC, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted to receive emails from GeekWire LLC.  Our mailing address is: GeekWire LLC 123 NW 36th St, Suite 203 Seattle, WA 98107  [change email frequency or address]( | [unsubscribe](