Inside Meta’s new Bellevue offices | UW prof wins $800K ‘genius grant’

Inside Meta’s new Bellevue offices: The tech giant, which has more than 8,000 employees in the region, officially cut the ribbon on its growing presence at the Spring District development east of Seattle. Go inside.

Bezos family gives ‘transformative gift’ to Fred Hutch: Jackie and Mike Bezos, the parents of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, pledged $710.5 million on behalf of the Bezos family to help the Seattle institution accelerate the pace and scale of cancer research. Read more. 

University of Washington computer science professor wins $800K ‘genius grant’: Yejin Choi, also a senior research manager at Seattle’s Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, was recognized for her work in natural language processing. Read more about Choi. 

Microsoft’s new graphic design app: Microsoft Designer, announced Wednesday morning, capitalizes on the company’s partnership with research lab OpenAI to integrate DALL-E 2, which uses AI to generate images from text — and raises the potential for creating explicit content, reinforcing stereotypes, and other forms of misuse. Unveiling the app this morning, Microsoft outlined a series of precautions but acknowledged that it's a work in progress. 

Speaking of Microsoft apps … Tired of showing up to the office, only to find that no one else is there? Microsoft is working on an app for that and other common problems related to hybrid work. Called Microsoft Places, it’s slated for release next year.

Apple + Microsoft: A new link between iCloud Photos and the Windows 11 Photos app, announced today, is a major move to bridge Apple's iPhone and Microsoft’s operating system. It also highlights what continues to be a missing link: the inability to access Apple’s proprietary iMessage protocol or Messages app natively from Windows.

Microsoft goes Meta: Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, outlined an expanded partnership during a surprise appearance with Mark Zuckerberg as part of the Meta CEO’s keynote address Tuesday at the Meta Connect virtual conference. Here’s what they announced.

Amazon switches Project Kuiper plan: The first prototype satellites for Amazon’s broadband internet network are now due to launch on the first-ever flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket early next year, rather than on ABL Space Systems’ rocket. Read more. 

Oculus acquires indie game developer: Bellevue, Wash.-based Camouflaj, founded in 2012 and creators of Republique and Iron Man VR, has joined Meta’s Oculus Studios.

Sci-fi author envisions real metaverse: Neal Stephenson came up with the idea for the metaverse in his 1992 novel “Snow Crash.” Now he has an alternate, open-source vision from what some tech giants are working on. Read more. 

Startup fundings: 

• Diagrid raises $24.2M: Microsoft’s Azure CTO Mark Russinovich and Kubernetes co-founder Joe Beda are among the investors in this Seattle software development startup. 
• Deako lands $13.4M: The Seattle-based company makes light switches that allow homebuilders and homeowners to swap in remotely controlled lighting