Quantum computer factory coming to Seattle area

• Maryland-based IonQ is opening a 65,000-square-foot research and manufacturing facility in Bothell, Wash., to build quantum computers. The opening is part of IonQ’s plan to invest $1 billion in the Pacific Northwest over the next 10 years, the company says. Read more. 

Google parent Alphabet is cutting 12,000 jobs, or about 6% of its global workforce, in the latest big layoff to hit the tech industry.

• CEO Sundar Pichai said the company hired for growth during the pandemic that does not match today’s economic reality. Google employs more than 7,200 people in the Seattle area. Read more. 

• Tune in this weekend: GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook will offer their perspectives on the wave of tech layoffs on the GeekWire Podcast. Listen here Saturday morning.

In stepping down as CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings took a page from the playbook of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

• Hastings, who co-founded the streaming giant in 1997, said he is staying on as executive chairman, just as the Amazon and Microsoft leaders did. Read more.

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, who has long been a thorn in the side of Amazon, announced that she won’t seek re-election.

• Sawant, above, championed the “head tax” movement against big businesses in Seattle and said she plans to launch a nationwide worker’s rights movement called Workers Strike Back. Read more. 

As traditional venture capital becomes harder to raise, many founders are seeking alternative financing tools.

• Startups are increasingly exploring various forms of debt and loans, which can provide several advantages — but also has caveats. Read more. 

A hacker obtained data from 37 million T-Mobile customer accounts.

• The Bellevue, Wash.-based wireless giant is investigating and said payment information, social security numbers, driver’s licenses and other financial info was not accessed. Read more.

“The good old days are gone,” Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said this week during a discussion about how to govern a post-pandemic city and revitalize downtown.

• Amid long-term changes in work habits and office space needs, Harrell envisions an opportunity to make downtown Seattle a place where people don’t just work. Read more.