Can Microsoft show AI’s potential upside for its business? | Amazon axes $1.4B iRobot acquisition

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SPONSOR MESSAGE: Nominations are open for the 2024 GeekWire Awards: Submit nominations now for the 2024 GeekWire Awards, taking place May 9th at the Showbox Sodo in Seattle.

TODAY'S TOP STORIES

Some of the downsides of artificial intelligence have come into clearer focus for Microsoft recently. Can the Redmond tech giant show AI’s potential upside for its business? The quarterly report Tuesday afternoon by Satya Nadella & Co. will be the first to reflect initial sales of Microsoft 365 Copilot, the company’s flagship AI tool for businesses. Here’s what analysts are expecting from the company.

Amazon terminates iRobot deal: The $1.4 billion acquisition of the Roomba maker was getting pushback from regulators in the European Union. In a statement, Amazon called out “undue and disproportionate regulatory hurdles.” Read more.

Seattle-area startup makes ad splash in San Francisco: Bellevue, Wash.-based Statsig, which builds tools to help product teams experiment with new features, is doing some experimenting away from home. The company is buying up billboards in SF to show that Seattle startups have reach beyond the Pacific Northwest. Read more.

Nominations open for 2024 GeekWire Awards: The annual event returns to Seattle’s Showbox SoDo on May 9, honoring the leading entrepreneurs, innovators, deal makers and non-profit leaders across more than a dozen categories. Cast your ballot and get your table reserved today!

Hot Links:

  • Amazon Prime Video shows and movies now have commercials — unless you pay more money to make them go away. (The Verge)

  • Jeff Bezos still works at his original Amazon door desk, where “countless hours of hard work meet the heart of Day One,” as fiancèe Lauren Sanchez put it. (Instagram

  • Chess Club, the grassroots phenom profiled in GeekWire in 2022, continues to fill Seattle bars with beginner and expert players. (Seattle Met)

  • “We can grow new life after we’ve died”: Katrina Spade, founder of Seattle human composting startup Recompose, on what inspired her to start the company. (Crosscut)

  • Brian Heywood, a hedge fund manager who manages investments in Japanese companies, is pouring millions of dollars into initiatives that aim to repeal Washington state laws related to the capital gains tax, a climate law, and more. (Seattle Times)

Thanks for subscribing to the GeekWire newsletter, and have a great week. — GeekWire managing editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com; GeekWire reporter Kurt Schlosser, kurt@geekwire.com; and GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop, todd@geekwire.com.
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