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

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.

• It’s part of a big week for tech earnings. Amazon, Apple, Alphabet and Meta are also slated to report their quarterly results. 

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.

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• 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)