Titanic explorer’s family sues OceanGate | Hugging Face acquires Seattle startup XetHub

The family of a Titanic explorer lost in the Oceangate submersible disaster last year is seeking more than $50 million in damages in a lawsuit targeting the Everett, Wash.-based company and others. Paul-Henri Nargeolet was one of the five people who died when the Titan sub underwent a catastrophic implosion during its final descent to the Titanic wreck in the North Atlantic. Read more.

There will be no mysterious web pages teasing a new venture from Rich Barton. The 57-year-old Zillow Group co-founder (above, right), who announced that he’s stepping down as CEO for the second time, said he doesn’t plan to start another company after handing the reins to longtime Zillow executive Jeremy Wacksman. Both execs spoke with us about Zillow’s evolution, and what’s next, on a special episode of the GeekWire Podcast. Read more and listen here.

• Related: Shares of Zillow were up nearly 20% on Thursday. Here’s a look at the company’s latest financials.  

Hugging Face acquired XetHub, a Seattle startup founded by former Apple engineers that helped developers streamline the process of building machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. The deal reflects the demand for data storage and compute needs driven by the AI boom, and is the latest in a string of smaller AI startups — and execs from those startups — getting gobbled up by larger companies. Read more.

GeekWire test ride: We hopped on Lime’s new “LimeGlider” sit-down electric device, which is part scooter and part bike, for a cruise through downtown Seattle before its debut next week. Learn more about the features and see why Lime thinks it could attract more riders. 

General Fusion landed nearly $15 million to help develop the B.C.-based company’s demonstration device for generating clean energy. Read more.

Stuck in space? Concerns about the thruster system on Boeing’s Starliner capsule may lead NASA to decide that two astronauts who rode the capsule to the International Space Station in June would need to fly back to Earth in a SpaceX capsule next February. Read more.

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman was among the speakers on a Zoom fundraising call yesterday hosted by “VCsforKamala,” an initiative started by Seattle investor Leslie Feinzaig that aims to organize venture capitalists in support of the presidential hopeful. Read more.

Hot Links:

• The UK has launched a formal antitrust investigation into Amazon’s ties with Anthropic following its $4 billion investment in the AI startup. (TechCrunch)

• Microsoft and Palantir announced a partnership to bring AI capabilities to U.S. defense agencies. (CNBC)

• Jody Allen, sister of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, showed up at Seattle Seahawks practice to check in on the NFL team she still owns. (X)