Tesla drivers in Seattle join wave of trade-ins — but some hold on

Manny Medina, co-founder and former CEO at Seattle sales tech startup Outreach, revealed his new entrepreneurial venture: a London-based company called Paid that just raised more than $10 million to build software that handles monetization and billing for AI agents. Read more.

The true test of AI will be its ability to contribute to global productivity, says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. His benchmark for success will be when the developed world starts achieving 10% annual growth, akin to what happened in the Industrial Revolution, he said at Madrona‘s 2025 annual meeting in Seattle. Read more and watch the video.

• Microsoft’s three CEOs — Nadella, Bill Gates, and Steve Ballmer — share a common trait, according to Microsoft’s Brad Smith, who has worked closely with each.

Latest funding news: 

• Sironix, which turns soybeans and coconut into cleaning ingredients, raised $3.5 million.

• Xealth, a digital healthcare startup, raised new funding from Boston-area firm Morningside Ventures. 

• Check out recent funding data across the Pacific Northwest here. 

Hot Links:

• AI-enhanced weather forecasting took a big step forward with a model, called Aardvark Weather, created in part by Microsoft Research. (Axios)

• European companies and governments are looking to ditch Amazon, Google, and Microsoft cloud services amid privacy and data access fears. (Wired)

• A cheap drone that punctured a giant steel shell built to enclose Chernobyl surprised many, including a retired engineer from Washington state who was a technical adviser on the project. (New York Times)