South Seattle College and the Mars Society signed a 10‑year MOA to build a Moon‑ and Mars‑analog research station on the West Seattle campus, with an inflatable mock‑up arriving this summer.

GE’s modified Saab 340B reached 30,000 feet in hybrid mode at Farnborough after NASA-simulated tests to 45,000 feet. The flight points to possible lower‑emission narrowbody engines.

Venice.ai raised $65M at a $1B valuation to scale a privacy-first AI platform, planning to buy GPUs and build data centers even as its Seattle co‑founder flags a new state tax.

K2 Space is opening a Seattle‑area engineering hub to support production of large, high‑power satellites after its Gravitas demonstrator reached orbit. The move taps local aerospace talent and follows new defense and commercial contracts.

BEA data show Washington recorded the fastest state-level GDP gain in Q1 2026 — a 4.5% annualized jump driven largely by the information sector and big tech spending.

Valve’s Bellevue hardware team unveiled the Steam Machine, a living‑room SteamOS PC starting at $1,049 and available via a randomized reservation queue through June 25.

MultiCare's board has selected Florence Chang to succeed retiring CEO Bill Robertson, elevating a longtime operations and technology leader as the system expands across the Pacific Northwest.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned that a handful of dominant AI systems could “hollow out entire industries,” urging firms to build private learning loops to protect jobs and IP.

Microsoft and Mayo Clinic announced a partnership to build a Mayo‑owned AI model for healthcare that will be piloted inside Mayo Clinic’s clinical systems. The model will be trained on de‑identified clinical data and Mayo clinicians' expertise.

NSF is removing instruments from the Ocean Observatories Initiative, ending key below‑surface measurements off the Pacific Northwest as El Niño approaches.

The Allen Institute unveiled a $400M Brain Health accelerator to map vulnerable brain cells and speed therapies for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and ALS.

Gabe Newell’s Inkfish has contracted Norwegian yard Vard for a €700M (≈$814M), 162‑meter research ship built for ultra‑deep seafloor mapping and submersible operations.

The FBI says a Telegram-sold phishing kit named Kali365 is capturing Microsoft 365 tokens and bypassing MFA. Security firms and Microsoft urge admins and users to tighten device-code controls.