Walmart orders, Amazon dashboard:Amazonwill let independent sellers manage their sales oneBay,Shopify,TikTokandWalmartfrom Seller Central, the same dashboard they use for their Amazon businesses. The free tools raise questions about what Amazon could do with sellers’ data from rival platforms, given past scrutiny of how the company has used seller data. Amazon’sMary Beth Westmorelandaddressed those concerns in an interview, saying the company will “never, ever” use the data for anything other than showing it to the seller.
Seattle spreadsheet startupRow Zeroacquired byDatabricks:The deal brings Row Zero’s cloud-native spreadsheet engine — built to handle millions of data rows without lagging —directly into Databricks and its Genie AI assistant. Founded in 2021 by former Amazon Web Services engineersBreck FresenandNick End, Row Zero raised a $10 million Series A round last year.
Otter’s orbital debut:Starfish Spaceisgetting ready to launch its first full-size Otterspacecraft as soon as Oct. 1, on a NASA mission to inspect defunct satellites up close. The company, based in Tukwila, Wash., celebrated Wednesday night by lighting up the Seattle Great Wheel in its corporate colors.
Amazon drone noise triggers neighbor backlash in Texas:Residents in Richardson, Texas, areorganizing against frequent low-altitude Prime Air delivery flights, describing their backyards as virtual highways for buzzing hexacopters. Amazon defends the growing program, noting positive customer feedback and minimal sound levels. But affected neighbors are urging federal regulators to step in and enforce strict altitude and flight path rules before drone hubs expand nationwide.
Green jet fuel gets competitive:Six months ago, sustainable aviation fuel cost more than regular jet fuel. Now the Iran War’s disruption of oil shipping has made its price “pretty competitive,”Alaska Airlines’Ryan Spiessaid at Climate Week NYC, where helaid out the airline’s low-carbon bets, including a blended-wing aircraft fromJetZerothat aims to cut fuel use in half.
Hot Links
- Microsoftrefreshed its smaller Surface Pro and Surface LaptopwithQualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Plus chips, starting at $1,149.99 and $1,199 when they ship Oct. 13. It also unveiled a $79.99 Surface Mouse with haptic feedback. (Microsoft)
- Amazon will spend more than $100 millionon a robot factory in Greenwood, Ind., which, along with a new hub in Austin, will double its robot-making plants to four. The company says its robots assist with 75% of customer orders. (WSJ)
- Microsoft PresidentBrad Smithtold a U.N. session that AI companies don’t need international agreements to slow down if they’re worried their systems could cause harm. “The technology may be complicated, but this is not,” he said. (NBC News)
- Seattle’sEarth Financereleased a new platformcalled SpatiaFi Energy to help companies secure energy by providing information on local utilities, availability, costs, carbon impacts and risks involved. (Earth Finance)
- Washington Attorney GeneralNick Brownhas joined a bipartisan coalitionof 26 attorneys general urging Congress to establish strict federal safety oversight for advanced AI development while explicitly preserving individual states’ rights to enforce their own tech regulations. (AG’s office)
- The Washington State Broadband Office has finalized seven contractstotaling over $165 million in federal expansion funds, kicking off infrastructure projects to bring high-speed internet to more than 120,000 unserved and underserved homes and businesses across the state. (Dept. of Commerce)
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