The stories that defined 2025: AI dreams, brutal realities, and Seattle tech at a turning point

The past year may go down as one of the most consequential in technology history, in both the Seattle tech community and the world. But in some ways, it’s not without precedent.

As we sat down to reflect on the past year, we rewound all the way back to January — when, as part of a larger discussion with Bill Gates, we asked the Microsoft co-founder to compare the early days of the PC with these early years of AI.

Gates reflected on the PC era as a moment of computing becoming free, effectively.

“Now what’s happening is intelligence is becoming free,” he said, “and that’s even more profound than computing becoming free.”

As we looked through GeekWire’s top stories of the year, almost every one felt like a subplot to that larger narrative. On this special year-end episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we reviewed the articles that resonated most with readers, and compared notes to make sense of it all.

Listen below, and continue reading for episode notes and links.

Enigma of success: ‘Brutal reality’ of tech cycles

• Best of times, worst of times: Massive AI infrastructure spending alongside widespread layoffs.
• Satya Nadella on the Stargate announcement: “I’m good for my $80 billion.“
• The unexpected way AI is affecting jobs — not by replacing workers directly, but by pressuring companies to cut costs as they pour money into infrastructure.
• MIT study: 95% of projects using generative AI have failed or produced no return.
• Worker stress: Mandates to use AI, but no playbook on how.
• One tech veteran’s take: “The enigma of success is a polite way of describing the brutal reality of tech cycles. … The challenge, and opportunity for leadership, is whether the bets actually compound into something durable, or just become another slide deck for next year’s reorg.”
• Bill Radke on KUOW: “The tech industry had quite a year. Amazon ordered their workers back to the office. You must come back to the office. Are you here? Good. You’re laid off. Not all of you. Just the humans.“

A pivotal year for Amazon

• Andy Jassy’s explanation: Not financially driven, not even really AI driven — it’s culture.
• After rapid growth, Amazon trying to get back to operating like “the world’s largest startup.”
• The new motto seems to be: Get small and nimble, faster.
• Can Amazon find that next pillar of business, as Jeff Bezos used to say?

Coding is dead, computer science is not

• Most popular story of the year: Coding is dead: UW computer science program rethinks curriculum for the AI era.
• Magdalena Balazinska, director of the Paul G. Allen School: “Coding, or the translation of a precise design into software instructions, is dead. AI can do that. We have never graduated coders. We have always graduated software engineers.”
• The issue was explored by the New York Times in its Daily podcast on Code.org and the shifting landscape for coding education. See the response from Hadi Partovi of Code.org.

Seattle’s future as a tech hub

• Wall Street Journal report: Seattle, Tech Boomtown, Grapples With a Future of Fewer Tech Jobs
• One source quoted: “Between 2012 and 2022 it was a great period … until everything flipped.”
• GeekWire coverage: Is Seattle’s tech scene in trouble? WSJ report highlights concerning trends — with a potential opening for startups
• But: Atlas Van Lines data shows Washington state still among top 10 destinations for movers.
• The strengths remain: Anchor tenants, investors, startups, smart people, UW, healthcare infrastructure, etc.
• We’re seeing AI expand from individual productivity to enterprise efficiency — an area where the Seattle region has historically excelled.

Sense of place: More important for some, less for others

• Amazon brings employees back five days a week; Microsoft announces three days starting in 2026.
• Rebooting Redmond: The conclusion of our Microsoft 50th anniversary series explored the new campus and what it signals.
• Yet many startups are more distributed and diffuse than ever — sometimes it’s hard to even pin down where their headquarters are.
• Statsig, entirely in-office in Bellevue, acquired by OpenAI for $1.1 billion.
• The perennial question: Why don’t more of these companies become Seattle’s next tech giant?

M&A and IPOs: Base hits, not home runs

• Didn’t see as much deal activity as some predicted for 2025.
• GeekWire deals list reflects smaller acquisitions, not blockbusters.
• One tech IPO from Washington state: Kestra Medical Technologies, $202 million in March.
• Complex alchemy of interest rates, regulation, and market conditions.

AI becomes real

• Brad Smith at Microsoft’s annual meeting: Asked Copilot’s researcher agent to produce a report on an issue from seven or eight years ago. Fifteen minutes later: 25-page report with 100 citations.
• What’s happening now: the shift from individual productivity to team productivity, from people using AI to organizations figuring it out.
• As companies implement AI agents, we move from desktop/individual applications to true enterprise services, playing to Seattle’s strengths.

Quote of the Year

“We look forward to joining Matt on his private island next year.” — Kiana Ehsani, CEO of Vercept, after her co-founder Matt Deitke left to join Meta for a reported hundreds of millions of dollars.

Stickler of the Year

Proud Seattleite and grammarian Ken Jennings on Jeopardy!, correcting a contestant: “Sorry, Dan, we are sticklers in Seattle. It’s Pike Place — no s.”

Feel-Good Moment of the Year

Ambika Singh, CEO and founder of Armoire, accepting the Workplace of the Year award at the GeekWire Awards: “It is not a surprise to any of you that we are losing community outside of these walls in this country. But here, it feels alive and well.”

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Audio editing by Curt Milton