LAS VEGAS — Our toaster has arrived.
Amazon’s Zoox robotaxi service launched in Las Vegas this fall, and a few members of the hard-working GeekWire Studios crew joined me to try it out for a ride to dinner after a long day at AWS re:Invent. Zoox was nothing short of a hit with our group.
The consensus: it was a smooth, futuristic shuttle ride that felt safe amid the Las Vegas chaos, with per-seat climate control, and customizable music. (Somehow we landed on Cher, but in this vehicle, we felt no need to turn back time.) Most of all, the face-to-face seating made for a fun group experience, rather than a retrofitted car like Waymo.
Zoox, founded in 2014, was acquired by Amazon in 2020 for just over $1 billion, marking the tech giant’s move into autonomous vehicle technology and urban mobility. Zoox operates as an independent subsidiary, based in Foster City, Calif.
Unlike competitors that retrofit vehicles, Zoox designed its robotaxi from scratch. It’s a compact, 12-foot-long electric pod, bidirectional, without steering wheel or pedals.
The experience of calling the Zoox vehicle on the app was seamless and quick. The doors opened via a button in the app after the carriage arrived to pick us up at a designated station between Fashion Show Mall and Trump International Hotel.
Inside, our nighttime ride featured a starfield display on the interior ceiling of the cab, adding to the magical feel, with functional seats comfortable enough for a drive across the city.
A few of us had experienced Waymo in California, so it was natural to make the comparison. One thing I missed was the live virtual road view that Waymo provides, representing surrounding vehicles and roadways, which provides some reassurance.
Emergency human assistance also seemed more accessible in the Waymo vehicles than in the Zoox carriage. And unlike the Waymo Jaguar cars that I’ve taken in San Francisco, the build quality of the Zoox vehicle felt more utilitarian than luxury.
For this current phase of the Vegas rollout, one major downside is the limited service area — just seven fixed spots along the Las Vegas strip, like Resorts World, Luxor, and AREA15, requiring walks between hubs rather than seamless point-to-point hails. It’s more of a novelty for that reason, rather than a reliable form of transportation.
But hey, the rides are free for now, so it’s hard to complain.
And the ability to sit across from each other more than made up for any minor quibbles. (Our group of five split up and took two four-person carriages from Fashion Show Mall to Resorts World.) Compared to the Waymo experience, the Zoox vehicle feels less like sitting in a car and more like sharing a moving living room.
GeekWire Studios host Steph Stricklen was initially skeptical — wondering if Vegas would be the right place for an autonomous vehicle, given the chaotic backdrop and unpredictable traffic patterns on the Strip. But she walked away a believer, giving the ride a “10 out of 10” and saying she never felt unsafe as a passenger.
“It felt very Disneyland,” said GeekWire Studios host Brian Westbrook, citing the creature comforts such as climate control that seemed to be isolated to each seat. Along with music and other controls, that’s one of the features that can be accessed via small touch-screen displays for each passenger on the interior panel of the vehicle.
GeekWire project manager Jessica Reeves said she almost forgot that there wasn’t a human driving. Despite rapid acceleration at times, the ride was smooth.
“It didn’t feel like I was riding in an autonomous vehicle, maybe it was just the buzz of experiencing this new way of transportation,” Jessica messaged me afterward, reflecting on the experience. “The spaciousness, facing my friends, exploring the different features, it all happened so fast that before I knew it, we were there!”
Holly Grambihler, GeekWire’s chief sales and marketing officer, was impressed with the clean interior and comfortable seats.
“It felt less like a vehicle and more like a mobile karaoke studio with the customized climate control and ability to choose your music — Cher in Vegas, perfect!” Holly said. “It felt safe with our short ride. I don’t think I’d take a Zoox on a freeway yet.”
On that point: Zoox’s purpose-built pod is engineered to reach highway speeds of up to about 75 mph, and the company has tested it at those velocities on closed tracks. In Las Vegas, though, the robotaxis currently stick to surface streets at lower speeds, and Zoox hasn’t yet started mixing into freeway traffic.
The Vegas service launch marked Zoox’s first public robotaxi deployment, offering free rides along a fixed loop on and around the Strip while gathering data for paid trips. Zoox followed with a limited public launch in San Francisco in November.
For Amazon, the technology represents a long-term bet, with the potential to contribute to its logistics operations. It’s not hard to imagine similar vehicles shuttling packages in the future. But for now the focus is on public ridership.
The company has flagged Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Seattle as longer-term potential markets for the robotaxi service as regulations and technology mature. We’ve contacted Zoox for the latest update on its plans.
If our own ride this week was any indication, the company’s biggest challenge may simply be expanding the robotaxi service fast enough for more people to try it.
Editor’s note: GeekWire Studios is the content production arm of GeekWire, creating sponsored videos, podcasts, and other paid projects for a variety of companies and organizations, separate from GeekWire’s independent news coverage. GeekWire Studios had a booth at re:Invent, recording segments with Amazon partners in partnership with AWS. Learn more about GeekWire Studios.
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about my personal homebrew Steam Machine, a self-built desktop under my TV featuring an AMD Ryzen 7 8700G processor and a Radeon 780M integrated GPU. I wouldn’t recommend making your own version of this build, especially with RAM prices as they currently are, but there are all kinds of inexpensive mini PCs on Amazon with the same GPU, and they’ll all be pretty good at playing the kinds of games that already run well on the less-powerful Steam Deck.
But this kind of hardware is an imperfect proxy for the Steam Machine that Valve plans to launch sometime next year—that box will include a dedicated GPU with 8GB of dedicated video memory, presenting both benefits and possible pitfalls compared to a system with an integrated GPU.
As a last pre-Steam Machine follow-up to our coverage so far, we’ve run tests on several games we test regularly in our GPU reviews to get a sense of how current versions of SteamOS stack up to Windows running on the same hardware. What we’ve found so far is basically the inverse of what we found when comparing handhelds: Windows usually has an edge on SteamOS’s performance, and sometimes that gap is quite large. And SteamOS also exacerbates problems with 8GB GPUs, hitting apparent RAM limits in more games and at lower resolutions compared to Windows.
© Andrew Cunningham
Kraken and Deutsche Börse has announced a strategic partnership that will integrate crypto with traditional market infrastructure.
As announced in a press release, US-based digital asset exchange Kraken has teamed up with Deutsche Börse Group to bridge crypto and traditional finance and deliver institutional investors access across asset classes.
Headquartered in Frankfurt, Deutsche Börse Group is one of the biggest financial market infrastructure providers in the world. It operates the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, which ranks the 12th largest in market cap globally.
In the first phase of the partnership, Kraken will integrate directly with 360T, a subsidiary of the German multinational corporation that provides foreign-exchange trading services. This integration will provide Kraken clients access to the latter’s foreign-exchange liquidity.
The partnership will go the other way, as well. Via Crypto Finance, another Deutsche Börse subsidiary, and Kraken, Deutsche Börse Group clients will be able to trade cryptocurrencies and derivatives.
The two firms also plan to leverage Kraken Embed, the crypto trading infrastructure solution created by Kraken, to provide institutions in Deutsche Börse Group’s network with digital asset access.
The press release noted:
Together, the companies will develop advanced white-label solutions enabling banks, fintechs, and other financial institutions to offer secure, compliant crypto trading and custody services to clients across Europe and the U.S.
Another thing Kraken and Deutsche Börse Group are collaborating on is integration of xStocks in the ecosystem of 360X, Deutsche Börse’s tokenized trading venue. xStocks is a stock tokenization standard that has been gaining adoption. Kraken announced the acquisition of Backed, the company behind xStocks, just this Tuesday.
Arjun Sethi, Kraken Co-CEO, said:
By linking traditional and digital markets across a wide range of asset classes, we’re building a holistic foundation for the next generation of financial innovation: defined by efficiency, openness, and client access.
The companies are also looking to make derivatives listed on Deutsche Börse Group’s Eurex, the largest futures and options marketplace in Europe, available on Kraken, if regulators provide the nod.
Stephan Leithner, Deutsche Börse CEO, noted:
This collaboration with Kraken is a great strategic fit for Deutsche Börse Group. It underscores our ongoing commitment to shaping the future of financial markets by combining the trust and resilience of our regulated infrastructure with the innovation of the digital asset ecosystem.
Back in October, the German organization also announced another crypto partnership, this one with USDC issuer Circle. The collaboration aimed to integrate the latter’s USD and EUR stablecoins in the former’s infrastructure to boost stablecoin adoption in Europe.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $92,500, up 1% over the last week.
A former state lawmaker believes Nebraska medical marijuana should never have happened.
Nebraska Supreme Court hears argument to cancel medical marijuana legalization is a post from: MJBizDaily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs
Hackers sponsored by China are targeting federal agencies, technology companies and critical infrastructure sector organizations with a new type of malware affecting Linux, VMWare kernel and Windows environments that may be difficult to detect and eradicate.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the National Security Agency and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security are strongly advising organizations take steps to scan systems for BRICKSTORM using detection signatures and rules; inventory all network edge devices; monitor edge devices for suspicious network connectivity and ensure proper network segmentation. The organizations released a malware analysis report to help organizations combat the threat.
“BRICKSTORM underscores the grave threats that are posed by the People’s Republic of China to our nation’s critical infrastructure. State sponsored actors are not just infiltrating networks, they are embedding themselves to enable long term access, disruption and potential sabotage. That’s why we’re urging every organization to treat this threat with the seriousness that it demands,” said Nick Andersen, CISA’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, during a call with reporters today. “The advisory we issued today provides indicators of compromise (IOCs) and detection signatures to assist critical infrastructure owners and operators in determining whether they have been compromised. It also gives recommended mitigation actions to protect against what is truly pervasive PRC activity.”
CISA says BRICKSTORM features advanced functionality to conceal communications, move laterally and tunnel into victim networks and automatically reinstall or restart the malware if disrupted. Andersen said CISA became aware of the threat in mid-August and it’s part of a “persistent, long-term campaigns of nation state threat actors, in particular those that are sponsored by the People’s Republic of China, to hold at risk our nation’s critical infrastructure through cyber means.”
The malware has impacted at least eight organizations, including one where CISA provided incident response services to. Andersen wouldn’t say how many of those eight were federal agencies or which ones have been impacted.
“This is a terribly sophisticated piece of malware that’s being used, and that’s why we’re encouraging all organizations to take action to protect themselves, and if they do become victims of it or other malicious activity, to report it to CISA, so we can have a better understanding of the full picture of not just where this malware is being employed, but the more robust picture of the wider cyber threat landscape,” Andersen said.
Since January, CISA has issued 20 joint cybersecurity advisories and threat intelligence guidance documents with U.S. allies, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as with our other international partners.
“Together, we’ve exposed nation-state sponsored intrusions, AI enabled ransomware operations and the ever evolving threats to critical infrastructure,” Andersen said.
Along with the warnings and analysis about BRICKSTORM, CISA also launched a new Industry Engagement Platform (IEP). CISA says it’s designed to let the agency and companies share information and develop innovative and security technologies.
“The IEP enables CISA to better understand emerging solutions across the technology ecosystem while giving industry a clear, transparent pathway to engage with the agency,” CISA said in a release. “The IEP allows organizations – including industry, non-profits, academia, government partners … and the research community – with a structured process to request conversations with CISA subject matter experts to describe new technologies and capabilities. These engagements give innovators the opportunity to present solutions that may strengthen our nation’s cyber and infrastructure security.”
CISA says while participation in the IEP does not provide preferential consideration for future federal contracts, it serves as a channel for the government to gain insight into new capabilities and market trends.
Current areas of interest include:
Andersen said while the IEP and related work is separate from the BRICKSTORM analysis, it’s all part of how CISA is trying to ensure all organizations protect themselves from the ever-changing cyber threat.
“The threat here is not theoretical, and BRICKSTORM underscores the grave threats that are posed by the People’s Republic of China to our nation’s critical infrastructure,” he said “We know that state sponsored actors are not just infiltrating networks. They’re embedding themselves to enable the long term access disruption and potential sabotage that enables their strategic objectives, and that’s why we continue to urge every organization to treat this threat with serious demands.”
The post Agencies, IT companies impacted by latest malware from China first appeared on Federal News Network.
© The Associated Press
The Justice Department recently resolved several investigations into federal contractors’ cybersecurity requirements as part of the federal government’s Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative. The initiative, first announced in 2021, ushered in the DOJ’s efforts to pursue cybersecurity-related fraud by government contractors and grant recipients pursuant to the False Claims Act. Since then, the DOJ has publicly announced approximately 15 settlements against federal contractors, with the DOJ undoubtedly conducting even more investigations outside of the public’s view.
As an initial matter, these latest settlements signal that the new administration has every intention of continuing to prioritize government contractors’ cybersecurity practices and combating new and emerging cyber threats to the security of sensitive government information and critical systems. These settlements also coincide with the lead up to the Nov. 10 effective date of the Defense Department’s final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, which incorporates the standards of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification.
The first of these four recent DOJ settlements was announced in July 2025, and resulted in Hill Associates agreeing to pay the United States a minimum of $14.75 million. In this case, Hill Associates provided certain IT services to the General Services Administration. According to the DOJ’s allegations, Hill Associates had not passed the technical evaluations required by GSA for a contractor to offer certain highly adaptive cybersecurity services to government customers. Nevertheless, the contractor submitted claims charging the government for such cybersecurity services, which the DOJ alleged violated the FCA.
The second settlement, United States ex. rel. Lenore v. Illumina Inc., was announced later in July 2025, and resulted in Illumina agreeing to pay $9.8 million — albeit with Illumina denying the DOJ’s allegations. According to the DOJ, Illumina violated the FCA by selling federal agencies, including the departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and Agriculture, certain genomic sequencing systems that contained cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Specifically, the DOJ alleged that with respect to the cybersecurity of its product, Illumina: (1) falsely represented that its software and systems adhered to cybersecurity standards, including standards of the International Organization for Standardization and National Institute of Standards and Technology; (2) knowingly failed to incorporate product cybersecurity in its software design, development, installation and on-market monitoring; (3) failed to properly support and resource personnel, systems and processes tasked with product security; and (4) failed to adequately correct design features that introduced cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
That same day, the DOJ announced its third settlement, which was with Aero Turbine Inc., and Gallant Capital Partners, LLC (collectively, “Aero”), and resulted in a $1.75 million settlement. This settlement resolved the DOJ’s allegations that Aero violated the FCA by knowingly failing to comply with the cybersecurity requirements of its contract with the Department of the Air Force. Pursuant to the contract, Aero was required to implement the security requirements outlined by NIST Special Publication 800-171, “Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information in Nonfederal Information Systems and Organizations,” but failed to fully do so. This included failing to control the flow of and limit unauthorized access to sensitive defense information when it provided an unauthorized Egypt-based software company and its personnel with files containing sensitive Defense information.
The fourth and latest DOJ settlement was announced in Sept. 2025, and resolved the DOJ’s FCA lawsuit against the Georgia Tech Research Corporation. As part of the settlement, GRTC agreed to pay $875,000 to resolve allegations resulting from a whistleblower complaint that it failed to meet the cybersecurity requirements in its DoD contracts. Specifically, the DOJ alleged that until December 2021, the contractor failed to install, update or run anti-virus or anti-malware tools on desktops, laptops, servers and networks while conducting sensitive cyber-defense research for the DoD. The DOJ further alleged that the contractor did not have a system security plan setting out cybersecurity controls, as required by the government contract. Lastly, the DOJ alleged that the contractor submitted a false summary level cybersecurity assessment score of 98 to the DoD, with the score being premised on a “fictitious” environment, and did not apply to any system being used to process, store or transmit sensitive Defense information.
These recent enforcement actions provide valuable guidance for federal contractors.
Joshua Mullen, Luke Cass, Christopher Lockwood and Tyler Bridegan are partners at Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP.
The post Cybersecurity in focus: DOJ aggressively investigating contractors’ cybersecurity practices first appeared on Federal News Network.
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— Jordan Arnold is the new director of the Washington State Broadband Office within the Department of Commerce, effective Jan. 2.
Under the Biden administration, Arnold served as a senior policy advisor on the Infrastructure Implementation Team within the Office of the Chief of Staff. Her work focused on helping lead the $65 billion broadband portfolio, which included implementation of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program and other initiatives.
“Jordan has a deep understanding of what it takes to help communities succeed in a digital world,” said Commerce Director Joe Nguyễn in statement. “Her background working at the highest policy levels in the Biden White House will help power Washington forward in our efforts to connect everyone to the internet.”
— Rebecca Lovell has taken the role of interim president and CEO of Greater Seattle Partners (GSP), a regional public-private economic development organization. She has served as chief operating officer of the group for nearly three years.
Lovell’s past roles include CEO of Denali Founder Consulting, executive director of Madrona Venture Group’s Create33, and Seattle’s interim director of Economic Development.
“Rebecca has been a key leader in our organization’s success, and we are delighted to see her at the helm of GSP. She energizes the community, the GSP team and our investors,” said Shane Jones, chair of GSP’s board of directors and a senior vice president at Alaska Airlines, in a statement.
Lovell is succeeding Brian Surratt, who took the presidency in 2022 and was recently appointed deputy mayor of the City of Seattle by Mayor-Elect Katie Wilson.
“We deeply appreciate Brian’s service, commitment and transformational leadership and are excited to see him in this strategic role with the City of Seattle,” Jones said.
Prior to Greater Seattle Partners, Surratt led a community development group, was VP at Alexandria Real Estate and spent 13 years with Seattle’s Economic Development agency, including as director.
— Jason Barnwell, a former Microsoft legal executive, is now chief legal officer for Agiloft, a California company providing software that helps businesses manage their contracts and legal agreements.
“Jason knows how to unlock the potential of legal teams, harness AI and data, and make contracting a true driver of business value,” said Agiloft CEO Eric Laughlin in a statement.
Barnwell was with the tech giant for more 15 years in a variety of legal roles. He left the position of general manager and associate general counsel for Monetization and Business Planning. Barnwell will remain in the Seattle area. On LinkedIn, he thanked his Microsoft colleagues for their support and leadership opportunities, noting that he remains “a cheerleader for Microsoft and its people.”
— Elena Winters has joined Brazil’s Elea Data Centers as vice president of international business. Seattle-based Winters was previously at Meta for more than eight years in infrastructure organization roles focused on data center and site selection. She will remain in Washington, leading Elea’s U.S. and international expansion strategy.
“Now, I’m stepping into a new challenge — gaining experience on the other side of the business, partnering closely with hyperscalers (not working for them!) to help accelerate the growth of AI infrastructure in LATAM,” Winters said on LinkedIn.
— Seattle startup Aarden AI named Michael Gleason as its staff data scientist. The company recently came out of stealth and offers an AI platform that helps landowners research and navigate deals with developers eager to build data centers, clean energy installations, housing and other uses. Gleason most recently worked as a geospatial data scientist at a national laboratory.
Editor’s note: Story updated to include interim CEO for Rebecca Lovell’s new title.
Former Environmental Protection Agency employees who were fired after signing a letter criticizing the Trump administration are now appealing their dismissals before the Merit Systems Protection Board.
The six former EPA employees, who were among roughly 140 workers who signed a “declaration of dissent” in June, argued their firings were not only an illegal response to exercising their First Amendment rights, but also a form of retaliation for “perceived political affiliation,” and executed without cause.
The former employees are represented by attorneys at several law firms in the MSPB case, including the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
“Federal employees have the right to speak out on matters of public concern in their personal capacities, even when they do so in dissent,” Joanna Citron Day, general counsel for PEER, said Wednesday. “EPA is not only undermining the First Amendment’s free speech protections by trying to silence its own workforce, it is also placing U.S. citizens in peril by removing experienced employees who are tasked with carrying out EPA’s critical mission.”
An EPA spokesperson declined to comment, stating that the agency has a longstanding practice of not commenting on pending litigation.
The June dissent letter from EPA employees warned that the Trump administration and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin were “recklessly undermining” the agency’s mission, and criticized the administration’s policies on public health and the environment. The letter led EPA to launch an investigation into employees who signed the letter, resulting in at least eight probationary employees and nine tenured career employees receiving termination notices. Dozens more who signed the declaration were suspended without pay for two weeks, according to the American Federation of Government Employees.
Justin Chen, president of AFGE Council 238, which represents EPA employees, said the firings of these employees added to a “brain drain” at EPA, on top of other workforce losses stemming from the deferred resignation program (DRP) and other actions from the Trump administration this year.
“These were subject matter experts — extremely talented people who were working on behalf of the American public to protect them,” Chen said in an interview. “The loss of these people will be felt for quite some time. And honestly, the intent of this action is to put a chilling effect on the rest of the civil service.”
A termination notice delivered to one of the EPA employees shows that in response to concerns of free speech and whistleblower protection violations, the agency’s general counsel office stated that it believed the issues raised “do not outweigh the seriousness of your offense.”
“The Agency is not required to tolerate actions from its employees that undermine the Agency’s decisions, interfere with the Agency’s operations and mission, and the efficient fulfillment of the Agency’s responsibilities to the public,” the termination letter reads. “You hold a trust-sensitive position that requires sound judgement and alignment with the Agency’s communication strategies.”
Despite the employee having a high performance rating and a lack of disciplinary history, the termination letter stated that “the serious nature of your misconduct outweighs all mitigating factors.”
“I also considered that you took no responsibility for your conduct, which reflects a lack of acknowledgment of the seriousness of your actions and raises concerns about your ability to exercise sound judgment and undermines your potential for rehabilitation,” the letter reads.
In August, EPA leadership also canceled all its collective bargaining agreements and told its unions it would no longer recognize them. The decision came after an appeals court allowed agencies to move forward with implementing President Donald Trump’s March executive order to terminate union contracts at a majority of federal agencies.
“If we still had our collective bargaining rights, none of this would have happened in the first place. We would have immediately filed grievances,” Chen said. “[With the MSPB appeal] our hope is that these employees get everything back — that they will have full reinstatement and full back pay.”
The post Fired EPA employees challenge agency, alleging free speech violations first appeared on Federal News Network.
© AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
The Federal Reserve has officially brought its multi-year quantitative tightening program to a close, freezing its balance sheet at about $6.57 trillion after draining more than $2.3 trillion from the system since 2022.
The Federal Reserve’s decision to formally end quantitative tightening has created a sense of anticipation across the crypto market. Liquidity inflows have shaped every major crypto cycle, and removing the multi-year drain on liquidity is expected to set the stage for healthier crypto market conditions and see the Bitcoin price push above $100,000 in the coming days.
The Fed has frozen its balance sheet at roughly $6.57 trillion after three years of balance-sheet reduction. Treasury runoff has stopped on December 1, though mortgage-backed securities will continue declining slowly.
Ending QT means that the Fed is stepping away from the rapid balance-sheet reduction that tightened financial conditions throughout 2023 and 2024. The move comes after bank reserves fell to levels that threatened short-term funding stability, and the Fed made the move to halt any further liquidity drain.
Crypto investors are expecting the end of QT to relieve some of the selling pressure that has contributed to the crypto industry in recent months. This is due to historical comparisons of how the industry played out in previous ends to QT.
In 2019, when the Fed last ended QT, digital assets bottomed within weeks and then entered a strong recovery phase. That period represented a decisive low for altcoins and preceded Bitcoin’s rise from roughly $3,800 to $29,000 over the next year and a half.
Interestingly, the entire crypto market’s short-term behavior is starting to show signs of bullishness. Particularly, the entire market is up by 7.2% in the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin leading the charge. However, cryptocurrencies are facing a different macro environment today, and the outlook is whether Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can go on another extended bullish rally in the coming months.
Ending QT is a meaningful turning point, but it does not automatically flood the system with fresh liquidity. Benjamin Cowen, founder of IntoTheCryptoverse, offers one of the clearest explanations for what to expect.
He noted that in 2019, the Fed announced QT would end on August 1, but the balance sheet continued falling through mid-August because previously scheduled Treasury maturities had not yet settled. It wasn’t until early 2020 that Bitcoin started to experience explosive gains. According to Cowen, the same dynamic applies now.
Therefore, the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet could continue edging lower for a few more weeks, meaning the first meaningful uptick in liquidity may not show up until early 2026. This delay suggests that traders hoping for an immediate boost or a quick return of Bitcoin above $100,000 are simply ahead of the cycle. The tightening phase has ended, but the actual recovery in liquidity has yet to begin.
The Swedish Armed Forces has placed an additional order for 94 Patria 6×6 armored vehicles, designated Pansarterrängbil 300 in Sweden, as part of the expanding Common Armoured Vehicle System (CAVS) initiative. According to a statement issued on December 1 by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), the order includes troop transport, command and control, and […] If you wanna live with just one pasta recipe for the rest of your life then that has to be the recipe of this marry me shrimp pasta! This is the undisputed winner of best pasta ever!
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Modern Hydrogen — a clean energy startup with technology that at one time seemed to delight Bill Gates and attracted his investment — has now laid off most of its employees and left contractors and vendors anxious about unpaid invoices.
The Seattle-area company has not publicly offered an explanation for the downsizing or said how many workers were impacted. In a recent email to business partners, officials referenced recent funding changes and said it was undergoing a “broader restructuring effort.”
Modern Hydrogen raised $125 million since launching a decade ago. It developed a device for cracking natural gas molecules, producing hydrogen as a climate friendly fuel and a material known as solid carbon that has a variety of industrial uses, including as a key ingredient in asphalt.
Gates explored that application during a visit to Modern Hydrogen last year. The Microsoft co-founder grabbed a wheelbarrow and shovel to fill a parking lot pothole with the carbon-trapping asphalt.
The layoffs hit as the company was preparing to finish its first commercial unit for a customer in Texas and had performed two successful pilot projects with utilities in Portland, Ore., and Miami.
In January, Modern Hydrogen announced a memorandum of understanding with Puget Sound Energy, a major Seattle-area utility, to collaborate in identifying industrial customers interested in the clean hydrogen technology. That was expected to include steel and cement makers and pulp-and-paper manufacturers that use processes requiring ultra-high temperatures that could be met by hydrogen.
Given that the company had seemingly solved the new technology’s technical hurdles and was building commercial momentum, employees and business partners were surprised by the layoffs.
“A lot of folks were rooting for us,” Michael Jung, Modern Hydrogen’s former government affairs and public policy lead, told GeekWire. “I think we would have solved some key problems in the energy transition.”
On Oct. 30, Amir Moftakhar, Modern Hydrogen’s chief financial officer, sent an email to some of its subcontractors and vendors disclosing the change of course.
“We wanted to inform you that, due to recent changes in our funding situation and a significant reduction in company operations, we must terminate our engagement with you effective 10/30/2025,” stated the email, which was shared with GeekWire by one of its recipients.
“This decision is part of a broader restructuring effort which is being developed and does not reflect on your work,” Moftakhar continued. “We want to sincerely thank you for the professionalism, dedication, and quality you’ve shown throughout our collaboration and for your understanding.”
It is unclear if the company is closing entirely, what will happen with the machinery and technology, and if some component of the effort will continue in a different form.
GeekWire reached out to Modern Hydrogen CEO Tony Pan for an official comment and will update the story if he responds. We contacted a Gates’ representative for a comment as well.
One subcontractor, who asked not to be named, said that until the email went out, “things were cooking along” in their collaboration with Modern Hydrogen. Now the company is anxious about if and when it will get paid for outstanding invoices that total tens of thousands of dollars.
Modern Hydrogen got its start in 2015 at Intellectual Ventures, an innovation hub created by former Microsoft researcher Nathan Myhrvold with backing from Gates. The startup, which was originally called Modern Electron, initially focused on devices that paired with home furnaces and hot water tanks to capture the appliances’ wasted heat and turn it into electricity.
In 2023 it pivoted to focus on hydrogen and changed its name. The company’s most recent round was $25 million raised a year ago. It had approximately 80 employees at the time, according to an analysis of LinkedIn data. Modern Hydrogen co-founder and former CTO Max Mankin left the company in January.
Gates has in the past been an enthusiastic supporter of hydrogen fuel. In June 2022, he posted a Gates Notes touting the so-called “Swiss Army knife” of clean energy given its versatile applications. He was a prominent investor in the company, whose other backers included NextEra Energy, one of the world’s largest utilities; Miura; National Grid Partners; IRONGREY; Starlight Ventures; Valo Ventures and Metaplanet.
Hydrogen saw a surge of interest during the Biden administration, which created hydrogen hubs around the U.S. to bolster the technology. That support has been curtailed under the Trump administration, which canceled funding for hubs in the Pacific Northwest and California, while the remaining five hubs appear to be at risk of losing support.
And on Oct. 28, Gates posted a memo on his personal blog that dampened his earlier excitement around climate efforts.
“Although climate change will have serious consequences — particularly for people in the poorest countries — it will not lead to humanity’s demise,” Gates wrote. “People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.”
Editor’s note: Information added Dec. 4 to provide detail on the hydrogen hubs.
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