Amazon scores landmark NBA deal | Seattle region’s newest unicorn

Amazon’s hoop dreams realized: In a big boost to the company’s sports streaming ambitions, Amazon signed an 11-year deal with the NBA that gives it exclusive Prime Video rights to 66 regular season games, as well as playoff games. Read more.

Notes from the tech frontier: Efforts to unite the tech community in Spokane and the Inland Northwest are gaining momentum, and new initiatives are under way to revamp the process of startup creation. We wrap up our latest "GeekWire on the Road" series with a summertime visit to Spokane, taking in the sights and talking with tech and business leaders about what’s next for the region’s innovation economy. Read more.

• Related: We found a vintage concert poster in a Spokane antique shop and tried using AI to determine what year it was from. See what happened.

Seattle area’s newest unicorn: Chainguard , a Kirkland, Wash.-based cybersecurity startup that helps companies secure their open source software, raised $140 million to reach a valuation of $1.12 billion. Read more.

• Archera , a Seattle startup that sells tools to help companies reduce cloud computing expenses, raised $17 million.
• See all recent fundings for Pacific Northwest startups.

End of the road for Gig car-sharing: The service from AAA is shutting down at the end of the year after four years in Seattle. The company cited decreased demand and rising operation costs for its decision to pull its fleet of Toyota Prius hybrids off the streets. Read more.

This just in: Seattle’s Hiya Inc. acquires deepfake startup Loccus.ai and releases voice-cloning detection tool. Read more.

Tech Moves: Impinj promotes execs; Zendesk hires comms vet; Qumulo founder leads new startup; and more personnel changes.

Hot Links:

• AI can help tweak a Word document in Microsoft’s Draft with Copilot, which lets users revamp and refine selected text. (Microsoft)
• Nike used generative AI to design prototype “dream shoes” for a range of athletes, showcasing them in Paris ahead of the Summer Olympics. (Axios)
• In a major overhaul of Bing Search, Microsoft will now include results with AI-generated answers. (Windows Central)
• The CrowdStrike outage will cost U.S. Fortune 500 companies, excluding Microsoft, $5.4 billion in financial losses. (Reuters)

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