Why Amazon is doubling its Anthropic investment to $8 billion

An $8 billion investment, and still no board seat: That’s the unusual situation in which Amazon finds itself after doubling its investment in Anthropic , the AI startup behind the Claude chatbot. The arrangement may help to avoid regulatory entanglements. It seems Amazon was more interested in a different deal point anyway — a pledge from Anthropic to use custom AWS silicon, rather than Nvidia chips, for its future AI foundation models. (Above: Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, speaks at AWS re:Invent in 2023.) Read more .?

Windows Recall makes its delayed debut: After a series of delays to address privacy and security concerns, 微软 is releasing a preview of its AI-powered “Recall” feature for users in its Windows Insider program starting today. Read more.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture sent six more people to the edge of space today — including the first husband-and-wife pair to make two trips together to the final frontier, and a science communicator who describes herself as “the Space Gal.” Read more .

Dr. Ingrid Swanson Pultz (above, left), a 美国华盛顿大学 researcher and entrepreneur who specializes in the fast-moving field of protein design, is one of this year's "Uncommon Thinkers": inventors, scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs from the Seattle region that are transforming industries and driving positive change in the world. They will be recognized at the GeekWire Gala on Dec. 12. Read more about Pultz’s journey and impact .

• Ready for Seattle’s geekiest holiday party? Time’s running out to secure early bird tickets for our annual extravaganza at Showbox Sodo on Dec. 12. All the details.

In search of juice: The “bomb cyclone” storm that hit the Seattle region this week drove up demand at EV charging stations. Read more .

Hot Links:

• Washington state’s project to migrate IT systems to a new Workday platform is delayed and over budget. (Seattle Times , subscription required)
• A worker at an Amazon warehouse in California snapped a great photo reflecting the company’s sprawling logistics network. (LinkedIn )
• Cleveland Browns quarterback Jameis Winston, who was giddy in the snow after a victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on “Thursday Night Football,” said he was going to “order a W off Amazon” following the game. (Adam Schefter via X )

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