About this episode

The episode discusses Cleveland's resurgence, Seattle's data center moratorium, and insights on the SpaceX IPO.

In February, Seattle angel investor Charles Fitzgerald warned the region not to become the next Cleveland , prompting Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb to join the podcast and make the case for his city's comeback. This week we close the loop: Fitzgerald and GeekWire co-founder John Cook call in from an abandoned Westinghouse factory in Cleveland, where days of meeting entrepreneurs, civic leaders, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine left them struck by a city hustling and aligned around jobs in ways Seattle no longer is. Back home, we dig into Seattle's unanimous one-year moratorium on new large data centers, which Fitzgerald calls political theater, and he explains why he's sitting out the SpaceX IPO. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in this episode

Host: John Cook

Guests: Charles Fitzgerald, Justin Bibb

Topics covered

• Cleveland comeback
• data centers
• SpaceX IPO
• entrepreneurship
• political theater

Keywords

• Cleveland
• Seattle
• data centers
• SpaceX
• entrepreneurs
• political theater
• jobs

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: SpaceX

Places: Cleveland, Seattle

More episodes of GeekWire

• Silicon Valley icon Vinod Khosla: What kind of Seattle Seahawks owner will he be? · July 18, 2026 · 34 min
• Microsoft's reset, a new era for Seattle startups, and how AI is changing everything for founders · July 11, 2026 · 41 min
• Fusion energy: Wishing upon a star in a jar — Introducing 'Positive Charge' from GeekWire · July 2, 2026 · 38 min
• From the dot-com boom to AI security: F5 at 30, with CEO François Locoh-Donou · June 27, 2026 · 38 min
• Anthropic, Amazon, and the Fable shutdown; AI-powered school arrives; World Cup tech · June 20, 2026 · 33 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the GeekWire podcast page.