Jeff Bezos is launching a new AI startup called Project Prometheus, which will focus on developing AI for the engineering and manufacturing of computers, automobiles and spacecraft. It's unclear exactly when Project Prometheus launched, but it's already reportedly raised $6.2B, part of which came from Bezos himself, and hired 100 employees, poaching several from OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta.
Bezos appointed himself co-CEO of an AI startup called, alongside his co-founder, Vik Bajaj, a physicist and chemist best known for his work at Google's moonshot factory, X, where he founded Verily, a life sciences and health technology company focused on developing research tools, care programs, and precision health products.
This is the first time that Bezos has taken a formal operational role in a company since stepping down as CEO of Amazon in July 2021, as despite his involvement in Blue Origin, his official title at the space company is founder.
Prometheus sounds interesting, but two CEOs of one company? You can't give me gravy and tell me it's jelly, 'cause gravy ain't sweet!
Project Prometheus is one of several new startups focused on applying artificial intelligence to physical tasks like robotics, drug development, physics, and other scientific discovery. Earlier this year, several researchers left Meta, OpenAI, and Google DeepMind to launch Periodic Labs, a startup focused on building AI tech focused on accelerating physics and chemistry discoveries. Last year, Bezos also invested in Physical Intelligence, a startup that is applying AI to robots.
Honestly, these are the kinds of AI startups that get me excited! You can only read about so many AI chatbots before becoming a little tired of the space…