Prometheus, the AI startup Jeff Bezos launched last November, has raised $12 billion at a valuation of $41 billion. It started life with $6.2 billion, according to CNBC, so this is its second round.
Bezos and Vik Bajaj run the company as co-CEOs. Bezos left the top job at Amazon in 2021; Bajaj is a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and co-founded Verily at Alphabet. TechCrunch listed JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock among the investors in the new round, along with Bezos himself.
An “artificial general engineer”
What Prometheus says it is building is an “artificial general engineer”: software that can automate the design and manufacturing of complex physical systems, from jet engines to drug compounds. In an interview with CNBC, Bezos described AI tools meant to help engineers design and make physical products more efficiently. He said it was too early to discuss specific products or milestones, and the company is keeping what it has built so far under wraps. It has 150 employees in San Francisco, London and Zurich.
Much of the new money will buy computing power to train and run its models. Bezos said the work demands heavy compute, and that the funding will also pay for large datasets and the infrastructure behind them. The company is also trying to hire people from OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Nvidia.
Jobs, according to Bezos
Bezos does not expect the technology to empty out workplaces. He told CNBC that productivity gains will lead to what he calls “labor scarcity,” a world where demand for workers outpaces supply. That puts him at odds with AI leaders who predict widespread job losses.
“Significant productivity in the economy is going to raise the standard of living,” he said. “People who today have two-earner households, they’ll become one-earner households. Maybe some people who are working overtime will stop working overtime.”
The comment carries some irony. Amazon, where Bezos is executive chairman and largest individual shareholder, employs more than 1.5 million people worldwide. Under CEO Andy Jassy it has laid off tens of thousands over the past year as it pushed ahead with its own automation.
TechCrunch called Prometheus one of the most richly valued AI startups ever funded, and one of the largest single bets on physical AI, a sector venture capitalists have been pouring money into on the argument that the physical world creates moats code alone cannot.
Blue Origin and SpaceX
Bezos also spoke about Blue Origin. He said it plans to resume New Glenn rocket flights by the end of the year, after an explosion at the launch site during a static fire test last month. Asked about SpaceX’s upcoming IPO, he said he was looking forward to its market debut.
Sources
- Jeff Bezos' Prometheus Stock Raises $12 Bln At Valuation
- Jeff Bezos's Prometheus raises $12B to build an 'artificial general engineer' for the physical world | TechCrunch
