Bezos' Prometheus raises $12 billion to build AI tools for engineers
Jeff Bezos and co-founder Vik Bajaj say Prometheus will focus on compute-heavy “physical AI” aimed at speeding up engineering work.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
3 min read
Jeff Bezos’ new AI company, Prometheus, has raised $12 billion as it works on tools meant to help engineers design physical technologies faster, Ars Technica reported. The size of the financing gives the young company a large war chest in a competitive field focused on applying AI to robotics, manufacturing and other real-world systems.
Bezos announced in November that he would serve as co-CEO of Prometheus, according to Ars Technica. At the time, the company described its area of work as “physical AI,” a term Ars described as the use of deep-learning methods associated with large language models and generative AI in fields such as robotics and industrial production.
The new financing follows an earlier $6.2 billion round last year and values Prometheus at $41 billion, Ars Technica reported. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and other backers took part, and Bezos also put in a substantial amount of his own money, according to the report. The company has about 150 employees.
Bezos told CNBC that much of the money will go toward computing resources. He said the company’s work requires heavy compute capacity and that Prometheus must generate the data needed for its systems.
In interviews with CNBC and The New York Times, Bezos and co-founder Vik Bajaj gave a clearer outline of the company’s ambitions. Bezos told The New York Times that Prometheus is trying to build what he called an “artificial general engineer,” a phrase that points to AI tools designed to assist with invention and technical design rather than only text or image generation.
Bezos told The New York Times that invention has been the driver of broad economic progress, citing the plow and the steam engine as examples. He said Prometheus wants to create tools that can greatly speed up the cycle of invention.
He used similar examples in an interview with CNBC, where he said the goal is to produce technological advances that create “civilizational wealth,” rather than gains limited to one person or one company. Ars Technica reported that Bajaj framed the project in more practical terms, saying the design of new technologies requires many people working creatively together and remains one of the most complex tasks humans perform.
Bajaj said engineers responsible for such advances still rely on tools that have changed little over many years, according to Ars Technica. He said Prometheus wants to give those engineers better tools so they can produce designs more quickly.
The New York Times reported earlier this year that Bezos and Bajaj were seeking to raise a $100 billion investment fund tied to companies that could use or benefit from Prometheus’ work. Ars Technica reported that potential beneficiaries could include Bezos-linked ventures such as Blue Origin.
Prometheus has not announced specific products or technologies, Ars Technica reported. The company is entering a field that already includes startups using AI for robotics policies, world models and more capable factory automation. With the latest funding, Ars reported, Prometheus now has a financial advantage over many of those rivals.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.