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Project Prometheus, a secretive artificial intelligence startup co-founded by Jeff Bezos, is reportedly in the process of raising a new round of funding. Founded in November, the company has disclosed limited details about its plans and operations.
Project Prometheus is said to concentrate on developing “physical AI,” where AI systems can interact directly with real-world industrial processes. The company’s stated areas include manufacturing, aerospace engineering, and semiconductor fabrication, rather than limiting its applications to digital tasks such as chatbots.
The startup is led by Vik Bajaj, who serves as co-CEO. Bajaj previously held senior roles at Google X, Alphabet’s advanced research lab, and has also worked as a visiting lecturer at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Financial Times was the first outlet to report in detail on the fundraising plan. Recruitment sources cited in the reporting indicate the company is expanding operations in San Francisco and hiring talent from major technology firms including OpenAI, xAI, and Google DeepMind.
Current headcount is estimated to range from 50 to 200 employees.
The New York Times reported that Jeff Bezos has held initial discussions with investors in the Middle East and Southeast Asia about raising up to $100 billion for an investment fund. The fund would be used for acquisitions or for investments in companies that could benefit from the technology Project Prometheus is developing.
Project Prometheus is entering a highly competitive market. Major players such as OpenAI, Google DeepMind, xAI, and Anthropic have already established advantages in both model development and talent recruitment.
The company also faces competition from other physical AI startups, including Periodic Labs, founded by William Fedus. Fedus previously served as Vice President of Research at OpenAI and helped lead post-training efforts for ChatGPT.
Despite these challenges, the company’s biggest advantage is widely believed to be Bezos’s backing. His wealth is estimated at $224 billion, according to BI.
Separately, Amazon has recently accelerated its artificial intelligence strategy, emphasizing the AWS ecosystem and dedicated computing infrastructure. One notable move is expanded cooperation with AI startup Anthropic.
As reported on April 20, Amazon may invest up to $25 billion in Anthropic. The arrangement also includes a commitment to use AWS infrastructure valued at more than $100 billion over the next decade.
The deal has financial implications and is also intended to support Amazon’s AI chip ecosystem, particularly its Trainium line, as it seeks to compete with hardware providers such as Nvidia.
Amazon is also investing heavily in infrastructure. The company is expected to spend more than $100 billion on AI-related investments in 2025, largely for data centers and computing capacity.
Amazon has also launched Project Rainier, with total investment around $11 billion. The project is expected to begin operations by the end of 2025 in Indiana, USA. It is described as one of the world’s largest AI infrastructures, using nearly 500,000 AWS-custom Trainium2 chips to train and operate large language models (LLMs).
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