Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world and the founder of Amazon is investing his time and money in the new artificial intelligence start-up, which he will be co-chief executive. The business, known as Project Prometheus, is starting with a capital of $6.2 billion, including capital provided by Bezos.
This makes it one of the most highly financed early phase start ups in the world, reported The New York Times, with three of its individuals who were privy to the development speaking under the veil of anonymity due to the confidentiality of the information.
This is the first formal operational role Bezos has undertaken since he quit his position as the chief executive officer Amazon in July 2021.
Despite the fact that he is heavily engaged in Blue Origin, a SpaceX rival, he is just the founder there. A year later, having left Amazon, he has captured both personal and business attention, including a celebrity -filled wedding in Venice this year, and a revived interest in Blue Origin and the growing attention to the race to develop artificial intelligence.
The new company puts Bezos in the middle of the already competitive AI business, where smaller companies are trying to establish their niches among key players like Google, Meta and Microsoft, and also specialized firms like OpenAI and Anthropic. Project Prometheus has worked in the shadows until recently and the date of its inception has not been made clear.
Bezos will be head of the company together with co-founder Vik Bajaj, a physicist and chemist who worked with Google co-founder Sergey Brin at Google X, commonly known as The Moonshot Factory. The research unit brought into the scene projects such as Wing, a drone delivery service, and the self-driving vehicle project which developed into Waymo.
Project Prometheus belongs to an expanding trend of companies using AI on physical activities including robotics, drug development and scientific research. This year, a number of researchers left Meta, OpenAI, Google DeepMind and other large AI organisations to start Periodic Labs which focuses on speeding up physics and chemistry discoveries. Last year Bezos invested in Physical Intelligence, a firm that uses AI in robotics.
The start-up has already hired close to 100 personnel, among which are researchers with top AI institutions like OpenAI, DeepMind and Meta as indicated by the three individuals who know the hiring initiatives.
Even the major AI organisations, such as OpenAI, Google and Meta are already working on developing technologies that are supposed to speed up advancements in the physical sciences.
Project Prometheus is bound to venture in the same directions, as indicated by people who are conversant with its intentions.
Jeff Bezos launches new AI startup with himself as CEO
