News

Bezos to Co-Lead Engineering-Focused AI Startup Project Prometheus, Reports Say

• By John K. Waters
• 11/17/2025

Jeff Bezos will help run a new artificial intelligence venture called Project Prometheus that aims to apply AI to engineering and manufacturing, according to multiple media reports citing people familiar with the matter.

The New York Times reported that Project Prometheus has lined up about $6.2 billion in financing, including money from Bezos himself. The startup has not been formally announced, and few details have been disclosed publicly, the reports said.

Project Prometheus will focus on systems that learn from and act on the physical world rather than tools that only process digital text. Early work is expected to target manufacturing across sectors such as vehicles, computing hardware, and space technology, according to coverage. Bezos has long invested in aerospace through Blue Origin, his space company.

Bezos will be co-founder and co-chief executive. He is joined by Vik Bajaj, a physicist and chemist who previously worked on projects at Google X and later helped build the health‑tech company Verily. In 2018, Bajaj co-founded Foresite Labs, a company builder for startups that use data science, and he is still listed as its chief executive on the firm’s website and on his LinkedIn profile, which also shows his new titles at Project Prometheus.

Hiring appears to be well underway. The Times and technology outlets reported that the company has recruited close to 100 people, including staff from OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta. A sparse LinkedIn page for Project Prometheus describes the effort as "AI for the physical economy" and lists a headcount range of 51-200. Bajaj’s profile lists the startup's locations as San Francisco, London, and Zurich.

If confirmed, the role would mark Bezos’s first formal executive post since stepping down as Amazon’s chief executive in 2021. The push puts him and Bajaj among a growing group of technology leaders funding AI efforts that aim to move beyond consumer chatbots and into industrial uses, such as factory design, robotics, and advanced supply chains.

Key questions remain. The reports did not spell out the company’s specific technical approach, product plans or commercial timetable, and Project Prometheus has not commented publicly.

On Nov. 13, Blue Origin flew its New Glenn rocket for the second time, launching NASA’s twin ESCAPADE Mars satellites from Cape Canaveral and achieving the rocket’s first booster landing at sea. The flight was New Glenn’s first mission for a paying customer and followed delays tied to weather and a solar storm. The recovered booster returned to port on Monday as the company prepares follow-on launches.