Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder and former CEO of Amazon, is set to return as CEO after stepping down four years ago. This time, he will serve as co-CEO of an AI startup called Project Prometheus. New York Times reported this from an anonymous source.
The startup is aiming to innovate AI solutions for engineering and manufacturing across various sectors, having secured an impressive $6.2 billion in funding—far exceeding what most companies gather in their lifetime. The company will be headed by Bezos’ co-founder and co-CEO, Vik Bajaj, a well-known technology executive and a physicist and chemist famed for his role at Google’s Moonshot Factory X, where he launched the health startup Verily.
Although the exact duration of the company’s existence is unclear, sources indicate that Project Prometheus already has a workforce of 100 people. Many of these employees were recruited from notable organizations like OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta. Details about the project remain sparse as Bezos has not revealed its operational base or the specifics of its technology. Having been heavily involved with his aerospace venture Blue Origin as its founder and sole shareholder, this role marks Bezos’ first official position since departing from Amazon.
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Mr. Bezos and Mr. Bajaj enter a highly competitive AI market, where billions have been invested in rivals like OpenAI, with even more funds directed towards the swift advancement of AI models. However, a growing number of experts are raising concerns about the financial viability of the AI industry. Notably, Michael Burry, renowned for predicting the 2008 housing crisis, has recently placed a $1 billion bet against the stock prices of Palantir and Nvidia after accusing some major tech firms of using accounting strategies to “artificially inflate profits.” Read more.
Source: www.theguardian.com
