Amazon chairman Jeff Bezos is reportedly going to become the co-CEO of an AI company called Project Prometheus. The New York Times was the first to report on the event.
This will be the first time Bezos will be taking a direct leadership role in a company ever since he stepped down as CEO of Amazon in 2021.
What is Project Prometheus?
The AI startup will be focused on creating innovations in automobiles, computer manufacturing, and engineering, and space craft.
Project Prometheus will now be competing with a rapidly growing AI sector which has firms varying in market cap size and core specializations. In some cases, Project Prometheus will also be in direct competition with AI firms advanced as part of the growth agenda of certain countries, such as HUMAIN for Saudi Arabia.
It has received $6.2 billion in funding so far, according to sources familiar with the matter in the NYT report.
The AI firm is not to be confused with NASA’s now defunct Project Prometheus, which was created in 2003 for the purpose of developing nuclear-powered systems for space missions.
Bezos will be working alongside co-Chief Executive Officer Vik Bajaj. The NYT report says that Project Prometheus already has 100 employees, which comprises of researchers from OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta.
Alongside Amazon, Bezos oversees Blue Origin, a space exploration company created in 2001. He also invests in other companies through his investment fund, Bezos Expeditions, which includes a stake in AI company Toloka.