Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is making one of the biggest bets yet on industrial AI.
Prometheus, an AI startup led by Bezos and former Google executive Vik Bajaj, has raised $12 billion in a Series B funding round that values the company at $41 billion, according to Axios. The company aims to use AI to dramatically accelerate the design and manufacturing of physical products ranging from jet engines and medical devices to consumer electronics.
Unlike many AI startups focused on chatbots or office productivity, Prometheus is pursuing what Bezos describes as an “artificial general engineer” capable of helping companies compress years of engineering and product development work into much shorter timelines.
Investors in the funding round include J.P.Morgan, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, DST Global and Arch Venture Partners.
The announcement underscores growing investor interest in applying AI to the physical economy, including manufacturing, aerospace and advanced engineering, rather than solely digital applications.