Jeff Bezos Returns as Co-CEO of New AI Venture, Project Prometheus, with $6.2B Backing

Jeff Bezos is getting back into the startup trenches. According to a report from The New York Times, the Amazon founder is taking on a hands-on role as co-CEO of Project Prometheus, a newly launched AI startup that has already secured an eye-popping $6.2 billion in funding.

Bezos will share the helm with Vik Bajaj, a well-known biotech and AI innovator. Bajaj previously led Google’s life sciences efforts and co-founded both Verily (an Alphabet subsidiary) and Foresite Labs, an AI-driven venture studio tied to Foresite Capital. Bajaj reportedly departed Foresite to build Prometheus.

This marks Bezos’s first serious operational role since stepping down as CEO of Amazon in 2021.

The startup is targeting “AI for the physical economy,” according to its LinkedIn profile, aiming to build tools that accelerate engineering and manufacturing across sectors like aerospace, computing, and automotive. Prometheus’ approach is said to mirror that of Periodic Labs, a startup developing AI models trained on simulations of the physical world to speed scientific discovery.

Project Prometheus has already assembled a formidable team of nearly 100 employees, including researchers from leading AI shops like Meta, OpenAI, and Google DeepMind.

Neither Amazon nor Bajaj’s camp has responded publicly to the reports. While details remain scarce, the sheer scale of the funding and Bezos’s return to an executive role signal big ambitions — and potential disruption — for the next wave of industrial AI.