It is not the only company working on physical AI, but it ranks among the most well-financed.
In November, Jeff Bezos revealed he would become co-CEO of a new venture called Prometheus. At that time, the company stated its focus would be on "physical AI"—a phrase that is increasingly used to describe applying the same deep learning principles behind large language models or generative AI to areas such as robotics and manufacturing—though details were limited. Now, following a substantial new funding round, Bezos and co-founder Vik Bajaj have shared a bit more information.
The funding round is notable—$12 billion at present, following an initial $6.2 billion round last year, giving the company a valuation of $41 billion. The capital comes from JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and others, along with a significant contribution from Bezos' own funds. The startup currently has 150 employees.
A large portion of this funding will go toward acquiring computing power. "One of the reasons we’ve had to raise a significant amount of funding is because… what we’re doing is very compute-intensive and we need to create that data," Bezos told CNBC.
So what exactly is the company doing? Bezos described a key part of the firm's focus as building an "artificial general engineer."
"All societal wealth is driven by invention," Bezos told The New York Times. "Six thousand years ago, somebody invented the plow, and we all got wealthier. Then, much later, somebody invented the steam engine, and we all got wealthier." He added that "what Prometheus seeks to do is to offer a set of tools that dramatically accelerates that invention loop."
In his conversation with CNBC, he used the same examples but framed the company's mission in more ambitious terms. He stated that the aim is to generate technological breakthroughs that will produce "civilizational wealth," not just wealth for a single person or corporation.
Bajaj described the team's objectives in more practical terms. He noted that designing new technologies "takes a thousand human minds creatively working together" and is "one of the most complex things we do as a species." He further remarked that the engineers behind those breakthroughs "use tools that really haven’t changed for decades. Part of what we want to do is arm them with tools that allow them to come up with those designs much more quickly."
A couple of months ago, The New York Times reported that Bezos and Bajaj are seeking to raise a $100 billion investment fund to back companies that could utilize and directly benefit from what Prometheus might produce. This could include some of Bezos' other ventures, such as Blue Origin.
It is still early days for Prometheus, and no specific new products or technologies have been announced. Prometheus is also not operating in isolation. Many other startups are exploring AI's applications in the physical world, from training world models to guide robotics policies, to transforming manufacturing with more robust and capable automation. With this round, however, Prometheus holds a significant funding edge over most of its rivals.