Jeff Bezos reportedly launches new AI startup with himself as CEO

After stepping down as Amazon’s CEO four years ago, Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder and former chief executive of the online shopping company, is going to be a CEO again. This time, Bezos has appointed himself co-CEO of an AI startup called Project Prometheus, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources. The startup, which will focus on developing AI for engineering and manufacturing in various fields, has already received $6.2bn in funding – more than many companies are able to raise in their lifetimes. Leading the company alongside Bezos is his co-founder and co-CEO Vik Bajaj, a celebrity tech executive in his own right. Bajaj is a physicist and chemist best known for his work at Google’s moonshot factory, X, where he founded the health startup Verily. It’s unclear how long the company has existed, but Project Prometheus has already hired 100 employees, poaching several from firms like OpenAI, DeepMind and Meta, according to the Times. Little else is known about the project, as Bezos did not disclose where the company will be based or how its technology might function. The world’s third-richest person has been closely involved at his aerospace company Blue Origin for several years as its founder and sole shareholder, but becoming a CEO again will be the first formal role Bezos has taken since stepping down from Amazon. Bezos and Bajaj join a crowded AI marketplace where billions of dollars are being poured into competitors like OpenAI and billions more are being spent to support the rapid development of AI models. More experts are beginning to question the financial sustainability of the AI industry, though. Michael Burry, best known for accurately predicting the 2008 housing crisis, recently invested $1bn in bets that Palantir and Nvidia shares will fall just days after he accused some of the big tech firms of using accounting tricks to “artificially boost earnings”.