Project Prometheus, the secretive AI startup cofounded by Jeff Bezos, is raising around $10 billion in fresh funding at a post-money valuation of around $38 billion, according to multiple sources.
The round is still in progress, and details could change. If completed, it would be the company’s first funding since the $6.2 billion it raised at launch last year.
A spokeswoman for the startup declined to comment.
Bezos cofounded Project Prometheus in November. Little is known about the startup other than that it is focused on physical AI designed to interact with real-world industrial processes, such as manufacturing, aerospace engineering, and semiconductor production, rather than purely digital tasks like chatbots.
The other cofounder is co-CEO Vik Bajaj, who previously held senior roles at Google X, Alphabet’s moonshot lab, and is an adjunct professor at Stanford University’s School of Medicine.
The Financial Times earlier reported details of the fundraise.
Project Prometheus has been snapping up office space in San Francisco. and luring away top talent from OpenAI. Other hires have from xAI, Google Deepmind, according to LinkedIn, which says the company has between 50-200 employees.
Bezos has also been in early discussions with investors in the Middle East and Southeast Asia to raise as much as $100 billion for an investment fund to acquire or invest in companies that would benefit from the technology developed by Project Prometheus, the New York Times reported last month.
Project Prometheus is stepping into a crowded field dominated by giants like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, xAI, and Anthropic, all of which have a head start in developing AI models and hiring deep talent benches.
It also faces pressure from other well-founded startups targeting physical AI, such as Periodic Labs, founded by William Fedus, a prominent AI researcher best known for his work at OpenAI, where he served as VP of research and helped lead the post-training efforts behind ChatGPT.
Of course, what Project Prometheus does have is Bezos and his $224 billion bank account.
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