Jeff Bezos joins AI start-up Project Prometheus as co-CEO
What's the story
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is set to take on a new role as the co-CEO of Project Prometheus. The start-up, which he has partly funded, is focused on developing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for manufacturing in sectors such as computing, automobiles, and aerospace. According to The New York Times, Project Prometheus is one of the best-funded early-stage start-ups globally with an investment of $6.2 billion.
Leadership responsibilities
Vik Bajaj to lead the company
Along with funding the start-up, Bezos will also be co-managing it with Vik Bajaj, who is leading the company. Together, they will steer Project Prometheus toward its ambitious goals in AI technology development. Bajaj is a physicist and chemist who previously worked at Google's experimental division, Google X. He also led Verily, an Alphabet-owned health tech company that was spun out of Google X. Bajaj has also been a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine for over 11 years.
Team composition
Project Prometheus's team
Project Prometheus already has a team of nearly 100 employees, including ex-OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta staff. With Bezos joining the team as co-CEO, this will be his first formal operational role in a company since he stepped down as Amazon CEO in 2021. The move marks a significant shift for Bezos who has been focusing on his space exploration company Blue Origin since leaving Amazon.