Jeff Bezos is making a major push into artificial intelligence with Prometheus, a startup focused on building what it calls an “artificial general engineer” (AGE), an AI system designed to handle the entire engineering process, from product design and performance testing to manufacturing.
The company announced a $12 billion funding round that values it at about $41 billion. Investors include Bezos, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock. Founded in late 2024, Prometheus currently employs around 150 people across offices in San Francisco, London and Zurich.
AI that can engineer real-world products
Unlike many AI companies focused on software and chatbots, Prometheus is targeting the physical world. The startup wants to create AI systems capable of designing and manufacturing complex products such as jet engines.
Bezos said the aim is not to replace engineers but to significantly increase their capabilities. He said, “Our goal is to empower engineers and make invention easier and faster, so smaller teams can do much bigger things on much shorter time cycles.”
Prometheus co-CEO Vik Bajaj said the company is building AI tools that can support every stage of engineering, from creating designs and predicting how products will perform to overseeing manufacturing. “We’re trying to approach that problem end to end,” Bajaj said.
Bezos sees AI creating more jobs, not fewer
As concerns grow over AI-driven job losses, Bezos argued that the technology will ultimately expand economic opportunities rather than reduce them.
Some of the pessimism around AI, particularly among younger people, is “the opposite of reality,” he said. AI may reduce the number of workers needed for certain tasks, it will also make innovation faster and cheaper, leading to the creation of entirely new industries and jobs.
According to Bezos, if AI makes inventing products significantly easier, the resulting growth in economic activity could more than offset any reduction in workforce requirements.
“Even though you’re shrinking the number of people needed by 10x,” he said, the technology will create “more than 10x” as many opportunities.
A future labour shortage, not a job shortage
Bezos also pushed back against the idea that AI will trigger mass unemployment. Instead, he said rising productivity could eventually lead to a shortage of workers.
“There’s going to be two-earner income households where one earner drops out of the labour pool, because there’s going to be so much productivity,” he said.
The billionaire described the current AI boom as a unique moment for entrepreneurs and innovators. “AI’s advances have paved the way for a multitude of golden ages happening simultaneously,” Bezos said. “This is the best time to start a company.”
Bringing AI into factories
Prometheus is also exploring ways to apply AI directly to manufacturing operations. The company has reportedly held discussions about raising a $100 billion fund to acquire manufacturing businesses and deploy AI across their operations. The vision is to create an artificial general engineer that can help companies design, build and improve physical products faster than ever before, potentially transforming industries ranging from aerospace to advanced manufacturing.