Jeff Bezos Returns to CEO Role at AI Startup Project Prometheus

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has returned to an operational leadership position as co-CEO of the artificial intelligence startup Project Prometheus. The company has secured $6.2 billion in funding, making it one of the most well-financed early-stage AI ventures to date. A portion of the funding comes from Bezos himself.

Bezos will share the chief executive role with Vik Bajaj, a physicist and chemist who previously worked at Google’s X division and co-founded Verily and Foresite Labs. Bajaj recently left Foresite Labs to join the new venture.

Project Prometheus will focus on developing AI systems for engineering and manufacturing, with applications in industries such as aerospace, computing, and automotive design. The company describes its mission as building “AI for the physical economy,” aiming to create systems that learn from and interact with the physical world.

The startup reportedly employs nearly 100 people across locations in San Francisco, London, and Zurich. Many of its researchers have joined from major AI firms including OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta. This marks Bezos’s first formal executive role since stepping down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021, though he remains founder of the space company Blue Origin.