Former Amazon boss Jeff Bezos launches AI startup – Tech Digest

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Four years after stepping down from the helm of Amazon, billionaire founder Jeff Bezos is set to return to the CEO role, this time leading a secretive new artificial intelligence venture known as Project Prometheus.

Citing anonymous sources, The New York Times reports that Bezos has appointed himself as co-CEO of the startup, which has already secured a massive $6.2 billion in initial funding – an extraordinary sum that dwarfs the lifetime capital of most companies.

Project Prometheus is slated to focus on the development and application of AI across engineering and manufacturing sectors. The startup will be co-headed by Vik Bajaj, a celebrated tech executive known for his extensive background in science.

Bajaj, a physicist and chemist, gained prominence during his time at Google’s moonshot factory, X, where he was the founder of the health technology startup Verily.

While the company’s precise inception date and technological specifics remain undisclosed, the project is clearly moving at speed. Project Prometheus has reportedly already secured a team of 100 employees, successfully recruiting top talent from industry leaders such as OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta.

Bezos’s return to a formal executive position marks a significant shift. Since leaving his CEO role at Amazon, the world’s third-richest person has primarily dedicated his focus to his space exploration company, Blue Origin, where he acts as founder and sole shareholder.

His decision to take on a co-CEO title at Project Prometheus signals a fresh and intense commitment to the frontier of artificial intelligence, placing one of the world’s most influential business minds back into the daily management of a technology company poised to disrupt major global industries.

As details on the company’s physical location and operational technology remain tightly guarded, the size of the seed investment alone suggests Project Prometheus is a formidable player to watch in the increasingly competitive AI landscape.

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