Valued at $38 billion! Bezos's AI company "Prometheus" is close to raising $10 billion.

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Jeff Bezos’s laboratory, which focuses on AI applications in the physical world, is close to completing a $10 billion funding round, reaching a valuation as high as $38 billion. It is set to become one of the world’s largest early-stage startups by fundraising size.

According to the Financial Times, citing sources familiar with the matter, the company—codenamed “Project Prometheus”—plans to complete this round of financing soon. With the new funds included, its valuation will reach $38 billion. Both JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock are participating in this round. The deal is not yet final but is expected to close soon.

The news of this financing further highlights the huge appeal of the industrial AI sector and marks the first time since stepping down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021 that Bezos has taken a deep operational role in a company.

Funding Round Expands Due to Strong Demand

According to sources, this round of financing initially launched in November last year, with the first stage raising $6.2 billion. However, due to strong investor demand, the round expanded continuously, with the final size approaching $10 billion. Bezos himself is one of the early investors.

Bezos and co-CEO Vikram Bajaj jointly led this round. Project Prometheus, BlackRock, and JPMorgan Chase all declined to comment.

It is worth noting that this fundraising is independent from another ongoing plan at Prometheus. The company is also raising tens of billions of dollars for a holding company aimed at acquiring equity in businesses it anticipates will be disrupted by its own technologies.

Targeting the Physical World, Reshaping Engineering and Manufacturing

Prometheus’s core focus is on developing AI systems that understand the laws of physics and applying them to industries like engineering and manufacturing. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in London and Zurich.

The company is dedicated to using specialized models to accelerate manual workflows and reduce resource consumption, targeting sectors such as engineering, architecture, and design. It has already recruited several hundred employees, including AI scientists, industry experts, and technical professionals experienced in building computing infrastructure.

Prometheus has been actively building its talent pool. The company has poached former OpenAI employee and xAI co-founder Kyle Kosic, who is now in charge of infrastructure projects. Kosic previously led the construction of the “Colossus” supercomputer at Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI.

In addition, Prometheus’s holding company also plans to obtain data from its portfolio companies to train its own AI systems, creating a synergistic loop between data and technology. If realized, this model would provide its AI systems with a continuous stream of real industrial data for iteration.

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