CNBC Exclusive: Prometheus Co-Founders Jeff Bezos and Vik Bajaj
DAVID FABER: Prometheus is a startup co-founded by Jeff Bezos and Vik Bajaj. It is raising its Series B round to 41 billion. The company has been largely quiet until now. Its ambitions, though, are broad, using AI to accelerate engineering across the physical economy, from chips to jet engines to batteries, solar manufacturing.
Bezos on the invention loop
BEZOS: What drives the wealth of nations? What drives civilizational wealth? And the answer is invention. Our goal at Prometheus, what we’re working on is building a set of tools that accelerate that invention loop. So, how long does it take to improve something? How long does it take from idea to actually manufacturing, seeing it rate and have a useful object?
This is an age-old dream, the idea that you might build a set of tools that could actually do engineering, an artificial engineer. An artificial general engineer — it’s a dream that people have thought about for decades, but it’s never really been possible. But now it is. And that’s what we’ve been working on since late 2024.
Labor scarcity thesis
Bezos told CNBC that the productivity gains AI delivers will lead to what he calls “labor scarcity” — his term for a world where demand for human workers outpaces supply. That puts him at odds with prominent voices predicting widespread job losses from AI.
“Significant productivity in the economy is going to raise the standard of living,” he said. “People who today have two-earner households, they’ll become one-earner households. Maybe some people who are working overtime will stop working overtime.”
Compute allocation
Bezos indicated that a large portion of the $12 billion capital will go toward the company’s large compute needs. Prometheus currently has 150 employees across offices in San Francisco, London, and Zurich.
Prior funding
This is the second fundraise round for Prometheus, which launched late last year with an initial raise of $6.2 billion. Bezos was the largest backer in the Series A and participated in the Series B as well. It’s his first CEO role since stepping down from Amazon in 2021.
Investors in the Series B include JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, DST Global, and Arch Venture Partners.