Jeff Bezos Raises $100 Billion Fund to Buy Manufacturing Companies and Apply AI Automation

TLDR

• Jeff Bezos is in talks to raise $100 billion for a fund to buy manufacturing companies and apply AI to automate them.
• The fund targets chipmaking, defense, and aerospace industries.
• It is linked to Project Prometheus, an AI startup Bezos co-leads that raised $6.2 billion.
• Bezos has traveled to the Middle East and Singapore to meet with sovereign wealth funds and asset managers.
• JPMorgan Chase is in preliminary talks to back the project through its $10 billion Security and Resiliency Initiative.

Jeff Bezos is trying to raise $100 billion to buy industrial companies and use artificial intelligence to automate them. The Amazon founder has been meeting with large asset managers and sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Singapore to secure funding.

The fund is described in investor documents as a “manufacturing transformation vehicle.” It plans to buy companies in sectors like chipmaking, defense, and aerospace.

If successful, the fund would be one of the largest of its kind. It would rival SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund in size.

The effort is tied to Project Prometheus, an AI startup that Bezos co-leads. The company builds AI models that can understand and simulate the physical world — for example, predicting how air flows around an airplane wing or where metal will crack under pressure.

Project Prometheus raised $6.2 billion in funding last year. It is now separately in talks to raise up to $6 billion more.

Bezos was appointed co-CEO of Project Prometheus last year. It was his first formal leadership role at a tech company since stepping down as Amazon’s chief executive in July 2021.

Who Else Is Involved

His co-CEO is Vik Bajaj, a physicist and chemist who worked with Google co-founder Sergey Brin at Google X, the company’s research division. Prometheus has also hired staff from OpenAI and Google DeepMind.

David Limp, the CEO of rocket company Blue Origin, recently joined the Prometheus board of directors. Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000.

JPMorgan Chase is in early talks to back the fund through its Security and Resiliency Initiative, a $10 billion fund the bank launched in December. Former Berkshire Hathaway investment manager Todd Combs was hired to help lead that effort.

The Broader Push Into Physical AI

Project Prometheus is part of a wider trend of companies applying AI to physical industries, including robotics, drug design, and manufacturing. Bezos has also invested in Physical Intelligence, a startup applying AI to robots.

Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick recently announced a new venture called Atoms, also aimed at using AI to transform manufacturing.

Elon Musk has also pushed into this space, promoting plans at Tesla to develop humanoid robots.

Amazon itself has been applying automation in its warehouses for years. The company is close to having as many robots as human workers.

Project Prometheus plans to initially sell software tools for engineering simulation and design, according to investor documents.

The post Jeff Bezos Raises $100 Billion Fund to Buy Manufacturing Companies and Apply AI Automation appeared first on CoinCentral.