Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos appears to be getting his arms soiled as soon as once more: The billionaire is partly backing a brand new AI startup referred to as Challenge Prometheus that has raised $6.2 billion in funding, and can tackle duties as co-chief govt of the brand new enterprise, The New York Occasions reported, citing a number of sources conversant in the venture.
Bezos will share the place with Vik Bajaj, who beforehand led and co-founded Google’s life sciences division. Bajaj additionally co-founded Verily, a biotech startup owned by Alphabet, and is the co-founder of Foresite Labs, an AI-focused affiliate of funding agency Foresite Capital, although the report notes he not too long ago left the agency to begin Prometheus, the report mentioned.
Bezos could be returning to operations for the primary time since he stepped away from Amazon in 2021.
In accordance with the NYT, the startup goes to construct AI merchandise for engineering and manufacturing in numerous fields like computer systems, aerospace, and cars. Challenge Prometheus is targeted on “AI for the bodily economic system,” per its LinkedIn page, and the report famous that its work will resemble that of Periodic Labs, which is constructing know-how to hurry up scientific analysis by simulating the bodily world to coach AI fashions.
The corporate already has virtually 100 workers, together with researchers from AI companies like Meta, OpenAI, and Google DeepMind, the report mentioned.
Amazon and Bajaj didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
