Jeff Bezos Raises US$12 Billion, Prometheus Prepares AI for Engineer Work

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and co-founder of Prometheus. The physical AI startup raised US$12 billion in funding with a valuation of US$41 billion to develop artificial general engineer, an AI technology designed to help automate the design and manufacture of complex physical systems. (Photo: x @founderwithadhd)

JAKARTA - Prometheus, a physical AI startup founded with Jeff Bezos, immediately entered the ranks of the most expensive AI companies. Citing a TechCrunch report, reported Friday, June 12, Prometheus received new funding of US $ 12 billion with a valuation of US $ 41 billion.

The funds came from Bezos, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and a number of other investors. This is the second round of funding for Prometheus since it was launched late last year. According to CNBC, the company had previously raised an initial fund of US$6.2 billion.

Prometheus was founded by Bezos with Vik Bajaj, a former co-founder of Verily, Google's life sciences unit. The company is building an artificial general engineer or "artificial general engineer".

The term refers to AI that can help design and create complex physical systems. For example, jet engines to drug compounds. So, it's not just AI that writes texts or makes images, but AI that works in the real world.

The ambition is big. Prometheus wants to automate many parts of the engineering job. At this point, the question immediately arises: if AI can take over many of the tasks of an engineer, what will be the fate of human workers?

Bezos has his own answer. To CNBC, he said that the surge in productivity from AI would actually create "labor shortages". This means that the demand for human workers will be greater than the number of available workers.

That view differs from many voices in the tech industry who warn of the threat of job losses from AI.

"Great productivity in the economy will improve the standard of living," Bezos said. He assessed that households with two breadwinners could become households with one breadwinner. Some people who are now working overtime can also stop working overtime.

However, this optimistic view comes from someone who is very familiar with automation. Bezos is the executive chairman and largest individual shareholder of Amazon. The company employs more than 1.5 million people worldwide.

In the past year, under CEO Andy Jassy, Amazon has cut tens of thousands of jobs while accelerating automation within the company. Therefore, Bezos' statements on AI and labor will be read through two lenses: a vision of the future and a long record of corporate efficiency.

Prometheus itself is still stingy with words. The company, which has 150 employees in San Francisco, London, and Zurich, has not opened up details of the technology it has built.

Bezos only hinted that most of the funds would be used for large computing needs. In the AI business, computing means high-scale computer processing power to train and run AI models. This is an expensive part and is coveted by many technology companies.

According to TechCrunch, the US$41 billion valuation makes Prometheus one of the highest-valued AI startups to ever receive funding. The company is also one of the biggest bets in the physical AI sector.

Physical AI is now a new magnet for investors. Unlike pure software, this sector targets real objects and systems: machines, factories, drugs, robots, and engineering designs. Investors consider this field more difficult to imitate because it requires data, infrastructure, and technical capabilities that cannot be created just by writing code.

Prometheus hasn't opened up much of the technology it has created. But with $12 billion in funding and a $41 billion valuation, investors are clearly betting big that AI will not only work on the screen, but also enter factories, laboratories, and engineering design rooms.