Bezos-Backed Prometheus Raises $12 Billion to Build AI for the Physical World
SAN FRANCISCO — Prometheus, the secretive physical AI startup co-founded by Jeff Bezos and Stanford scientist Vik Bajaj, said on June 11 that it raised $12 billion at a valuation of roughly $41 billion, one of the largest single bets ever placed on artificial intelligence built for the physical world rather than the screen.
The funding makes Prometheus one of the most richly valued AI startups ever, and it cements “physical AI” as the year’s most aggressively funded new frontier. The capital came from Bezos himself alongside a roster of major financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock. It is the company’s second major raise, following an initial $6.2 billion when Prometheus launched late last year, pushing total funding past $18 billion in roughly seven months.
Bezos, who serves as co-chief executive alongside Bajaj, a former co-founder of Alphabet’s life sciences unit Verily, used the occasion to step out of the shadows. Appearing in a rare joint interview, the two leaders described their goal in unusually concrete terms: building what they call an “artificial general engineer.”
What an ‘artificial general engineer’ is supposed to do
Where most of the AI industry has focused on software that reads, writes and generates images, Prometheus is aiming at the slow, expensive work of designing and manufacturing physical objects. The company describes software meant to automate the engineering of complex systems, from jet engines and computer chips to bridges and drug compounds.
That places Prometheus squarely in the category the industry calls physical AI: systems intended to understand the laws of physics and learn through interaction with the real world, not only from text and images scraped from the internet. Proponents argue this approach can compress design and manufacturing cycles that today take years and consume enormous engineering resources.
The company is keeping the specifics of what it has already built under wraps, though Bezos pushed back on the idea that the operation is hidden. “We’re not being secretive,” he told CNBC, while declining to detail the startup’s products. Prometheus currently has about 150 employees across offices in San Francisco, London and Zurich, and Bezos indicated that a large share of the new capital will go toward the company’s substantial computing needs.
A contrarian take on AI and jobs
Bezos also used the moment to stake out a position on one of the most contested questions in technology: what happens to human workers as AI automates more of their jobs. While some AI leaders forecast widespread displacement, Bezos predicted the opposite, describing a future of what he called “labor scarcity,” in which demand for human workers outpaces supply as productivity rises.
“Significant productivity in the economy is going to raise the standard of living,” he said, suggesting that gains could let some two-earner households become one-earner households. The framing is notable given Bezos’s perch as executive chairman and largest individual shareholder of Amazon, which employs more than 1.5 million people and has cut tens of thousands of jobs over the past year amid its own automation push.
Why investors are crowding into physical AI
The Prometheus round did not happen in isolation. Over recent months, venture capitalists have poured money into physical AI, a sector that founders and investors argue is inherently more defensible than pure software. The reasoning, as Axios and TechCrunch have both reported, is that the physical world creates moats that code alone cannot: proprietary data from real-world systems, hard-won manufacturing know-how, and regulatory and safety expertise that are difficult to replicate.
For founders, that thesis is reshaping where opportunity lies. As foundation models for text and images become commoditized and intensely competitive, the harder and more capital-intensive problems of the physical world, robotics, industrial design, materials, and advanced manufacturing, are drawing fresh attention. The bet is that durable advantages will accrue to companies that can pair AI with deep domain expertise and real-world feedback loops.
What it means for startups
The sheer size of Prometheus’s raise underscores how capital-intensive the frontier of AI has become. A $12 billion round dwarfs what all but a handful of startups could ever assemble, and much of it is earmarked for compute. For most founders, the practical takeaway is not to compete head-on with a Bezos-backed lab, but to recognize where the gravity of the industry is shifting.
Physical AI rewards specialization. Startups that understand a specific industrial domain, whether aerospace tolerances, semiconductor fabrication, or pharmaceutical chemistry, may find defensible positions building focused tools, datasets, and workflows rather than general-purpose engines. The distinction between general-purpose models and narrower, task-specific systems is one founders are increasingly weighing; our explainer on AI agents versus agentic AI digs into how that line is drawn.
It also signals that strategic investors and large financial institutions are willing to underwrite long, uncertain research timelines when the potential market is the entire physical economy. That patient capital may not flow to every startup, but its presence at the top of the market tends to lift attention, talent, and follow-on funding across adjacent categories.
Prometheus has not said when, or whether, its artificial general engineer will reach customers. What is clear is that one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in the world has placed a multibillion-dollar wager that the next great AI breakthrough will happen not on a screen, but in the physical world.
Frequently asked questions
What is Prometheus building?
Prometheus is developing what it calls an “artificial general engineer,” AI software meant to automate the design and manufacturing of complex physical systems such as jet engines, chips, bridges and drug compounds. It is focused on physical AI rather than text or image generation.
How much did Prometheus raise and at what valuation?
The company raised $12 billion in its latest round at a valuation of roughly $41 billion. Combined with an earlier $6.2 billion raise at its launch, total funding has passed $18 billion in about seven months.
Who is behind the company?
Prometheus was co-founded by Jeff Bezos and Vik Bajaj, a Stanford scientist and former co-founder of Alphabet’s Verily. The two serve as co-CEOs. Investors in the latest round include Bezos, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock.
What is ‘physical AI’?
Physical AI refers to systems designed to understand the laws of physics and learn through interaction with the real world, rather than only from text and images. Supporters argue it can speed up engineering and manufacturing and is harder for rivals to replicate than pure software.
Why does this matter for startups?
The raise highlights both the capital intensity of frontier AI and a shift of investor interest toward the physical world. It suggests opportunity for startups that specialize in specific industrial domains and can build defensible tools, datasets and workflows rather than general-purpose models.