Bezos and Bajaj on Prometheus: Reside updates

Bezos mentioned he has “a really totally different view” when requested about considerations about AI and job losses, including that AI will deliver “vital productiveness” to the economic system that may elevate the usual of residing.

“They’re pessimistic as a result of a bunch of good persons are telling them to be pessimistic, however these persons are incorrect,” he mentioned about public blowback towards AI.

—CJ Haddad

Bezos is pulling again the curtain on what’s actually occurring at Prometheus — and mentioned the corporate is not engaged on robots.

“There’s been some hypothesis,” he mentioned. “We thought, look, we’re not being secretive, proper? We’re simply being heads down and making an attempt to do the work, however … while you elevate this a lot cash, individuals do get curious.”

Rumors have swirled that Prometheus is engaged on robots, however Bezos mentioned the corporate is creating AI for invention and bodily engineering.

— Samantha Subin

Bezos mentioned he participated in Prometheus’ collection B, after contributing a piece of capital in its first fundraising spherical.

The startup has shared few particulars about its different backers.

“We have raised cash, we have now a superb crew, we have now super work forward of us,” Bezos mentioned.

— Annie Palmer

Bezos, who additionally leads an area firm and serves as government chair at Amazon after stepping down as CEO in 2021, says he is allotting most of his time to synthetic intelligence.

“Prometheus is the majority of my time,” the billionaire mentioned. “I am additionally spending loads of time on Blue [Origin]. I am spending loads of time on AI at Amazon. So the widespread thread in my time spent is usually AI.”

— Samantha Subin

Bezos mentioned it is “simple to think about” Prometheus being a buyer of Amazon’s cloud enterprise because it requires extra compute capability.

“It is easy to think about Amazon or any hyperscaler utilizing the sorts of instruments” that Prometheus is creating to enhance their information facilities,” he added.

Bezos added that his two corporations would stay “at arm’s size.”

“We even have compute from a large number of sources,” he mentioned. “So we have to, proper now, compute is scarce sufficient that you just get it the place you may, together with AWS.”

— Annie Palmer

Bezos mentioned Prometheus is constructing a system that may speed up the “invention loop,” so that folks can construct instruments quicker.

“That is an age-old dream,” Bezos mentioned. “The concept that you may construct a set of instruments that would really do engineering, a synthetic basic engineer. It is a dream that we have had, as individuals thought of for many years, nevertheless it’s by no means actually been attainable. However now it’s, and that is what we have been engaged on since late 2024.”

He mentioned Prometheus has assembled a crew of about 150 individuals.

“It is exhausting work, we’re grinding, nevertheless it’s additionally very fascinating,” Bezos mentioned.

— Annie Palmer

Bezos’ AI startup Prometheus raised $12 billion in collection B funding, valuing the corporate at roughly $41 billion.

—Annie Palmer

Bezos’ Blue Origin was dealt a setback final month when certainly one of its New Glenn rockets erupted right into a fireball throughout a hot-fire take a look at at a Area Pressure launch facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

In the course of the take a look at, Blue Origin’s huge reusable rocket was secured to the launchpad, whereas its engines have been ignited to ensure they labored correctly in preparation for an upcoming launch.

The take a look at did not go as deliberate, and the rocket exploded.

Bezos mentioned on the time that it is “too early to know the foundation trigger however we’re already working to seek out it. Very tough day, however we’ll rebuild no matter wants rebuilding and get again to flying. It is value it.”

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman instructed CNBC earlier this month that it’s going to “take some critical time” to revive the launchpad.

Blue Origin had simply returned New Glenn to the launchpad after an April incident the place the corporate delivered an AST SpaceMobile satellite tv for pc into the incorrect orbit.

The New Glenn rocket was set to ferry a batch of 48 satellites for Amazon’s nascent Leo internet-from-space enterprise.

—Annie Palmer

Prometheus has largely operated in stealth since its launch in November, sharing few particulars about its aims or potential product pipeline.

Bezos supplied a uncommon window into Prometheus when he spoke to CNBC final month. He mentioned the corporate has “nothing to do with robotics,” and that it is creating a synthetic basic engineer.

“We’re constructing instruments that may make it a lot simpler for engineers to design bodily objects,” Bezos mentioned.

He described the system as a “very, very fashionable model” of CAD, or computer-aided design software program, although he cautioned that he is “actually oversimplifying right here, and it is untimely for me to offer a lot element about Prometheus.”

Prometheus operates out of San Francisco, London and Zurich, Switzerland. Prometheus’ LinkedIn web page states that the startup has employed about 120 workers.

The web page says Prometheus’ mission is “AI for the bodily economic system.”

—Annie Palmer

Prometheus marks the primary time Bezos has assumed a CEO position since he left the helm of Amazon, which he based, in July 2021. Bezos stays Amazon’s government chairman, however he has more and more turned his consideration to different pursuits.

Bezos based Blue Origin, a rocket startup that competes with Elon Musk’s SpaceX for presidency contracts and satellite tv for pc launch missions. He is additionally government chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, a $10 billion local weather and biodiversity fund.

—Annie Palmer

Bezos instructed CNBC final month that AI has been an enormous a part of his focus over the previous few years.

“My time at Amazon is spent on AI, my time at Prometheus is spent on AI … and my time at Blue is essentially spent on AI,” he mentioned.

—Chris Eudaily