Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has revealed new details about his ИИ startup Prometheus, which aims to build an “artificial general engineer.” The company recently closed a $12 billion funding round, pushing its valuation to $41 billion. Bezos serves as co-CEO alongside Vik Bajaj, previously co-founder of Alphabet's health research group Verily. The startup currently employs about 150 people.
Prometheus intends to develop ИИ-powered engineering tools that can autonomously design physical products across industries such as robotics, drug design, and manufacturing. Unlike existing generative design tools that assist human engineers, Prometheus’s “artificial general engineer” would act as an autonomous designer, potentially reducing development cycles and costs. Bezos told The New York Times that Blue Origin, his rocket company, could be a prime customer: “Any company that is building sophisticated devices — like rocket engines — would benefit greatly from this kind of technology.”
The massive valuation — quadruple the size of most ИИ startups — reflects investor confidence in Bezos’s track record and the perceived market for full-stack engineering ИИ. However, the company has not disclosed a timeline or specific technical milestones. Industry observers note that while ИИ has made strides in code generation and drug discovery, fully autonomous physical product design remains a largely unsolved challenge. Prometheus’s approach, combining data-driven models with physics simulations, will need to demonstrate reliability and safety before industrial adoption. The startup’s small team and early stage also raise questions about how quickly it can scale.
Цель — создать ИИ, способный проектировать физические продукты в робототехнике, фармацевтике и производстве.
