Bezos's AI Startup Prometheus Valued at $41 Billion

Prometheus, the artificial intelligence (AI) startup led by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has been valued at $41 billion, or approximately 63 trillion won.

Reuters Yonhap News

According to CNBC and other sources on June 11 (local time), Prometheus recently secured a $12 billion Series B investment. Major financial institutions including JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and BlackRock, as well as Bezos himself, participated in this round. Prometheus has succeeded in raising a large amount of capital just over six months after its official launch at the end of last year.

In an interview with CNBC on the same day, Bezos explained that Prometheus does not aim to be a simple robotics company. He stated that what the company is developing is a "general-purpose AI engineer"—an AI system that assists in the design and manufacturing processes of physical products. The vision is to shorten the development timeline for real-world products such as aerospace components, semiconductors, medical devices, and consumer goods using AI.

Bezos said, "The idea that such tools could perform real engineering work has been around for decades, but it was impossible until now," adding, "Now it is possible, and this is exactly what we have been doing since the end of 2024."

Prometheus currently employs about 150 people. Vik Bajaj, formerly of Google's life sciences division Verily, serves as co-CEO alongside Bezos. Given the need for enormous computational power, the company is expected to leverage cloud infrastructure such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). However, Bezos emphasized that Amazon and Prometheus will maintain an independent relationship.

Regarding concerns that AI could reduce jobs, Bezos offered a different perspective. He argued that AI can boost productivity, reduce working hours, and raise living standards.

On AI regulation, Bezos said, "Sound regulations that enhance safety and product quality are valuable," but pointed out that outright bans on the technology itself are not appropriate. He drew an analogy, saying that just because a knife can be used for harmful purposes does not mean the knife itself should be made illegal.

Meanwhile, Bezos also commented on Blue Origin, his space company that recently experienced a launchpad explosion. He said the New Glenn rocket accident was extremely difficult for the company, but noted that some key components escaped damage and that the company could resume flights within the year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.