Jeff Bezos is in early talks to raise $100 billion for a new fund that would buy up manufacturing companies and seek to use AI technology to accelerate their path to automation.
The Amazon.com founder is meeting with some of the world’s largest asset managers to raise funding for the project. A few months ago, he traveled to the Middle East to discuss the new fund with sovereign wealth representatives in the region. More recently, he went to Singapore to raise funding for the effort as well, according to people familiar with the matter.
The fund, described in investor documents as a “manufacturing transformation vehicle,” is aiming to buy companies in major industrial sectors such as chipmaking, defense and aerospace. It would dwarf the size of some of the world’s largest buyout funds and rival SoftBank’s $100 billion, tech-focused Vision Fund.
Bezos was recently appointed co-CEO of Project Prometheus, a new startup that is building artificial-intelligence models that can understand and simulate the physical world. Bezos plans to use the company’s technology to boost the efficiency and profitability of businesses owned by the fund, a playbook that some investment firms are similarly deploying in sectors such as accounting and property management.
Project Prometheus is separately in talks to raise up to $6 billion in funding, according to people familiar with the matter. It recently appointed David Limp, the CEO of the rocket company Blue Origin, to its board of directors. Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 and has contributed billions a year toward the rocket company.
While much of the AI revolution has been focused on large language models, billions of dollars have begun to flow to companies that are seeking to apply spatially focused AI systems toward industries including robotics and manufacturing.
Language-based AI models are being used to automate software engineering and leading companies are seeking to boost their use in ways that can also affect knowledge work for finance, real estate and other industries.
Investors have sold off shares of some companies as AI startups such as Anthropic and OpenAI released new tools specifically for those areas. Companies have invoked AI in tens of thousands of layoffs in the last year, although some economists have suggested that another rationale for job cuts has been overhiring during the pandemic.
A broad push toward AI-infused automation is also moving through manufacturing-related work, although startups and companies focused on this area are in an earlier stage. While it’s unclear the extent to which automation could impact jobs in those industries, tech and e-commerce fulfillment companies have been applying that technology in warehouses for years. Amazon, one of the country’s largest employers, has closed in on the milestone of having as many robots as humans.
Bezos is the latest among an older generation of Silicon Valley leaders who are thrusting themselves into the AI race.
Former Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick announced his venture Atoms, a rebranded expansion of his startup with a sweeping vision to transform manufacturing industries with AI. Elon Musk has also sought to transform Tesla and extolled the company’s plans to make humanoid robots with investors.
Bezos became co-CEO of Project Prometheus last year, marking his first formal leadership role at a tech company since stepping down as chief executive of Amazon in July 2021. He remains the chairman of Amazon’s board.
Project Prometheus is building AI systems that are able to simulate how the physical world behaves. For example, its technology might be able to simulate how air flows around an airplane wing, or predict exactly where a metal part will crack under pressure. The company intends to initially sell software tools for engineering simulation and design, investor documents show.
Bezos serves as co-CEO alongside Vik Bajaj, a professor at Stanford’s School of Medicine who previously co-founded Google’s life sciences division, now called Verily. Prometheus has also hired employees from leading AI research labs including OpenAI and Google DeepMind. The company raised $6.2 billion in funding last year.
JPMorgan Chase is also in preliminary talks to back the project through its newly formed Security and Resiliency Initiative, people familiar with the matter said. The investment bank launched a $10 billion fund for the effort last December and hired former Berkshire Hathaway investment manager Todd Combs to help lead the initiative.
Source: Financial times
