Prometheus, the physical AI startup co-founded by Jeff Bezos and Vik Bajaj, announced in June 2026 that it has raised $12 billion at a $41 billion valuation — making it one of the most highly valued AI startups ever funded.
The round was backed by Bezos himself, along with JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and BlackRock. It follows an initial raise of $6.2 billion when the company launched late last year, bringing its total funding to more than $18 billion.
Prometheus is building what it calls an “artificial general engineer” — software designed to automate the design and manufacturing of complex physical systems, ranging from jet engines to drug compounds. Bajaj previously co-founded Verily, Google’s life sciences unit. The company currently employs 150 people across offices in San Francisco, London, and Zurich, and is keeping details of what it has already built under wraps. Bezos indicated a large portion of the new capital will go toward compute costs.
The startup’s stated goal is to replace large portions of engineering work with AI. Bezos, however, pushed back against predictions of widespread job displacement. Speaking to CNBC, he argued that productivity gains from AI will create what he calls “labor scarcity” — a world where demand for human workers outpaces supply.
“Significant productivity in the economy is going to raise the standard of living,” Bezos said. “People who today have two-earner households, they’ll become one-earner households. Maybe some people who are working overtime will stop working overtime.”
That view stands in contrast to other prominent voices in tech who foresee significant job losses from AI automation. Bezos’s own company, Amazon — where he serves as executive chairman — employs more than 1.5 million people worldwide and has laid off tens of thousands over the past year as it accelerates its own automation efforts.
The raise reflects growing investor interest in physical AI, a sector that backers argue is more defensible than pure software because the complexity of the physical world creates competitive advantages that code alone cannot replicate.
Source: TechCrunch