Bezos' second time around: he is the new CEO of an AI start-up

Jeff Bezos returns as CEO. Four years after leaving the helm of Amazon, the founder of the eCommerce giant is back at the helm of a company. But this time it has nothing to do with logistics or online shopping: the new creature is called Project Prometheus, a startup dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence for engineering and industrial production.

Prometheus, according to American media reports, is already starting out as a colossus. In fact, it has already raised $6.2 billion in funding (a figure many companies don't even see in a lifetime) and has already assembled a 100-strong team. And mind you, not just any engineers. In fact, the startup has reportedly 'snatched up' talent from OpenAI, DeepMind and Meta, according to the New York Times. It is a sign of how much Bezos wants to start off in a strong position, playing the AI challenge not as an outsider but as an immediate protagonist.

At his side will be Vik Bajaj, co-founder and co-CEO. A well-known name in Silicon Valley: a physicist and chemist, he became famous for his experience at X, Google's 'moonshot' division, where he started the health start-up Verily.

Bezos and Bajaj will jointly lead a project that, for now, remains surrounded by mystery. No one knows the location, the operational structure or the precise direction of the technology they want to build. But the very fact that the world's third richest man has chosen to step back into an operational role gives the measure of ambition.

It should be remembered that after leaving Amazon in 2021, Bezos had mainly focused on Blue Origin, the space company of which he is the founder and sole shareholder. But that was, formally, a 'grand strategist' role. Project Prometheus, on the other hand, marks his return to the bridge of command: a choice that tells us just how artificial intelligence has become the new terrain of conquest for technology bigwigs.