(Bloomberg) — Project Prometheus, the artificial intelligence lab that Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos is leading with Google veteran Vik Bajaj, has closed a $10 billion funding round that values the company at roughly $38 billion, according to a person familiar with the situation.
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JPMorgan Chase & Co. and BlackRock Inc. are among the firms participating in the round, but there is no lead investor, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t yet public. The lab, which is focused on developing AI models and tools that help engineer and manufacture physical products, may announce investors in the round in the coming months, the person said.
In an unusual move for an AI startup, Project Prometheus has intentionally targeted non-Silicon Valley investors such as private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds that have deep exposure to physical industries such as manufacturing. The only Silicon Valley-type firms that the lab counts among its investors are DST Global and ARCH Venture Partners, according to the person familiar with the matter.
JPMorgan declined to comment. A representative for BlackRock declined to comment. The Financial Times had previously reported that Project Prometheus was nearing completion of the funding round.
The lab has held talks with sovereign wealth funds in regions including the Middle East and Singapore, the person said. Bezos and Bajaj, who are co-chief executive officers of the startup, have been meeting with potential investors jointly, the person said, with Bezos offering the vision and ambitions and Bajaj laying out the plans for how the lab will achieve them.
Bezos is heavily involved as co-CEO, the person said, adding that he and Bajaj have multiple conversations a day. In assuming a leadership role at the lab, Bezos returned to a formal executive post for the first time since stepping down from Amazon in 2021.
Project Prometheus is also seeking to raise tens of billions dollars — if not more — for a holding company that plans to buy firms outright that it sees as benefitting from the technologies the lab is developing, the person said. Much like Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company would own the companies it acquires for decades and would target complementary businesses such as those in casting and ones that handle specialized manufacturing.
