Prometheus, a physical AI startup co-founded by Jeff Bezos and Vik Bajaj—who previously co-founded Verily, Google’s life sciences division—has announced a $12 billion funding round at a $41 billion valuation. The investment came from Bezos himself, along with JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and BlackRock, among others. This marks the company's second fundraising effort; it launched late last year with an initial $6.2 billion raise, as reported by CNBC.

The startup is developing 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. The vision is sweeping: replace large portions of engineering work with AI. While the technology will automate many aspects of an engineer's role, Bezos told CNBC that the resulting productivity gains will create what he terms "labor scarcity"—a scenario where demand for human workers exceeds supply. This perspective places him at odds with many prominent figures in tech who predict widespread job losses. "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."

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The company, which currently employs 150 people across offices in San Francisco, London, and Zurich, has kept the specifics of its existing work confidential. Bezos indicated that a substantial portion of the capital will be allocated to the company's massive computing needs. Bezos is no stranger to labor at scale: Amazon, where he serves as executive chairman and is the largest individual shareholder, employs over 1.5 million people worldwide. Under CEO Andy Jassy, the company has laid off tens of thousands of workers over the past year as it has accelerated its own automation efforts.

At a $41 billion valuation, Prometheus ranks among the most richly valued AI startups ever funded and represents one of the largest single bets on the physical AI sector. However, it is not alone in attracting massive investor interest. In recent months, venture capitalists have increasingly poured capital into physical AI—a booming sector that investors and founders argue is inherently more defensible than pure software, because the physical world creates moats that code alone cannot replicate.