Jeff Bezos Seeking $100 Billion For AI Fund To Automate Industrial Work

The Amazon founder’s effort focuses on acquiring manufacturing firms and applying AI to accelerate automation across some of the world’s most labor-intensive sectors.

Jeff Bezos is in early discussions to raise $100 billion for a new fund that would acquire manufacturing companies and seek to use AI to drive and speed up automation, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The Amazon.com founder is holding talks with some of the world’s biggest asset managers to secure funding for the project, WSJ said.
Bezos traveled to the Middle East to discuss the new fund with sovereign wealth representatives in the region a few months ago, according to the report.
Described in investor documents as a “manufacturing transformation vehicle,” the fund aims to target companies in major industries such as chipmaking, defense, and aerospace, the Journal said.
Last year, The New York Times reported that Bezos would serve as co-CEO of a new startup called Project Prometheus focused on AI for engineering and manufacturing computers, automobiles and spacecraft.
Project Prometheus is separately in talks to raise up to $6 billion in funding, WSJ said, citing people familiar with the matter. It recently named David Limp, Blue Origin’s CEO, to its board of directors.
Project Prometheus raised $6.2 billion late last year, according to a Financial Times report from February.
Bezos could not be immediately reached for comment. The project’s co-founders, Sherjil Ozair and William Guss, did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on LinkedIn.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City)