Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is reportedly seeking investors for a $100 billion fund that would buy manufacturing companies and automate them with artificial intelligence. The news comes months after Amazon announced it cut 16,000 jobs to better develop AI.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report Bezos met with some of the world’s largest asset managers to discuss the funding. He recently traveled to Singapore to raise funding, and before that, he visited the Middle East.
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Project documents describe the fund as a “manufacturing transformation vehicle.” Bezos’ plan aims to purchase companies in industrial sectors such as chip manufacturing, defense and aerospace. At $100 billion, the plan would be one of the largest buyout funds in the world, rivaling SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund, the Journal reports.
Ongoing AI investment
The move comes as Bezos takes on the co-CEO role at Project Prometheus, a startup building AI models that learn from the real world rather than from digital information, as current chatbots do. The Journal reports that Bezos plans to use this company’s technology in businesses owned by the proposed fund. The New York Times reports both the fund and startup would be part of the same holding company.
Prometheus has already raised more than $6 billion from Bezos and others. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase is also discussing investing in Prometheus. The bank launched a $10 billion fund in December to invest in opportunities in defense, aerospace, health care and energy sectors. Chase hired former Berkshire Hathaway investment manager Todd Combs to lead the charge, while Bezos sits on an external advisory council for the fund.
From chatbots to robots
A large share of the massive funding for the AI industry goes toward developing large language models. However, the latest Bezos initiative illustrates how billions of dollars are beginning to flow toward companies that are adopting greater automation in manufacturing. Straight Arrow News has previously reported that China is investing heavily in robotics, hoping to replace human workers with artificial ones.
Companies are steadily employing language-based AI models to automate software engineering, aiming to increase adoption across sectors like finance and real estate.
While manufacturing-related companies are also pushing toward AI-powered automation, the technology is still in its early stages. Experts are uncertain how widespread the effects may be for those industries, but companies that have had AI automation over the last few years are blaming AI for some recent layoffs. Last year, Amazon announced it had deployed one million robots across its warehouses.
Bezos is the newest member of Silicon Valley’s old guard, who are jumping into the AI race, the Journal said. Travis Kalanick, former Uber CEO, said his venture firm rebranded to focus on transforming manufacturing industries with AI.
