WSJ: Bezos Plans to Establish $100 Billion Fund to Acquire Legacy Manufacturing Companies for AI Transformation

The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is in talks with some of the world’s top asset management firms to raise a new fund of up to $100 billion, focused on acquiring manufacturing companies and integrating AI technology to accelerate automation transformation. If successful, this plan would rival SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund.

(Background: HSBC prepares to lay off 20,000 staff! CEO decides to use AI to reduce logistics positions)

(Additional context: Elon Musk: Google wins Western AI, China wins the Earth, SpaceX wins space)

According to the latest report from The Wall Street Journal, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is meeting with some of the largest asset management firms globally to raise capital for a new fund. Based on investor profiles, this fund is positioned as a “manufacturing transformation vehicle,” targeting opportunities in key industrial sectors such as chip manufacturing, defense, and aerospace.

WSJ reveals that the fundraising for this plan spans multiple regions: months ago, Bezos personally traveled to the Middle East to discuss the project with local sovereign wealth fund representatives; recently, he visited Singapore to continue pushing forward the fundraising efforts.

It is understood that the size of this fund will far exceed most large acquisition funds worldwide, directly competing with SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund focused on technology.

Project Prometheus: An AI Engine Simulating the Physical World

WSJ reports that a key technological pillar of this plan is Project Prometheus. Founded by Bezos at the end of last year, he serves as co-CEO of this startup (marking his first formal leadership role in a tech company since stepping down as Amazon CEO in July 2021).

The report indicates that Project Prometheus is building an AI system capable of understanding and simulating the physical world’s operations: for example, modeling airflow around wings or predicting the rupture points of metal parts under stress. Bezos plans to use this company’s technology to enhance the efficiency and profitability of portfolio companies, initially focusing on engineering simulation and design software tools.

WSJ also reports that Bezos’s co-CEO is Vik Bajaj, a Stanford Medical School professor and co-founder of Google’s life sciences division Verily.

Prometheus has also recruited staff from OpenAI and Google DeepMind. Currently, the company is in talks to raise up to $6 billion in a new funding round, having already raised $6.2 billion last year; Blue Origin CEO David Limp has also joined its board.

JPMorgan Support and Kalanick’s Follow-up

WSJ further mentions that JPMorgan is also negotiating to join this plan through its newly established “Security and Resilience Initiative.” This $1 billion fund was launched last December, led by former Berkshire Hathaway investment manager Todd Combs.

Bezos is not the only one optimistic about this track. Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick announced the founding of a startup called Atoms, repositioning his business as an AI-driven manufacturing platform; Elon Musk continues to push forward with Tesla’s humanoid robot project.

The first generation of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are collectively shifting their focus toward automation in the physical world.