Elon Musk runs an AI startup — now, so does Jeff Bezos, as he launches Project Prometheus

Jeff Bezos, the third-richest man in the world and the founder of Amazon, a company increasingly focused on AI, has created a new AI startup of which he will be co-CEO, The New York Times reports. The new venture, Project Prometheus, aims to use AI to engineer and manufacture automobiles and spacecraft. It also sounds conspicuously like Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI.

Musk, the richest man in the world and the CEO of Tesla, a company increasingly focused on AI, also leads his AI startup and is progressively working on integrating its technology into his vehicle and space companies.

Musk’s space company is SpaceX, while Bezos’ is called Blue Origin.

Musk owns social media company X, formerly Twitter, which is now part of xAI. Bezos owns media company The Washington Post.

Bezos also has invested in an EV company, Slate Auto, which some see as a “Tesla killer.” Got it?

In other words, Bezos and Musk remain engaged in a billionaire version of “keeping up with the Joneses.”

The Takeaway

And, as if the competition was not obvious enough, consider this nugget: Musk has told his teams working on the Optimus robot that he wants it to be able to get in and out of the company’s Cybercab to make deliveries, according to a report by The Information. Amazon, of course, has also been amping up its use of robots, eventually planning to have them deliver its e-commerce packages. The Optimus and Cybercab are supposed to go into production next year, so now it seems their giant public tech companies are slated to go head to head.