THE TECH BROS ARE COMING FOR MANUFACTURING Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, is reportedly looking to raise $100bn for a new fund that would acquire manufacturing businesses and use AI to enhance their use of automation. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, he has met with asset and sovereign fund managers in the Middle East and Singapore to raise the funds for what is described as “a manufacturing transformation vehicle”. He has also asked the investment bank JP Morgan to get involved. Bezos wants to target the electronics, defence and aerospace sectors, in particular. The proposed fund is linked to Project Prometheus, an AI start-up that Bezos co-founded last year with Vik Bajaj, previously with Google X. Prometheus, headquartered in California, and with offices in London and Zurich, employs more than 120 people, some of whom have been poached from Meta, OpenAI and DeepMind. It has been valued at around $30bn. Prometheus launched with $6.2bn in funding and is apparently looking to raise a further $6bn. The company is creating AI models designed to improve manufacturing and engineering in aerospace, automotive and other sectors. The AI models understand and simulate real-world engineering environments, rather than relying on digital data. Bezos plans to use the new fund to buy up manufacturers and implement Prometheus’ models in their operations. Bezos’ fund will be one of the biggest ever targeting the manufacturing sector. It is similar in scale to Saudi Arabia’s Alat company, launched in 2024 with the aim of making Saudi a global leader in advanced manufacturing and electronics. The Alat project is intended to create $100bn of investments and 39,000 jobs by 2030 – although these plans may be affected by recent events in the region. Alat has already formed a strategic collaboration with the Chinese computer-maker Lenovo, which is building a 200,000m2 advanced manufacturing facility in Riyadh. And the Finnish liftmaker, TK Elevator (currently the subject of takeover rumours involving Kone) is setting up a €160m venture with Alat to make lifts and escalators in Saudi. There are other, smaller initiatives looking to transform manufacturing. For example, Uber founder Travis Kalanick recently announced a company called Atoms that is developing (non-humanoid) mobile robots for the food , transportation and mining sectors. And the venture capital firms Thrive Capital and General Catalyst have also launched vehicles to acquire legacy industrial firms and boost their margins using software. Thrive has a $10bn fund focusing on AI-enabled industrial technologies and robotics, while General Catalyst has invested $120m in an initiative called Re:Build Manufacturing, aimed at creating a new type of industrial firm focusing on local manufacturing. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is repurposing Tesla as “a physical AI company” and investing more than $20bn in his Optimus humanoid robot and AI ventures, including retooling a Tesla car plant in California to make robots. Between them, these initiatives have the potential to reshape manufacturing. But predictions by tech entrepreneurs aren’t always achieved in reality. Tony Sacks, Editor n COMMENT Kno e ow mor Uptime d LeineLin Ear Do deliver reliability in hars nde’s 800 Series encode . more rn less. h e • Increa • Plan m • Predic give you c Wireless ase returns maintenance es ct failur e complete insight—befor diagnostics and conditio o eland Sales UK & Ir +44 1444 247711 sales@ //w @heidenhain.co.uk https:/ www.leinelinde.com
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