Elon Musk, founder of xAI, took take a jab at Jeff Bezos on social media platform X by calling him a ‘copycat’ following reports that the Amazon founder is launching a new venture called Project Prometheus. According to The New York Times, the AI startup has secured $6.2 billion in funding, (representing one of the most heavily capitalised early-stage AI ventures globally) and Bezos will serve as co-chief executive, contributing significantly to its founding.
Along with scientist Vik Bajaj, Bezos's ambitious AI startup is designed to revolutionise engineering and manufacturing in sectors such as aerospace, automobiles and advanced computing, as per reports. After stepping down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021, Bezos is taking on a hands-on operational role. Bajaj, the co-chief executive of Project Prometheus, is known for his work at Google’s X lab, and as a co-founder of Verily and Foresite Labs. He brings deep expertise in moonshot projects and life sciences, underlining the startup’s dual focus on cutting-edge research and real-world application. According to reports, though still operating in stealth, the company has already assembled a team of approximately 100 employees, including top-tier researchers recruited from AI leaders like OpenAI, DeepMind, Meta, and formerly Google DeepMind.
Many Indian and global businessmen, founders and billionaires have started their AI ventures or heavily invested in AI companies. At the top of the list is Musk who started xAI in 2023 with to build advanced general-purpose models and a “maximum truth-seeking AI”, including the Grok chatbot, deeply integrated with X. The company has raised multiple rounds of funding and is valued close to $200 billion, as per a CNBC report.
Besides Project Prometheus, Bezos has also invested in a number of AI startups, including Figure AI, Perplexity AI and Toloka.
Indian-American billionaire businessman, venture capitalist and the founder of Khosla Ventures, Vinod Khosla, was an early investor in OpenAI, and backed dozens of AI-powered startups—from radiology tech to AI-based primary care, physical therapy, accounting, structural engineering and marketing.
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Larry Page, the Google co-founder and one of the most influential figures in tech, introduced his AI venture Dynatomics in March. According to reports, the startup is focussed on harnessing AI to create optimised product designs that can be seamlessly manufactured at scale, aiming to streamline factory production and accelerate innovation in industrial design.
Co-founder of Microsoft and philanthropist Bill Gates has also extensively invested in AI startups, with some promising ones, including Field AI. In August, the startup raised $405 million in two funding rounds with investments from Bezos’s family office and Nvidia’s venture arm.
While tech billionaires continue to start AI ventures or pour money into existing ones, concerns about an emerging 'AI bubble' are gaining traction among investors. The fear is that valuations in the sector are being inflated beyond sustainable levels, driven by hype rather than fundamentals. Acting on the fear, Peter Thiel, one of Silicon Valley’s most influential investors, recently sold his entire stake in chipmaker Nvidia, a company that has become synonymous with the AI boom. This move comes as more investors worry that the surge in AI-related stocks might be overhyped. Many fear that prices are climbing too fast, similar to past tech booms, raising doubts about whether these companies can deliver long-term profits and real-world results.
AI startups have created dozens of new billionaires this year. Massive funding rounds for companies like Anthropic, Safe Superintelligence, OpenAI and Anysphere have driven valuations to record highs and generated enormous fortunes.
According to CB Insights, there are now 498 AI unicorns (private companies worth at least $1 billion) collectively valued at $2.7 trillion. Beyond that, more than 1,300 AI startups are valued at over $100 million, highlighting the explosive growth in the sector. A notable example of AI startup founders turning billionaires has been the recent, remarkable update on Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, co-founders of the San Francisco-based AI recruiting platform Mercor. The 22-year-olds beat Mark Zuckerberg to become the youngest billionaires after their company recently secured $350 million in funding, valuing the firm at $10 billion.
From health care and manufacturing to education and training, AI startups are attracting record funding, with promises to deliver transformative applications. As founders and investors deal with the highs, there are also rising concerns about inflated valuations, sustainability and the possibility of an 'AI bubble', which can prove to be a hindrance in this ever-changing AI landscape.
First Published: Nov 18, 2025, 14:31
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