Jeff Bezos wants to change manufacturing with AI

What is Jeff Bezos up to?

• That was the question buzzing yesterday after The Wall Street Journal reported that the humble bookseller is in talks to raise $100 billion for a fund that would buy manufacturing companies “and seek to use AI technology to accelerate their path to automation.”

What we know, based on sources familiar with the situation:

• This fund is connected to Project Prometheus, of which Bezos serves as co-CEO.
• PP, which hasn’t said anything publicly, isn’t about automating factories and putting those workers on the street. Instead, it’s focused on using AI to optimize pre-production machinery and processes, such as prototyping.
• Innovation tied to inputs and materials, rather than to assembly robots.

What we don’t know, because it wasn’t shared by sources familiar with the situation:

• How all of this will be structured. Is the fund under the corporate umbrella of PP, which is said to be raising its own capital? Does PP become a vendor to the fund’s portfolio companies, maybe on an exclusive basis?
• It’s also unclear is Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, plays into any of this. Maybe the fund’s cornerstone investment? Or if it will invest in Chinese manufacturers, including so-called “dark factories” whose floors already are mostly automated.
• Finally, there’s that $100 billion figure. SoftBank Vision Fund is the only private vehicle to ever raise that much cash, or anything close to it, and was heavily reliant on Middle Eastern sovereigns that may be holding onto their wallets a bit tighter right now.

The fund feels a bit like a private equity rollup.

• Design a new playbook for an industry, buy up lots of companies in that industry, and then apply the new playbook.
• All led by a visionary leader — or two, as Bezos is joined atop PP by Vik Bajaj, co-founder of Google’s Verily.

The bottom line: Bezos made his mark by merging the digital with the physical. He seems ready to try again.