Jeff Bezos' stealth AI venture Project Prometheus has quietly acquired General Agents, an agentic computing startup that builds AI systems capable of taking over computers and automating complex tasks. The $6.2 billion venture, co-led by Bezos and biotech veteran Vik Bajaj, is targeting AI systems for manufacturing computers, cars, and spacecraft - and the General Agents acquisition reveals how seriously they're taking the computer agent revolution.
The deal started with dinner conversation and closed within days. In early June, tech entrepreneur Vik Bajaj hosted an off-the-record AI dinner at Saison, one of San Francisco's most exclusive restaurants. Among the scientists and journalists was Sherjil Ozair, a late addition who'd previously worked at DeepMind and Tesla. What Bajaj didn't mention over the Michelin-starred meal was that he'd been quietly building something massive with Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos.
Corporate filings obtained by WIRED reveal that Bajaj formed an acquisition entity the morning after that dinner. Four days later, Ozair's agentic AI startup General Agents had been absorbed into Project Prometheus - Bezos' $6.2 billion bet on AI systems that can support manufacturing everything from computers to spacecraft.
The acquisition brings critical technology to Prometheus' ambitious manufacturing focus. General Agents had built 'Ace,' described as a 'realtime computer pilot' that can take over any computer and execute complex tasks based on user prompts. In demo videos, Ace downloads images from Google and sends them via iMessage in under 15 seconds. It's part of the emerging computer agent category - AI that can automate tasks across multiple applications without human intervention.
'What General Agents really cracked early on is speed - Ace runs on your computer at lightspeed,' says Harsha Abegunasekara, CEO of competing startup Donely. 'We've been working on that for six months and haven't achieved it yet.' The speed advantage explains why Prometheus wanted the entire company, not just the talent.
Project Prometheus has been operating in stealth mode since early 2024, but the talent acquisition spree tells the story. Over 100 employees have joined, including former OpenAI research scientist William Guss, who co-founded General Agents with Ozair. Two days after the acquisition closed, Guss posted on social media asking for introductions to US manufacturing contacts, writing 'I'd love to talk really trying to understand the space and see some factories.'
The research pedigree runs deep. Former Nvidia senior research scientist Kamyar Azizzadenesheli quietly joined Prometheus after attending Bajaj's June dinner. Even more significant are the founding advisors: Ashish Vaswani and Jakob Uszkoreit, two former Google researchers who co-authored the famous 'Attention Is All You Need' paper that launched the transformer revolution underlying ChatGPT and modern AI.
Bezos and Bajaj make an intriguing partnership. Bajaj previously co-founded Alphabet's health sciences company Verily and runs Foresite Labs, a biotech incubator where General Agents is now headquartered. The two connected through Bezos' investments in Bajaj's biotech ventures like Grail and Xaira Therapeutics. Now they're applying that partnership model to manufacturing AI.
The timing couldn't be more strategic. As OpenAI and Anthropic race to build more capable computer agents, Prometheus is positioning to control the manufacturing applications. The General Agents acquisition gives them a head start in the speed game - the most critical factor for real-world industrial deployment.
Details about Prometheus remain scarce. The company's formal name, headquarters location, and founding date haven't been disclosed. But the LinkedIn profile updates tell the story - after the New York Times revealed Prometheus last week, three dozen employees suddenly updated their profiles to show their Bezos venture affiliation.
General Agents continues operating independently for now. New versions of Ace launched as recently as this month, and the startup's website remains active. But the integration is clearly underway - the leader of General Agents' India training team also joined Prometheus, according to LinkedIn data.
Competitors are taking notice. Some investors see the General Agents acquisition as removing a well-regarded rival from the board. Others worry about competing against Bezos if Ace becomes central to Prometheus' manufacturing ambitions. With $6.2 billion in funding and the world's most successful e-commerce executive at the helm, Project Prometheus just became the most serious threat in agentic AI.
The General Agents acquisition reveals Project Prometheus isn't just another AI lab - it's a manufacturing revolution in disguise. By combining Bezos' operational expertise with cutting-edge agentic AI, Prometheus could reshape how everything from smartphones to spacecraft gets built. The question isn't whether computer agents will transform manufacturing, but whether Bezos and Bajaj can execute faster than OpenAI, Google, and the other tech giants scrambling to catch up. With $6.2 billion in funding and the world's fastest computer agent technology, they're certainly betting they can.
