Bezos and Bajaj Target AI's Next Frontier: Physical Engineering

Jeff Bezos and Vik Bajaj launched Prometheus on 11 June 2026 to apply AI to hardware design and manufacturing—a domain where AI adoption has lagged software. Unlike code generation, physical engineering relies on proprietary, sparse training data and slower feedback loops. The focus includes semiconductor design, where cycles run months and mask costs reach tens of millions. This targets a gap where incumbents like Cadence and Synopsys have tested AI tools but no dominant platform has emerged.