‘Copycat’: Elon Musk Mocks Jeff Bezos After Amazon Founder Returns As CEO Of AI Startup

Last Updated:November 18, 2025, 01:43 IST

Elon Musk mocked Jeff Bezos as he returns to lead Project Prometheus, a $6.2 billion AI venture co-helmed with Vik Bajaj, aiming to revolutionize engineering and manufacturing.

Bezos’s $6.2-billion AI venture draws a sharp reaction from Musk, who called the move a “copycat” attempt in a post on X. (IMAGE: REUTERS FILE)

Elon Musk took a swipe at Jeff Bezos on Monday after the Amazon founder returned to an operational role to lead a major new AI venture. Quote-tweeting a post announcing the move, Musk wrote, using emojis, “Haha no way, Copycat," reviving the long-running rivalry between the two billionaires.

The remarks came after tech reporter Sawyer Merritt shared details of Bezos’s new company, Project Prometheus, which has reportedly raised $6.2 billion in funding and already hired close to 100 staff, including researchers from Meta, OpenAI and Google DeepMind.

According to a New York Times report, Project Prometheus will focus on applying AI to engineering and manufacturing, with ambitions in areas such as computers, aerospace and automobiles, sectors where Musk’s companies, Tesla and SpaceX, are leading players. Bezos will serve as co-CEO alongside Vik Bajaj, a noted Silicon Valley researcher who previously worked with Google co-founder Sergey Brin at the experimental X lab and later co-founded Verily.

Bezos’s decision marks his first formal operational role since stepping down as Amazon’s CEO in July 2021. In the interim, he has focused on Blue Origin and his ownership of The Washington Post, while also drawing attention for high-profile personal events, including his recent wedding in Venice.

The NYT report noted that Bezos has drawn closer to the Trump administration in recent months, attending the president’s inauguration in January and pushing a pro-business shift in the editorial direction of The Washington Post.

Project Prometheus enters an AI landscape dominated by companies like Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic. Unlike generative AI models trained on text, the new startup reportedly aims to build systems that learn from real-world experimentation, with the goal of accelerating breakthroughs in physics, chemistry and engineering.

Shankhyaneel Sarkar

Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over seven years of experience during which he has covered se...Read More

Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over seven years of experience during which he has covered se...

Read More

News world ‘Copycat’: Elon Musk Mocks Jeff Bezos After Amazon Founder Returns As CEO Of AI Startup

Read More