Anybody trying to make it big in AI needs to have a San Francisco presence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even billionaires like Jeff Bezos.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Operating under a cover name, Bezos\u2019 stealth AI startup leased around 30,000 square feet of office space last year at 101 Mission St. in the Financial District, The Standard has learned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now the company \u2014 officially known as Project Prometheus \u2014 is on the hunt for an industrial building between 60,000 and 100,000 square feet, sources say. Prometheus, which Bezos founded with former Google executive Vikram Bajaj, needs the extra space because it aims to develop AI technology for use in the engineering and manufacturing of computers, robots, aerospace equipment, and cars.<\/p>\n
Recently, the company tried to lease a warehouse on 23rd Street in Dogpatch, sources say, but lost out to Webcor Construction, the general contractor for the nearby Potrero Power Station<\/a> redevelopment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bezos\u2019 company also toured the vacant San Francisco Armory (once known as \u201cKink Castle\u201d<\/a>) in the Mission, sources say.<\/p>\n Like other emerging AI companies, Project Prometheus has quickly become an object of desire for office landlords because of its projected growth in the coming years.<\/p>\n The company came out of the gates last year with $6.2 billion in funding and a $30 billion valuation. The Financial Times reports (opens in new tab)<\/a> that Prometheus is in early discussions to raise tens of billions from sovereign wealth funds to buy industrial companies disrupted by AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sources say Prometheus was operating in stealth mode months before Bezos\u2019 involvement became public (opens in new tab)<\/a> in November. Unlike other AI companies focused on developing or training large language models that mine digital text on the internet, Bezos\u2019 company aims to build models that interact with the physical world. Wired reported that Prometheus quietly acquired General Agents, the startup behind Ace \u2014\u00a0an agentic tool that can perform computer tasks (opens in new tab)<\/a> such as transfer data and book travel \u2014 in June.<\/p>\n