Vikram “Vik” Bajaj has been named co-chief executive of Project Prometheus, a secretive new artificial intelligence startup. He joins Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in leading the venture.
The company has raised $6.2 billion, with major support from Bezos, to build advanced AI for engineering and manufacturing, including computers, cars, and spacecraft. This funding makes Prometheus one of the world's most well-financed new startups.
This is Bezos' first formal operational role since stepping down as Amazon CEO in July 2021. While he remains involved with Blue Origin as its founder, Prometheus is his first hands-on executive position in a company outside the space industry.
Who Is Vikram Bajaj?
Vikram ‘Vik' Bajaj began his academic journey at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a BA/MS in Biochemistry. He went on to pursue a PhD in Physical Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Following his doctoral studies, he completed postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley.
Bajaj began his professional career as a research scientist and principal investigator at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he worked from 2011 to 2021. During this period, he also served on the advisory board of the College of Chemistry at UC Berkeley.
In 2013, Bajaj co-founded Verily, an Alphabet company (formerly Google Life Sciences), serving as its Chief Scientific Officer and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board.
He also held a director role at Google X during this time, as per his LinkedIn account.
He then joined GRAIL, a company focused on early cancer detection, as Chief Scientific Officer from 2016 to 2017 and as a member of its Scientific Advisory Board until 2021.
In 2017, Bajaj became Managing Director of Foresite Capital Management and a year later, he co-founded Foresite Labs, where he currently serves as CEO.
In 2021, Bajaj also became a non-executive director of Genomics England. In 2023, he co-founded biotech company Xaira Therapeutics and took on the role of director and interim president.
In November 2025, Bajaj took on his latest role as co-CEO of Project Prometheus.
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