Jeff Bezos Seeking $100 Billion to Buy Manufacturing Companies, 'Transform' Them With AI (msn.com) 57
Jeff Bezos "is in early talks to raise $100 billion," reports the Wall Street Journal, "for a new fund that would buy up manufacturing companies and seek to use AI technology to accelerate their path to automation."
"The Amazon.com founder is meeting with some of the world's largest asset managers to raise funding for the project." A few months ago, [Bezos] traveled to the Middle East to discuss the new fund with sovereign wealth representatives in the region. More recently, he went to Singapore to raise funding for the effort as well, according to people familiar with the matter. The fund, described in investor documents as a "manufacturing transformation vehicle," is aiming to buy companies in major industrial sectors such as chipmaking, defense and aerospace...
Bezos was recently appointed co-CEO of Project Prometheus, a new startup that is building artificial-intelligence models that can understand and simulate the physical world. Bezos plans to use the company's technology to boost the efficiency and profitability of businesses owned by the fund, a playbook that some investment firms are similarly deploying in sectors such as accounting and property management... [Prometheus has also hired employees from OpenAI and Google DeepMind, the article points out.]
While much of the AI revolution has been focused on large language models, billions of dollars have begun to flow to companies that are seeking to apply spatially focused AI systems toward industries including robotics and manufacturing... Amazon, one of [America's] largest employers, has closed in on the milestone of having as many robots as humans.
"The Amazon.com founder is meeting with some of the world's largest asset managers to raise funding for the project." A few months ago, [Bezos] traveled to the Middle East to discuss the new fund with sovereign wealth representatives in the region. More recently, he went to Singapore to raise funding for the effort as well, according to people familiar with the matter. The fund, described in investor documents as a "manufacturing transformation vehicle," is aiming to buy companies in major industrial sectors such as chipmaking, defense and aerospace...
Bezos was recently appointed co-CEO of Project Prometheus, a new startup that is building artificial-intelligence models that can understand and simulate the physical world. Bezos plans to use the company's technology to boost the efficiency and profitability of businesses owned by the fund, a playbook that some investment firms are similarly deploying in sectors such as accounting and property management... [Prometheus has also hired employees from OpenAI and Google DeepMind, the article points out.]
While much of the AI revolution has been focused on large language models, billions of dollars have begun to flow to companies that are seeking to apply spatially focused AI systems toward industries including robotics and manufacturing... Amazon, one of [America's] largest employers, has closed in on the milestone of having as many robots as humans.
Dickhead (Score:4, Funny)
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At his wealth, you can put tons of others people's money where ever you damn well want, for any reason, just because you have a hunch (or for vested other interests)
Re: Dickhead (Score:2, Interesting)
I think we should have a 6 month prison sentence for anyone that has more than $1B of assets at the end of the year. We'll see guys like Musk try to fly as close to the Sun as possible, but most of the billionaire class will start giving it away or hiding it in hard to access (for them) places. It takes a lot of power away from them while also placing a punishment proportional to the harm they do to society.
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https://www.forbes.com/profile... [forbes.com]
J.B. Pritzker
$3.9B
Real Time Net Worth
Jay Robert "J.B." Pritzker is the governor of Illinois; he unseated Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner as a Democratic candidate in 2018.
An heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, Pritzker ran private equity firm Pritzker Group with his brother Anthony until March 2017.
His charitable foundation supports nonprofits primarily in Chicago, including the Ounce of Pr
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I don't see any reason to make an exception. I don't care what party the billionaire is in.
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Gazillionaires like them will always find tax loopholes by which they can shelter their money. It's normal people who on the path to getting rich get most impacted by such taxes
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Truth, the Libertarian/Conservative tent pole issue that taxes are evil has been a con the whole time. Generations duped and now those very private business interested that we just had to spare from the devil of taxation and debt support activities and an administration more ager to strip rights than any so called liberals ever dared.
These people will only have themselves to blame when President AOC starts garnishing their assets.
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Brave of you to out yourself as an eager dupee so freely.
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Not to mention, him attempting to minimize the number of manufacturing jobs
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Ever had one of those wonderful manufacturing jobs? They uniformly suck. Pick up the piece of metal, stick it in the machine, push the buttons, take out the bent piece of metal. Over and over for 8-10 hours. Why shouldn't a machine be doing that on its own? Ever pick strawberries? There's a job that needs to be automated ASAP. Ever wash dishes in a restaurant? Assemble electronics? Work in a mine or lumber mill? Process fruit or fish? There are a frack of a lot of jobs that no human should be co
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Hungry people pick up torches and pitchforks, either the PTB embrace UBI or we'll get a new social structure. There's no use pretending that automating horrible jobs isn't going to happen, like designer babies, all you'll do is delay it a couple of years and make the adjustment even more difficult and harder to integrate into our civilization.
Re:Dickhead (Score:4, Insightful)
Most billionaires like Bezos didn't get insanely wealthy by investing their own money into their businesses. They did it by getting other wealthy suckers... er... "qualified investors" to risk their money on their expansion gambles.
Sure, he's investing his own money into Blue Origin, but that's probably more like a hobby to him at this point.
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All of the billionaire class got insanely wealthy by gaming the system with the help of the politicians they buy regularly. You can easily observe that the explosion in private wealth corresponds with the explosion of public debt, a direct result of the politics of welfare capitalism and the primary mechanism of wealth redistribution.
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The funny thing is, if Bezos really did put 100% of the money in himself, people would accuse him of trying to hog all the benefits of manufacturing automation, and shutting out investment by other parties.
I'm waiting for Larry Ellison to do just that, but with a fuckton of borrowed money, because... well, Larry Ellison.
https://www.wired.com/story/la... [wired.com]
https://www.thomasnet.com/insi... [thomasnet.com]
https://slate.com/technology/2... [slate.com]
Part of the game is taking assets people think is worth money, and converting it into asset
just no (Score:1)
Re: just no (Score:2)
For some of the regular posters on this site, I can't tell if it's AI, drugs, or autism.
Why? (Score:2)
Has anyone asked him why he wants to do this?
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Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)
Probably the same as Sam Altman's [theonion.com]:
.
(Disclaimer due to the inevitable "ACKSURELYs" on Slashdot: The Onion is a parody site, please don't respond as if Altman really said that. But you know he and Bezos really think that...)
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Gives him something to do that involves socializing with wealthy autocrats?
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Because he's gone off the deep end of being anti-labor. It's far easier to be a union-busting shithead if you replace all the pesky humans with robots.
OMG he is implementing this scenario (Score:2)
Get the answer to this question here: https://www.yout [youtube.com]
Re:OMG he is implementing this scenario (Score:5, Insightful)
Imagine if you had a cyberpunk world but without the cool netrunners because there wasn't any room for them and they got picked off before they did anything. All the bad and none of the good.
We could do something about it but about 40% of the country for reasons I cannot explain things that they are going to come out ahead during techno fascism. Some of them have crazy religious beliefs some of them just fall for various moral panics and some of them fancied themselves temporarily inconvenienced millionaires. All of them will be ground into the same paste with the rest of us.
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You know, if you keep thinking that way you might start to have ideas about what to do about it. Things like putting that technology in the hands of the workers who use it instead of absent owners. You might even decide that violence is the only viable way to achieve that goal. You could write a manifesto, and take over a backwards nation state.
Exactly power to the we the people instead (Score:1)
Of the Epstein class this is revolting all billionaires without exception are in the Epstein class
https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]
At least as long as Donald Trump is in the white house. I think we all know the American news media is captured by right wing, pro billionaire, pro Epstein class sources. It's just some of us seem to be okay with that because of reasons... It seems like about 40% of the country has just given up on objective reality. Eventually there will be consequences for that for them, at le
You can have all the ideas you want (Score:2)
The trouble is nobody really gives a shit about it except the Republicans who are using it because it's so fucking boring to talk about.
Like Donald Trump is trying to pass a law that makes it basically impossible for a married woman to vote and that gets a bunch of headline
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You've clearly missed the reference.
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It turns out that going to the peasants doesn't really work very well anyway.
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Why are you attributing a concept to a person who merely asked a question about it and referenced it's use in pop media? That student didn't come up with the idea, they didn't add anything to the idea, and they surely weren't the first one to bring the idea to the attention of politicians or oligarchs.
Raise (Score:4, Insightful)
In other words the man with nearly the greatest wealth on earth is asking for funds. This is rule one of being rich. You invest other people’s money.
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Yeah, as noted above .. people read stuff like this like it's his money. It'd be nice if they taught how screwed up this level of wealth disparity is in schools.
you're missing the point (Score:2)
It's not about where the money comes from. Money isn't real.this is about control of manufacturing. Buy a business that makes something, automate it, control and profit from it.
low hanging fruit (Score:2)
I'm thinking that traditional manufacturing hasn't had the money or the knowhow to push automation in ways that have only recently become possible. Amazon is heavily into automation with over 1 million robots in its fulfillment centers and warehouses worldwide. They will scoop up low performers and boost them, easy money.
Amazon delivery (Score:2)
Tesla FSD car + Optimus robot = end of amazon delivery.
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Tesla FSD car + Optimus robot actually sounds like the setup to an odd couple movie script...
That or a robotic vision quest buddy film.
Ted Faro (Score:2)
No more WFH tho (Score:2)
Never forget that this prick thinks people need to come into the office because you need to train your replacement's replacement.