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Morning Tech Brief: AI, Robotics and Security Headlines
Today we cover Bezos's $12B physical AI bet, rising AI costs, reconfigurable robots, a Google AI scam suit, and Amazon's water use.
Tonight’s rundown
Bezos's Prometheus raises $12B to build physical AI engineer
Jeff Bezos's physical AI startup Prometheus has raised $12 billion in new funding, valuing the company at $41 billion. The startup aims to develop an 'artificial general engineer' capable of automating complex physical tasks including heavy engineering and drug design.
- Funding raised
- $0B
- Post-money valuation
- $0B
The new round values the physical AI startup that aims to automate heavy engineering and drug design at $41 billion.
Companies adopt cheaper AI models, pressuring OpenAI and Anthropic
A new Wall Street Journal report finds companies facing rising AI costs are increasingly turning to lower-cost models, including offerings from Chinese labs, to cut expenses. The shift to mixed-model AI stacks is putting downward price pressure on leading US AI providers OpenAI and Anthropic.
- Report source
- Wall Street Journal
- Providers facing pressure
- OpenAI, Anthropic
Startups and tech giants alike are mixing and matching AI models to avoid the premium prices charged by top providers.
Theker raises $85M for reconfigurable factory robots
Industrial robotics startup Theker has secured $85 million in funding to develop versatile factory robots that can be quickly reconfigured for different manufacturing tasks. Unlike fixed-form humanoid robots from competitors such as Boston Dynamics, Theker's machines are designed for adaptability across varied production lines.
- Funding raised
- $0M
- Core design feature
- Full reconfigurability
Unlike humanoid robots designed around a fixed form — think Boston Dynamics — Theker's machines are built to be reconfigured.
Google sues Chinese ring for using Gemini AI to scam users
Google has filed a lawsuit against Chinese cybercrime network Outsider Enterprise, accusing the group of weaponizing its Gemini AI model to create fake websites and defraud hundreds of thousands of Americans. The search giant warned that AI tools are increasingly enabling bad actors to scale fraudulent operations at lower cost.
- Estimated scam victims
- 0K+
- Lawsuit filer
Google warned that artificial intelligence had supercharged the problem of online scams.
Amazon discloses data centers used 2.5B gallons of water last year
Amazon has for the first time publicly disclosed that its data centers consumed 2.5 billion gallons of water in the prior year, a figure revealed amid employee-backed calls for a Seattle data center construction moratorium. The disclosure comes as rising AI data center water and energy use face growing scrutiny from local governments and environmental groups.
- Annual water consumption
- 0.0B gallons
- Disclosure status
- First public release
Amazon shared how much water its data centers use, reportedly for the first time.