Outlook Business Desk
Vikram "Vik" Bajaj is an Indian-origin scientist and technology executive who is now leading Prometheus alongside Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The industrial AI start-up has raised $12bn and, as per reports, reached a $41bn valuation since launching in November 2025.
Prometheus is working to build what it calls an artificial general engineer, a system designed for engineering and industrial applications. Bezos and Bajaj began working on the venture in late 2024, before unveiling the company with $6.2bn in funding.
Before entering the technology industry, Bajaj worked as a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and as a principal investigator at the University of California, Berkeley. He also served on the advisory board of Berkeley's College of Chemistry.
More than a decade before joining forces with Bezos, Bajaj worked at Google X alongside Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The role marked his transition from academic research into technology, innovation and large-scale scientific projects.
During his time at Google X, Bajaj contributed to projects that later became major Alphabet businesses, including autonomous driving company Waymo and drone delivery platform Wing.
Bajaj also co-founded Google Life Sciences, later renamed Verily and served as its Chief Scientific Officer. He later joined cancer-screening company Grail and remained a member of its Scientific Advisory Board until 2021.
Bajaj joined Foresite Capital in 2017 and launched Foresite Labs a year later. In February 2026, he stepped down as CEO of Foresite Labs to focus on Prometheus, the artificial intelligence start-up incubated by the venture builder.
Bajaj studied biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania before earning a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He later conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley.University of California, Berkeley