James Altucher:

Jeff Bezos Reportedly Returns to the Trenches As Co-CEO of New AI Startup, Project Prometheus

Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos seems to be getting his hands dirty once again: The billionaire is partly backing a new AI startup called Project Prometheus that has raised $6.2 billion in funding, and will take on duties as co-chief executive of the new venture.

Bezos will share the position with Vik Bajaj, who previously led and co-founded Google’s life sciences division. Bajaj also co-founded Verily, a biotech startup owned by Alphabet, and is the co-founder of Foresite Labs, an AI-focused affiliate of investment firm Foresite Capital, though he has reportedly left the firm to start Prometheus.

Bezos would be returning to operations for the first time since he stepped away from Amazon in 2021.

The startup is going to build AI products for engineering and manufacturing in various fields like computers, aerospace, and automobiles. Project Prometheus is focused on “AI for the physical economy,” and its work will resemble that of Periodic Labs, which is building technology to speed up scientific research by simulating the physical world to train AI models.

The company already has almost 100 staff, including researchers from AI firms like Meta, OpenAI, and Google DeepMind.

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James Altucher:

Bitcoin Suffering “Painvember” As Bitcoin ETFs Suffer $1.1 Billion in Outflows

Bitcoin’s fourth quarter is now the worst since 2018 and on track to surpass 2014’s 16.7% decline. November has historically been bitcoin’s best month, with an average return of 42.5%, but this month is shaping up to be “Painvember” as the Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index drops to 14, indicating “extreme fear.”

Bitcoin dipped below $93,000 on Sunday, its lowest level since April, and was below $94,000 as of Monday morning, a more than 25% drop from its October 6 all-time high. It’s roughly flat for 2025.

Meanwhile, bitcoin ETFs recorded a massive $1.1 billion in outflows last week, bringing the total to $2.3 billion leaving the funds in November, trending to surpass the worst monthly outflows of $3.5 billion in February 2025.

The silver lining? Analysts note that significant outflows are typically among the best indicators that we’re nearing the bottom and a reversal is coming. 

“This could even be the last buying opportunity under $100,000 this cycle. However, I would want to see the price rally above $98,000 on strong volume to confirm the reversal is in play,” Nic Puckrin, cofounder of Coin Bureau, said.

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Ari Goldschmidt:

The New AI Dream Allegedly Driving Yann LeCun Away from Meta

One of the most important AI scientists in Big Tech wants to scrap the current approach to building human-level AI. What we need, Yann LeCun has indicated, are not large language models, but “world models.”

LeCun, chief AI scientist of “fundamental AI research” at Meta, is expected to resign from Meta soon according to multiple reports. LeCun is a 65-year-old elder statesman in the world of AI science, and he has had seemingly limitless resources at his disposal working as the big AI brain at one of the world’s largest tech companies.

So why is he leaving Meta? When it comes to human-level intelligence, LeCun has become notorious lately for saying LLMs as we currently understand them are duds — no longer worth pursuing, no matter how much Big Tech scales them up. He said in April of last year that “an LLM is basically an off-ramp, a distraction, a dead end.”

LeCun instead champions world models: “systems that can plan actions — possibly hierarchically — so as to fulfill an objective, and systems that can reason.” In other words, AI that can reach conclusions without the constant need for user input, unlike LLMs, which Meta remains committed to developing.

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