Representative Jeff Bezos leaves Slate Auto’s board of directors

Family office head Jeff Bezos has left the board of Slate Auto, the electric vehicle startup backed by the Amazon founder, according to several state filings reviewed by TechCrunch.

Melinda Lewison, who leads investments in Bezos Expeditions, appears to have resigned sometime over the past few months, documents filed with the secretaries of state of Delaware, Florida and Massachusetts show. This leaves Bezos without direct representation on Slate’s board of directors, as the company prepares to begin production of its low-cost electric truck later this year.

Slate did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Lewisohn and Bezos did not respond to email requests for comment.

Lewisohn’s departure raises questions about Bezos’ support and involvement in the startup at a time when the Amazon founder now appears to be focusing on robotics in his new startup, Project Prometheus. This company raised more than $6 billion late last year, and is reportedly seeking $100 billion for a new fund focused on buying industrial companies in order to automate them using artificial intelligence.

The exact level of Bezos’ involvement in Slate has always been difficult to predict. The company never revealed how much money the Amazon founder contributed to the first funding round in 2023, which totaled about $120 million. Slate Auto also would not confirm whether Bezos participated in the company’s Series B round, which brought its total funding to about $700 million.

Last month, Slate announced a $650 million Series C round, but has named just one lead investor: TWG Global, a firm run by Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter. Los Angeles-based venture capital firm Slauson & Co., an existing investor, confirmed to TechCrunch that it also participated.

Chris Parman, Slate’s first employee and now its former CEO, said on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 that Bezos was “completely hands-off.”

“We had an interface where we invited him and he came and joined us once throughout the trip, looked at the car, and we talked a little bit about what the future might be,” she said late last year. “But other than that, he doesn’t get too involved and really allows us to focus on getting the car to market.”

However, Slate Auto is full of Amazon grads. It was co-founded by former Amazon Consumer CEO Jeff Wilke. The auto startup’s new CEO is Peter Farsi, the former vice president of Amazon’s marketplace. Many of the company’s divisions are headed by former Amazon employees.