In mid-November news broke that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will reportedly become co-CEO of Project Prometheus, a new AI startup that is said to be focused on manufacturing within the automotive, aerospace and computing sectors.

Bezos contributed part of the $6.2bn raised by Project Prometheus but his investment is not limited to capital. He will become co-CEO alongside ex-Google X physicist and chemist Vik Bajaj, overseeing a staff of one hundred. Bezos returns to the trenches of running a tech company in a joint leadership role after he stepped down as Amazon CEO in 2021.

On 3 December, Reuters reported that Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, had named co-founder Yi He as its co-CEO alongside Richard Teng.

Both cases follow a spate of joint leadership announcements, in September, from high-profile technology companies including Oracle, Comcast and Spotify. The new appointments to oversee technology business operations, demonstrate a growing trend among high-profile firms to share top leadership roles.

Oracle named Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia as co-CEOs, replacing Safra Catz, who was named vice chair of the board after 11 years at the helm. Comcast appointed Michael Cavanagh as its first co-CEO, serving alongside existing CEO Brian Roberts effective January, 2026. And Spotify announced Gustav Söderström, currently co-president and chief product and technology officer, and Alex Norström, currently co-president and chief business officer, as co-CEOs, also effective January, 2026.

A proven co-CEO leadership structure?

The complexity of running a technology businesses today with has meant a single person leadership structure might no longer be the best fit. Corporate leadership in the technology space encompasses disparate areas including AI, global regulation, product development, cybersecurity, marketing, partnerships, operations, as well as increasingly serving as a public figurehead. All of which means that it may no longer be realistic for a single leader to have the expertise level required in so many areas at the speed and scale required.

Netflix and Atlassian are both technology companies with longstanding and successful Co-CEO arrangements. Netflix instituted a CEO model in July 2020 when Ted Sarandos was promoted to co-CEO alongside the company’s co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings. In January 2023, Hastings was replaced by Greg Peters who joined Sarandos as co-CEO. And developer tool company Atlassian has been led by its two CEO founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar for decades.

How does a co-CEO structure work?

Svante Horn, is co-CEO and co-founder of Scandinavian Data Centers. The company’s move to co-leadership was a practical response to the company’s rapid growth. “We’ve been building the company side-by-side for more than five years, so the transition to joint CEOs was a natural evolution of how we were already operating. The structure is helping us to avoid blind spots and chart a clearer, faster route forward,” says Horn.

Horn notes that the news of Bezos becoming Project Prometheus’s co-CEO demonstrates that the trend for dual leadership in technology companies is becoming more visible. “It might still be a rare model, but some of the world’s most influential firms are showing that it can work when companies are scaling fast or straddling multiple complex markets,” adds Horn.

Horn says that for Scandinavian Data Centres a co-CEO structure isn’t about dividing responsibility for the company in two but more about “doubling capacity”.

“The model works when responsibilities are clearly split, the vision is shared, and decisions move faster. The downside is obvious. If roles aren’t defined or trust isn’t absolute, you risk confusion. But when done right, it brings strategic speed and resilience you simply can’t get from one person,” says Horn.

Marta Sjögren, co-founder and co-CEO at Nordic-Dutch-based carbon capture company Paebbl, sees the co-CEO model as gaining traction. “For us, it was a deliberate response to the mission at hand, and one backed by growing evidence that many of the most successful companies in our own networks were, or still are, co-led,” says Sjögren.

“Between my co-CEO and me, we divide and conquer across both time and money risk—we can’t afford to run out of either—and the supply-demand sides of the business. My co-CEO, Andreas, ensures we can build and deliver; I ensure the market, capital, and partnerships are in place.

“With clearly defined roles, a co-CEO structure sharpens execution, strengthens leadership resilience, and adds a dash of healthy balance to an otherwise demanding job. Being able to cover for one other, while maintaining a strong debate culture, helps us make better decisions.”