Prometheus bound: Why xAI cofounder and former OpenAI hand Kyle Kosic is heading to Jeff Bezos’ AI venture

Jeff Bezos’ artificial intelligence (AI) venture Project Prometheus has hired Kyle Kosic, a cofounder of Elon Musk’s xAI, who was with OpenAI until last November, according to a report in the Financial Times.

AI pedigree

Per his LinkedIn profile, Kosic has been building his startup in stealth since last November, when he quit OpenAI. He had two stints with the Sam Altman-led company, from 2021 to 2023 and again from 2024 to 2025. In between, he spent a year at xAI, where he led infrastructure.


Kosic completed his Masters of Science in computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology, with a specialisation in machine learning.

At xAI, Kosic worked on xAI’s Colossus supercomputer, and is expected to focus on AI infrastructure at Prometheus. It is not yet clear in what capacity Kosic is joining Bezos' venture.

What is Project Prometheus?

Project Prometheus is a startup cofounded by Amazon’s cofounder Bezos and physicist and entrepreneur Vikram Bajaj last November, around the same time Kosic claimed to have been working as a ‘builder’ at a stealth startup.

The company is reportedly building AI systems designed to understand and operate within the physical world, with its use cases across manufacturing, aerospace, computing, and automotive industries.

According to the FT report, the startup has hired hundreds of researchers and engineers across San Francisco, London, and Zurich, poached from rival tech companies, including Meta, OpenAI, and Google DeepMind, with a particular focus on large-scale infrastructure expertise.

In November 2025, NYT had reported that the company received over $6.2 billion in funding. Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Bezos travelled to Singapore and the Middle East to raise as much as $100 billion for an AI manufacturing fund to also finance Prometheus.

Scramble for talent continues

This move reflects intensifying competition among tech giants for top AI talent. Musk’s xAI has already seen all of its 11 co-founders exiting, with Ross Nordeen and Manuel Kroiss resigning last month.

Sam Altman’s OpenAI is also undergoing a major leadership overhaul, with chief marketing officer (CMO) Kate Rouch stepping down from her role due to health issues, and AGI development head Fidji Simo taking medical leave for “several weeks”. Meanwhile, chief operating officer (COO) Brad Lightcap is also transitioning to a special projects role reporting directly to CEO Altman, with some of his previous responsibilities shifting to chief revenue officer Denise Dresser.

In March, OpenAI's Caitlin Kalinowski, who worked in the startup’s robotics and hardware team also announced her resignation, citing concerns about the company's partnership with the US Department of War.