Jeff Bezos has kept a low profile since stepping in as co-CEO of Project Prometheus, the codename for his secretive AI startup, last year. But behind the scenes, he’s been busy. The company has been raising new capital, pursuing acquisitions and recruiting aggressively top talent across Silicon Valley. One of her newest hires is Kyle Kosic, recruited to join Bezos’ initiative AFTER works on OpenAI and xAIaccording to the Financial Times. Kosic joins a rapidly growing team filled with alumni from leading technology companies. Like many of Project Prometheus’ recruits, he specializes in AI infrastructure. Such capabilities will be essential as the company aims to transform engineering and manufacturing through AI-enabled automation
Project Prometheus marks Bezos’ first operational position since then resigning as CEO of Amazon in 2021. Although he remains the founder of Blue originhe is no longer its chief executive. At Project Prometheus, however, he shares leadership duties with the co-founder Vikram Bajajan ex Google X researcher who also co-founded life sciences venture Verily and investment firm Foresite Capital. Since its inception in 2025, Project Prometheus has expanded rapidly, filling offices in San Francisco, London, and Zurich.
Investors have taken notice. The startup raised $6.2 billion last year and is now seeking another $6 billion to develop AI systems that move beyond large linguistic models (LLMs) to physical applications in real-world industries. Bezos and Bajaj are also said to be in talks with him to raise a special fund of 100 million dollars to acquire manufacturing companies in sectors such as semiconductors, defense and aerospace that can benefit from AI automation.
Kosic will reportedly focus on AI infrastructure projects. He previously worked in OpenAIco-founded Elon Musk’s xAI in 2023 and beyond returned to OpenAI as technical staff. OpenAI declined to comment on his departure.
Meanwhile, the Project Prometheus team is expanding rapidly. Its sparse LinkedIn page lists between 51 and 200 employees and emphasizes a mission to build “AI for the physical economy.” A handful of these employees were joined by Bajaj’s Foresite Capital, while others came from AI startup Generals, which Project Prometheus said to have been purchased last year. This agreement brought the co-founders Sherjil Ozair AND William Gussboth DeepMind veterans, Tesla and OpenAI. Other jobs come from Microsoft, Meta, Anthropogenic, Nvidia AND Grammaticallyhighlighting the startup’s formidable technical bench.
However, Project Prometheus faces stiff competition in the emerging world of physical artificial intelligence among its rivals: AMI Labs, a Paris-based startup led by former Meta executive Yann LeCun which recently raised $1 billion The largest seed round in Europe; World laboratoriesor Venture led by Fei-Fei Li focused on global models that raised $1 billion in February; and Periodic Labs, which merges AI with the physical sciences and counted Bezos among its backers during a $300 million seed round last year.
Investments in this sector are increasing. Global Venture Funding for Physical AI reached $26.7 billion in the first two months of 2026 aloneaccording to a recent Wall Street Journal report citing Crunchbase data. That figure is expected to rise to $33.5 billion by the end of the year – nearly double the total by 2025.
