Brian Kelly Runs Bracket22 on $40,000 a Year, Replacing 7 Staff With AI
Updated
Updated · CNBC · Sep 8
Brian Kelly Runs Bracket22 on $40,000 a Year, Replacing 7 Staff With AI
1 articles · Updated · CNBC · Sep 8
Summary
$30,000 to $40,000 a year now covers Bracket22’s AI agents, compute and operations, down from roughly $5 million in annual labor-related costs at Brian Kelly’s previous hedge-fund setup.
Kelly built the new firm after closing his crypto hedge fund in early 2025, using specialist agents for technical analysis, quantitative strategies and trade coordination while keeping final investment decisions for himself.
Bracket22 trades only Kelly’s own capital across cryptocurrencies, stocks and commodities, and he says the AI-driven model has made him at least 10 times more productive.
Wall Street is testing similar tools more broadly: JPMorgan has outlined major workforce redeployment and autonomous agents, while Morgan Stanley is shifting some work to AI and Goldman Sachs has warned about eroding bankers’ reasoning skills.