Amazon appoints Peter DeSantis to lead unified AI group as Rohit Prasad departs

Amazon appoints longtime AWS exec Peter DeSantis to lead new AI org | TechCrunch

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced in a message to staff on Wednesday that longtime AWS executive Peter DeSantis will lead a new AI-focused organization within the company. This organization will be responsible for Amazon's AI models like Nova, as well as silicon development and quantum computing, which help make AI tools faster and more efficient. DeSantis has spent 27 years at Amazon, including eight years as an SVP for AWS, the cloud provider that powers about one-third of the internet. At AWS's recent re:Invent event, Amazon hammered home its commitment to AI for enterprise use, so it makes sense that the company is spinning out a new team from AWS leadership. "With our Nova 2 models just launched at re:Invent, our custom silicon growing rapidly, and the advantages of optimizing across models, chips, and cloud software and infrastructure, we wanted to free Peter up to focus his energy, invention cycles, and leadership on these new areas," Jassy wrote. Amazon's increasing emphasis on AI comes at a time when the company is eager to strengthen its foothold in the AI race, perhaps more through investments than its own innovations. Last month, AWS announced a $50 billion investment in the U.S. government's AI infrastructure. Amazon is also reportedly in talks to invest $10 billion in OpenAI, and has already invested $8 billion in OpenAI rival Anthropic.

Amazon has a new leader for its 'AGI' group as it plays catch-up on AI

Amazon's head of artificial general intelligence (AGI), Rohit Prasad, is leaving the company next year as it reaches an "inflection point" in its development of the technology, CEO Andy Jassy announced on Wednesday. As part of the change, Peter DeSantis, a senior vice president at Amazon Web Services, will helm a new division focused on the company's most advanced AI models, chip development, and quantum computing. Prasad joined Amazon in 2013 and played a key role in the evolution of the company's voice assistant Alexa. He also oversaw the launch of the Amazon Nova AI models and later became the head of the AGI team in 2023. While the other AI giants tout their performance on various AI benchmarks, Prasad recently emphasized in an interview with Verge alum and Sources founder Alex Heath that "None of these benchmarks are real... The evals are frankly getting noisy, and they're not showing the real power of these models." The Nova 2 AI model family launched earlier this month and trails the competition on some of those leaderboards.

Amazon's big AGI reorg decoded by Corey Quinn

Amazon bets that by making AI its own group, it can outpace Microsoft and Google In today's episode of "Amazon Kremlinology," AWS has put out a press release that shows a significant shuffle of one of AWS's most storied leaders. Two weeks after their announcement of Nova 2 models at AWS re:Invent ("where hope goes to the desert to die"), SVP of Utility Computing Peter DeSantis is taking two of his teams from AWS, putting them into SVP of Doesn't-Work-At-Amazon-As-Of-Next-Month Rohit Prasad's old org, and managing the whole thing as a cohesive unit called "AGI." This unit will report directly to Andy Jassy, Amazon's Lead Product Marketer for GenAI (and also CEO). The two things Peter's taking along with him are the reworked Annapurna Labs business that makes AWS's silicon chips (Nitro, Graviton, Trainium, and Inferentia), and their quantum computing business, about which companies are very excited but utterly unable to communicate effectively to anyone who's not spent at least four years in a Ph.D. program at Berkeley. You have to unpack a bit of history and ad some context to make sense of the rest of it, since this is a very Amazonian announcement. Amazon is much, much, much more than just Amazon.com and AWS: Alexa, Amazon Prime Video, Twitch, Zoox, Amazon Ads, and the AGI team, to name a few. The message here is that AI and AI-related compute should not be an AWS only thing, but rather is an all-Amazon thing. In other words, Andy Jassy believes that this unit is building things that either are or will become so important that they're taking one of our most senior AWS leaders and putting him in charge of all of it. Does moving Peter de Santis out of AWS reflect a lack of confidence in Matt Garman? No, because the org that Peter is taking over already existed; now he's getting a larger scope by taking it over and bringing other things with him in a way that's far more strategically important and visible than Utility Computing alone. Where have I heard the vertical integration story before? Jassy specifically calls out "the advantages of optimizing across models, chips, and cloud software and infrastructure." This is the Apple playbook for AI - if you control the silicon and the models together, you can optimize end-to-end in ways that their two closest peer companies cannot: Microsoft because they buy from Nvidia, and Google because their TPU and model teams exist in parallel universes that occasionally exchange passive-aggressive emails like my extended family. That's the strategic bet that Amazon is making here. Why is quantum computing being bundled with AI? Fascinating, isn't it? Quantum computing is a decade-out bet at minimum, which is a statement that remains as true today as it was in the 1990s. Grouping it with "things that need Peter DeSantis's technical depth to shepherd for the long haul" suggests this org is explicitly about strategic patience, not quarterly results. That may be one of the most encouraging signs I've seen from Amazon in a while; long-term thinking is where they're at their best. What's the sleeper story here? Jassy's memo specifically names Pieter Abbeel as the new head of the frontier model research team (the base model builders) within AGI. Abbeel's a legitimate AI researcher who came over when Amazon acqui-hired Covariant last year. He's continuing to work with the robotics team as well as leading frontier models. It's easy to dismiss Amazon's expression of this as "a pile of unwanted children," but do bear in mind that Amazon has one of the largest deployed robotics fleets on Earth (warehouses). If embodied AI becomes a thing, they have a testing ground that OpenAI and Anthropic can only dream of. That convergence is potentially a tectonic shift that a whole bunch of folks likely won't see coming - if Amazon can pull it off. ®

Amazon says AI chief Rohit Prasad is leaving, Peter DeSantis to lead 'AGI' group

Rohit Prasad, a top Amazon executive overseeing its artificial general intelligence unit, is leaving the company at the end of this year, the company confirmed Wednesday. As part of the move, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company is reorganizing the AGI unit under a more expansive division that will also include its silicon development and quantum computing teams. The new division will be led by Peter DeSantis, a 27-year veteran of Amazon who currently serves as a senior vice president in its cloud unit.

Amazon AI chief Rohit Prasad leaving; Infrastructure exec Peter DeSantis to lead unified AI group

Rohit Prasad, the executive who has led Amazon's artificial intelligence initiatives and overseen the creation of its homegrown Nova AI models, is leaving the company at the end of the year. In a memo Wednesday morning, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy named Peter DeSantis, a 27-year company veteran and top cloud infrastructure executive, to lead a new organization that combines the Nova and model research teams with its silicon and quantum computing groups. AI researcher Pieter Abbeel, who joined the company last year when Amazon hired the founders of robotics startup Covariant, will lead the frontier model research team within Amazon's AGI organization, while continuing his work with the company's robotics team, according to Jassy's memo. Prasad's departure comes two weeks after Amazon unveiled its Nova 2 models at its annual re:Invent conference, and as the company attempts to close the gap with AI rivals including OpenAI and Google in the race to develop increasingly capable AI systems. He joined Amazon in 2013 during the early days of Alexa and was named senior vice president and head scientist for artificial general intelligence in mid-2023 as part of a broader effort to recharge the company's AI initiatives in the face of stiff competition. In his memo, Jassy framed the reorganization as an effort to unify Amazon's most important AI bets at an "inflection point" for the technologies. Prasad's departure was mentioned toward the end of the memo, with Jassy saying that Prasad "has built a strong team, differentiated technology, growing customer momentum, and a culture of ambitious invention." The memo described the departure as Prasad's decision, with Jassy calling him "missionary, passionate, and selfless" and thanking him for "everything he's built here." It's not yet clear what Prasad will do next. Developing story, more to come.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announces departure of AI exec Rohit Prasad in leadership shakeup | Fortune

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy dropped an AI bombshell on employees today, announcing that Rohit Prasad -- who has led Amazon's so-called AGI (artificial general intelligence) team since 2023, overseeing the development of the company's Nova models -- will depart at the end of the year. Prasad previously served as the head scientist behind Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, a role he held from the product's earliest days. When he was appointed to lead the new ambitious AGI effort after ChatGPT launched in November 2022, as part of a scramble to develop a competitive LLM that could help reinvigorate the Alexa voice assistant. it was led almost entirely by ex-Alexa executives. In a blog post, Jassy announced that longtime Amazon Web Services (AWS) executive Peter DeSantis will lead a new organization that drives the development of its AI models, custom computer chips (which include its Graviton, Trainium and Nitro chips), and quantum computing efforts. DeSantis had overseen the many teams designing AWS' global infrastructure. "With our Nova 2 models just launched at re:Invent, our custom silicon growing rapidly, and the advantages of optimizing across models, chips, and cloud software and infrastructure, we wanted to free Peter up to focus his energy, invention cycles, and leadership on these new areas," Jassy wrote, adding that DeSantis would report directly to him. Jassy also said that as part of the organizational change, Pieter Abbeel, an Amazon Distinguished Scientist in robotics who is also an AI and robotics professor at UC Berkeley, will lead the company's frontier model research team. Abbeel came to Amazon in 2024 along with other cofounders of his robotics startup Covariant, in a deal that also saw Amazon licensing Covariants software, which included AI models that gave robots the ability to quickly adapt to new environments and tasks. "Pieter is one of the world's leading AI researchers, and co-founder of Covariant, which pioneered the first commercial foundation model for robotics," Jassy wrote. "His deep expertise in generative AI and reinforcement learning makes him well-suited to advance Amazon's AI research as we push the boundaries of what's possible for customers." The news of Prasad's departure comes as somewhat of a surprise, given that he was recently at Amazon's Re:Invent conference discussing the latest Nova models. However, over the past two years there has been significant media coverage suggesting that Amazon's Alexa AI and AGI-related efforts have struggled and fallen behind competitors. A year ago, for example, Fortune's Jason Del Rey reported exclusively that leaked Amazon documents identified critical flaws in the delayed AI reboot of Alexa. And in June 2024, Fortune reported that Amazon's had blown Alexa's shot to dominate AI, according to more than a dozen employees who worked on it -- partly due to a lack of adequate data, even though Prasad, pushed the AGI team to work harder and harder, with a message to "get some magic" out of the LLM. In addition, last week's Amazon layoffs fueled concerns about whether Amazon's was still lagging behind in AI, and whether the cuts reflected slowing growth. That came on the heels of comments in October by analyst Mark Shmulik of Bernstein, who said Amazon's AWS was in "last place" in the AI cloud race. However, The Information as well as Bloomberg reported this week that Amazon was in talks to invest $10 billion in OpenAI. OpenAI, in turn, had agreed to use Amazon's Tranium AI chips, perhaps helping to counter the narrative that the company is behind in AI. OpenAI had previously agreed to spend $38 billion using AWS for computing. Amazon also has a deal with AI company Anthropic, in which Amazon has invested $8 billion. Anthropic has agreed to use AWS's Trainium chips for training and Anthropic's Claude model is being used to answer some queries in the new Alexa Plus.

Peter DeSantis to lead Amazon's Nova AI organization

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced to staff on Wednesday that Peter DeSantis, a longtime AWS executive, will lead a new AI-focused organization responsible for the company's AI models such as Nova, silicon development, and quantum computing to accelerate AI tools. DeSantis has worked at Amazon for 27 years, with the past eight years serving as senior vice president for AWS. AWS operates as the cloud provider that supports approximately one-third of the internet's infrastructure. During Amazon's recent re:Invent event, the company emphasized its dedication to AI applications in enterprise settings. The event featured the launch of the company's Nova 2 models, underscoring ongoing advancements in this domain. Jassy explained the decision in his message to employees. He stated, "With our Nova 2 models just launched at re:Invent, our custom silicon growing rapidly, and the advantages of optimizing across models, chips, and cloud software and infrastructure, we wanted to free Peter up to focus his energy, invention cycles, and leadership on these new areas." This move allows DeSantis to concentrate on these specific AI-related initiatives. Amazon continues to expand its AI efforts through substantial investments. Last month, AWS committed $50 billion to the U.S. government's AI infrastructure. The company is reportedly negotiating a $10 billion investment in OpenAI. Amazon has already allocated $8 billion to Anthropic, a competitor to OpenAI.

Amazon shakes up AI team as veteran Prasad leaves, DeSantis promoted - The Economic Times

Amazon is reshaping its AI leadership as it pushes harder to compete with major tech rivals. Veteran cloud chief Peter DeSantis will oversee AI models, chips and quantum computing, while Alexa AI leader Rohit Prasad departs. The shake-up follows big AI investments and signals a sharper focus on future technologies.Amazon is shaking up its artificial intelligence team with one long-time veteran heading for the exit and another taking over a more expansive group that includes AI models, custom silicon and quantum computing. The move comes just two weeks after the Amazon Web Services annual cloud computing conference in Las Vegas, which the company has turned into a showcase for AI tools and services. Amazon has been working to shake a reputation that it is trailing competitors like Google, Microsoft and OpenAI in developing AI models. It has invested roughly $8 billion in startup Anthropic and integrated its technology into several of its internal and consumer products, and Amazon is considering as much as a $10 billion investment into OpenAI. "We are at this inflection point with several of our new technologies that will power a significant amount of our future customer experiences," said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in the post on Wednesday. Cloud executive Peter DeSantis, a 27-year Amazon veteran, will lead the new unit overseeing its most advanced technologies, according to a company post. Rohit Prasad, who helped build the Alexa voice assistant and led its AI efforts recently, will step down at year's end. Pieter Abbeel, who joined Amazon last year, is set to head up frontier model research with the AGI organization and continue to work on robotics. He came to Amazon when the company hired the founders of Covariant, a robotics startup. DeSantis led AWS infrastructure and utility computing businesses, overseeing global data centres and core cloud services. He also spearheaded the 2015 acquisition of Annapurna Labs, which designs Amazon's custom chips. The appointment comes as the company looks to unify development of its Nova AI models, chip programs such as Graviton and Trainium, and emerging quantum computing initiatives. Jassy said Prasad was leaving of his own accord. It was not clear what he would do next.

Amazon Hands AI Keys To A 27-Year Company Insider - Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is reorganizing parts of its business as several emerging technologies reach a scale that can power a large share of future customer experiences. CEO Andy Jassy said the company is creating a new organization led by longtime executive Peter DeSantis, who will oversee Amazon's most advanced AI models, custom chip development, and quantum computing. The goal is to bring together work on AI software, silicon, and infrastructure under a single leader to accelerate innovation and long-term impact for customers. Also Read: Amazon Closing The Gap In AI Race: Analysts Leadership Appointments DeSantis, who has spent more than 27 years at Amazon, previously led the launch and expansion of Amazon EC2, helped build core Amazon Web Services, drove the acquisition of Annapurna Labs to develop custom chips, and ran AWS infrastructure and utility computing at a global scale. He will report directly to Jassy. As part of the shift, AI researcher Pieter Abbeel will lead Amazon's frontier model research within the AGI group while continuing his work with the company's robotics efforts. Existing AWS Utility Computing leaders will remain in place, with some expanded responsibilities. Executive Transition Jassy also confirmed that Rohit Prasad, who played a key role in building Alexa and later led the creation of Amazon Nova and the AGI organization, will leave Amazon at the end of the year after more than a decade at the company. Jassy said the changes position Amazon to align its AI models, chips, and cloud infrastructure better, setting the stage for faster progress and new customer capabilities in the years ahead. AI Strategy, Cloud Growth, And Market Context Amazon stock gained nearly 1% year-to-date amid concerns over slowing cloud growth, high capital expenditures for AI infrastructure, and potential oversupply in cloud capacity. Meanwhile, a separate report indicated Amazon is in talks to invest $10 billion in OpenAI. Reuters reported that Amazon is holding "fluid talks" about joining a funding round that could value OpenAI at more than $500 billion, potentially giving the AI company access to Amazon's Trainium chips. Amazon already works closely with OpenAI, having finalized a $38 billion cloud services deal last month. Earlier, CEO Andy Jassy stated that AI continues to drive strong growth across Amazon, with AWS reaccelerating to more than 20% year-over-year growth as demand for AI and core infrastructure remains robust. AMZN Price Action: Amazon.com shares were up 0.83% at $223.10 during premarket trading on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data. Read Next: Amazon Restructures Workforce, Slashes Luxembourg Jobs While Doubling Down On AI Photo by bluestork via Shutterstock AMZNAmazon.com Inc$222.950.76%OverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Amazon CEO Says New AI Leader Has 'Unified Focus,' Unveils AI Innovator Prasad's Departure

AWS executive Peter Desantis will lead a new organization that looks to unify AI models, silicon chips and quantum computing, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says longtime Amazon Web Services innovator Peter Desantis will lead a new organization focused on unifying its AI models, chips and quantum computing technologies. Meanwhile, the $720 billion tech giant's current head scientist and top AI executive, Rohit Prasad, will leave the company. "I've asked Peter DeSantis to lead a new organization that drives our most expansive AI models (e.g. Nova -- and the team we've called "AGI"), silicon development (e.g. Graviton, Trainium, Nitro), and quantum computing," said Jassy in an internal message to employees today. [Related: AWS Trainium3 AI Is 'The Best Inference Platform In The World,' CEO Says] Desantis is a 27-year AWS veteran who currently leads AWS infrastructure and utility computing businesses, overseeing global data centers and core cloud services. Seattle-based Amazon is seeking to unify development of its Nova AI foundational models, chipsets like Trainium and Graviton, as well as Amazon's emerging quantum computing technologies. "With our Nova 2 models just launched at re:Invent, our custom silicon growing rapidly, and the advantages of optimizing across models, chips, and cloud software and infrastructure -- we wanted to free Peter up to focus his energy, invention cycles, and leadership on these new areas," said Amazon CEO Jassy. Desantis (pictured above) will now report directly to Jassy. His current title is senior vice president of AWS utility computing products. "With the foundation that's been built, the traction we're seeing, and Peter's leadership bringing unified focus to these technologies, we're well-positioned to lead and deliver meaningful capabilities for our customers," Jassy said. After nearly 13 years working in top science and engineering executive roles, Rohit Prasad is leaving Amazon by the end of the year. Prasad -- senior vice president and head scientist for Amazon's artificial general intelligence business -- has been critical in leading advancements in foundational AI model such as Nova and Nova 2. Jassy highlighted how Prasad helped Amazon build conversational AI technologies, such as Alexa, that made customers' lives easier. "Rohit helped Alexa grow from an ambitious idea into a service that now touches hundreds of millions of customers' lives every day," said Jassy. "For the past two years, Rohit has led the creation of Amazon Nova and our AGI organization, building 12 state-of-the-art foundation models with industry-leading price-performance that are now being used by tens of thousands of companies across almost all industries and use cases," he added. In addition to the appointment of Desantis and departure of Prasad, Amazon's CEO also unveiled that Pieter Abbeel will lead Amazon's frontier model research team in AGI. "Pieter is one of the world's leading AI researchers, and co-founder of Covariant, which pioneered the first commercial foundation model for robotics," Jassy said. Abbeel is currently a distinguished scientist and vice president at Amazon. Jassy said Abbeel's deep expertise in generative AI and reinforcement learning makes him "well-suited to advance Amazon's AI research." Abbeel will also continue his ongoing work with Amazon's robotics team, according to Jassy. "I'm excited about what this team will build and how these foundational technologies will help shape Amazon's future," Jassy said.

Amazon Reorganization Combines AI, Silicon and Quantum Computing | PYMNTS.com

The new organization will be led by Peter DeSantis, who has been with Amazon for 27 years, most recently leading all the company's AWS Utility Computing services, according to the message. "With our Nova 2 models just launched at re:Invent, our custom silicon growing rapidly, and the advantages of optimizing across models, chips, and cloud software and infrastructure, we wanted to free Peter up to focus his energy, invention cycles, and leadership on these new areas," Jassy said in the message. "Peter will report directly to me." As part of this organizational change, Pieter Abbeel, an AI researcher who works with Amazon's robotics team, will now lead the company's frontier model research team, which builds the base model, in AGI, while continuing to work in robotics, according to the message. In addition, Rohit Prasad, who led the creation of Nova and the AGI organization over the past two years, has decided to leave Amazon at the end of the year, per the message. "The path ahead is full of opportunity," Jassy said in the message. "With the foundation that's been built, the traction we're seeing, and Peter's leadership bringing unified focus to these technologies, we're well-positioned to lead and deliver meaningful capabilities for our customers. I'm excited about what this team will build and how these foundational technologies will help shape Amazon's future." PYMNTS reported Dec. 5 that Amazon unveiled a comprehensive AI strategy and launched new Nova foundation models at its annual re:Invent conference. The company made a flurry of AI announcements representing the latest escalation in a heated battle among tech giants to dominate the lucrative enterprise AI market, while the Nova family of AI models debuted with six models, each optimized for different tasks.

Amazon's Jassy announces leadership changes for AI, silicon development By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that the company has appointed Peter DeSantis to lead a new organization focused on its most expansive AI models, silicon development, and quantum computing. DeSantis, a 27-year Amazon veteran, will report directly to Jassy in this new role. The organizational change aims to maximize the potential of several new technologies that will power Amazon's future customer experiences. "I cannot think of a better leader for this organization than Peter," Jassy stated in his announcement. He highlighted DeSantis's extensive experience, including leading Amazon EC2 when it launched in 2006, spearheading the acquisition of Annapurna Labs in 2015, and managing AWS Infrastructure starting in 2016. As part of the restructuring, Pieter Abbeel will lead Amazon's frontier model research team in AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). Abbeel, described as "one of the world's leading AI researchers," is the co-founder of Covariant, which pioneered the first commercial foundation model for robotics. The announcement also revealed that Rohit Prasad, who has led the creation of Amazon Nova and the company's AGI organization for the past two years, will leave Amazon at the end of this year. Prasad joined Amazon in 2013 during the early days of Alexa. Under Prasad's leadership, Amazon built twelve state-of-the-art foundation models with "industry-leading price-performance" that are now being used by tens of thousands of companies. Jassy expressed gratitude for Prasad's contributions, technical vision, and leadership. The leadership changes come shortly after Amazon launched its Nova 2 models at the recent re:Invent conference. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

Amazon overhauls its AI unit after Rohit Prasad's departure

Amazon has announced the departure of Rohit Prasad, head of general artificial intelligence (AGI), who will leave the company at the end of the year. A key figure in the development of Alexa and in-house foundation models, he was one of the architects of Amazon's AI efforts. His exit coincides with a major structural reorganization: the AGI group is now integrated into a broader division that includes chip design teams and quantum computing research. The new entity will be led by Peter DeSantis, a 27-year Amazon veteran and until now senior vice president of cloud services. Reporting directly to CEO Andy Jassy, DeSantis is tasked with strengthening strategic alignment as Amazon says it has reached an 'inflection point' in its AI advances. The company is betting on its Nova models to compete with industry leaders such as OpenAI, Alphabet and Anthropic. In parallel, Amazon has appointed Pieter Abbeel, a robotics specialist and cofounder of Covariant, to lead the frontier-model research team. The new setup aims to accelerate the development of integrated AI solutions by capitalizing on a unified organization and broad technological expertise.

Amazon reorganises AI division as AGI head Rohit Prasad set to leave

The move signals Amazon's push to sharpen its AI strategy as competition intensifies with rivals like OpenAI and Google. Amid the ongoing AI race, Amazon is set to shake up its AI leadership and structure, as Rohit Prasad, a senior executive leading the company's artificial general intelligence (AGI) efforts, will leave by the end of the year. This comes as part of a larger reorganisation of Amazon's artificial intelligence operations, the company said. CEO Andy Jassy announced that the AGI team will be merged into a newly expanded division that will also house Amazon's silicon development and quantum computing initiatives. The combined unit will be led by Peter DeSantis, a long-time Amazon executive who is currently a senior vice president in the company's cloud computing division. In a note to employees, Jassy stated that the move is in response to what Amazon sees as an important moment for AI technologies, indicating a push to align key infrastructure and research efforts under a single leadership. DeSantis will report directly to Jassy under the new structure. This reshuffle comes at a time when the company is looking to strengthen its position in a competitive AI space where competitors like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic have jumped ahead with high-profile LLM models and offerings. In recent months, Amazon has increased its efforts by introducing its own foundation models under the Nova brand and continuing to invest in its in-house Trainium AI chips, which are positioned as alternatives to Nvidia's hardware. Additionally, Amazon has appointed Pieter Abbeel to lead its frontier model research within the AGI group. Abbeel joined Amazon last year after it acquired robotics startup Covariant. DeSantis, who joined Amazon in 1998, has been crucial in establishing Amazon Web Services over the last two decades. His most recent responsibilities included overseeing AWS computing services, which include core infrastructure like storage, databases, security, and custom silicon. Prasad joined Amazon in 2013 and previously worked as chief scientist for Alexa before taking over the company's AGI initiatives in 2023. Jassy credited Prasad with shaping Amazon's long-term AI vision and laying the groundwork for the next phase of development. Amazon said the changes are intended to sharpen focus across its AI, chip, and quantum teams as it accelerates technology development.