Introduction

Amazon has fundamentally restructured its artificial intelligence operations as of mid-December 2025, establishing a new centralized organization responsible for its Nova AI models, custom silicon, and quantum computing. This new unit will report directly to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, signaling a strategic shift to unify hardware and software development for AGI.

  • TL;DR: Amazon merges its AGI, chip (Trainium/Graviton), and quantum teams into a single unit led by Peter DeSantis, reporting directly to the CEO. Rohit Prasad will depart, while Pieter Abbeel takes charge of frontier research.
  • Context: Following the launch of Nova 2 at re:Invent 2025, this move aims to vertically integrate model training with custom hardware to compete with OpenAI and Google.

The Strategic Restructuring: Direct Reporting to CEO

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that Peter DeSantis, a 27-year Amazon veteran and former leader of AWS Utility Computing, will head the new organization. By having DeSantis report directly to Jassy rather than the AWS CEO, Amazon is elevating AI infrastructure and model development to a company-wide priority level.

Why it matters: This structure removes bureaucratic layers between the CEO and the AI development teams. It allows for faster decision-making and tighter alignment between Amazon’s massive capital expenditure on infrastructure and its strategic AI goals.

Vertical Integration: Nova 2 Meets Custom Silicon

The new organization brings together the teams behind:

  1. Nova & Nova 2 Models: Amazon’s foundation models recently updated at re:Invent 2025.
  2. Custom Silicon: The “Annapurna Labs” team developing Trainium (training), Inferentia (inference), and Graviton (CPU) chips.
  3. Quantum Computing: The team working on fault-tolerant quantum hardware.

By placing chip designers and model researchers under one roof, Amazon aims to optimize its “Nova” models to run more efficiently on “Trainium” chips than on generic NVIDIA GPUs.

Why it matters: Vertical integration is the key to winning the AI economics war. If Amazon can lower the cost-per-token of Nova 2 by perfectly tuning it for its own hardware, it gains a massive margin advantage over competitors who rely on third-party hardware.

Leadership Shakeup: From Research to Execution

As part of this transition, Rohit Prasad, the SVP and Head Scientist for AGI who led the initial development of the Nova models and Alexa, will leave Amazon at the end of 2025. Prasad played a crucial role in catching up to competitors over the last two years.

Meanwhile, Pieter Abbeel, a renowned AI researcher and co-founder of Covariant (which Amazon hired talent from), will lead the Frontier Model Research team within the new organization. This separates the “research” leadership from the “infrastructure/product” leadership held by DeSantis.

Why it matters: Replacing a scientist (Prasad) with an infrastructure veteran (DeSantis) as the top leader suggests Amazon is shifting focus from “figuring out the technology” to “scaling and operationalizing it.”

Conclusion

Amazon’s move to consolidate AI models and chips under a single, CEO-reporting leader marks a pivotal moment in its AGI strategy. With Peter DeSantis at the helm, the company is betting that superior infrastructure and hardware-software integration will be the differentiating factor in the AI race of 2026.

Summary

  • New Org: Merges Nova AI, Silicon (Trainium), and Quantum teams.
  • Leader: Peter DeSantis (SVP) reports directly to CEO Andy Jassy.
  • Departures: Rohit Prasad (Head of AGI) to leave at the end of 2025.
  • Goal: Accelerate AGI capabilities and optimize price-performance via vertical integration.

#Amazon #NovaAI #AGI #PeterDeSantis #AndyJassy #CloudComputing #TechNews #AWS

References

  • (Amazon’s new AI team will report to CEO, 2025-12-18)[https://www.cio.com/article/4109554/amazons-new-ai-team-will-report-to-ceo.html]
  • (Amazon appoints longtime AWS exec Peter DeSantis to lead new AI org, 2025-12-16)[https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/17/amazon-appoints-longtime-aws-exec-peter-desantis-to-lead-new-ai-org/]
  • (Amazon names AI chief amid leadership changes, 2025-12-17)[https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-names-ai-chief-amid-183011392.html]
  • (Amazon merges AI model and chip teams, 2025-12-17)[https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-it/2025/12/18/AG6H2TOQUNALZDT2DA24LWD5PM/]
  • (Amazon taps an AWS veteran to lead AI chip and quantum, 2025-12-17)[https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2025/12/18/amazon-aws-veteran-leader-ai-chip-quantum-group/amp/]
  • (Amazon CEO says new AI leader has unified focus, 2025-12-17)[https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/2025/amazon-ceo-says-new-ai-leader-has-unified-focus-unveils-ai-innovator-prasad-departure]
  • (Amazon shakes up AI team as veteran Prasad leaves, 2025-12-17)[https://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/corporate-news/amazon-shakes-up-ai-team-as-veteran-prasad-leaves-desantis-promoted/126068802]
  • (Amazon AI chief exits triggering leadership shakeup, 2025-12-16)[https://www.ciodive.com/news/amazon-ai-chief-exits-leadership-shakeup/808189/]
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