Amazon Unifies AI Strategy Under Peter DeSantis as AGI Chief Departs

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced a sweeping reorganization of the company's artificial intelligence leadership on December 17, consolidating the AGI unit, custom silicon development, and quantum computing under a single leader. Peter DeSantis, a 27-year Amazon veteran currently serving as senior vice president of AWS utility computing, will head the newly unified division and report directly to Jassy. The move comes as AGI chief Rohit Prasad prepares to leave Amazon at year's end after over a decade building the company's AI capabilities, from Alexa's early days to the recent launch of Amazon Nova foundation models.

DeSantis brings extensive experience across Amazon's most transformative technologies. He led Amazon EC2 at its revolutionary 2006 launch, spearheaded the 2015 acquisition of custom silicon maker Annapurna Labs, and has overseen AWS infrastructure spanning 38 geographic regions and 120 Availability Zones. Jassy praised DeSantis's ability to "solve problems at the edge of what's technically possible" while delivering technologies that "operate reliably at massive scale."

Pieter Abbeel, an AI researcher who joined Amazon in 2024 after the company acquired his robotics startup Covariant, will lead the frontier model research team within the AGI organization. The UC Berkeley professor and Amazon Distinguished Scientist brings deep expertise in generative AI and reinforcement learning, continuing his work with Amazon's robotics initiatives while advancing base model development.

Jassy characterized the restructuring as a response to an "inflection point" in AI and related technologies that will power future customer experiences. The unified structure aims to optimize synergies between AI models, custom chips like Graviton and Trainium, and cloud infrastructure software. The announcement follows Amazon's recent launch of Nova 2 models at AWS re:Invent, which Jassy noted have gained adoption from tens of thousands of companies across diverse industries.

The reorganization maintains leadership continuity in AWS Utility Computing, with existing leaders retaining their positions while assuming additional responsibilities. AWS CEO Matt Garman will detail the complete AWS structural changes in a follow-up communication. Jassy acknowledged Prasad's contributions as "missionary, passionate, and selfless," crediting him with building strong teams, differentiated technology, and a culture of ambitious invention during his tenure leading both Alexa and more recently the AGI organization.

Decoded

Amazon's consolidation of AI models, custom silicon, and quantum computing under unified leadership signals a strategic pivot toward vertical integration in the AI stack. By placing these technologies under one executive, Amazon is betting that tight coordination between hardware and software will deliver competitive advantages in an increasingly crowded enterprise AI market. The move mirrors strategies at competitors like Google and Microsoft, where AI research teams work closely with custom chip divisions. Prasad's departure, while framed positively, represents a significant changing of the guard in Amazon's AI ambitions, particularly as the company attempts to catch up to rivals in foundation model development. The elevation of robotics expert Abbeel to lead frontier research suggests Amazon sees embodied AI and practical applications, not just large language models, as key differentiators. This restructuring ultimately reflects Amazon's recognition that winning in AI requires seamless integration across the entire technology stack, from silicon to software to services.