Amazon unifies AGI, AI chips and quantum under Peter DeSantis
TL;DR
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has created a new organization that unifies the company’s AGI group, Nova foundation models, custom silicon (Graviton, Trainium, Nitro) and quantum computing under AWS veteran Peter DeSantis. Rohit Prasad, head of Amazon’s AGI unit and a key architect of Alexa and the Nova models, will leave the company at the end of 2025, while AI researcher Pieter Abbeel will lead the frontier model research team. The leadership change was disclosed to employees in an internal memo and detailed today in multiple news reports.
About this summary
This article aggregates reporting from 6 news sources. The TL;DR is AI-generated from original reporting. Race to AGI's analysis provides editorial context on implications for AGI development.
Race to AGI Analysis
Amazon’s reorganization is a clear signal that it wants to compete at the very top of the frontier-model stack, not just sell generic cloud capacity. By putting Nova, the AGI team, custom silicon (Graviton, Trainium, Nitro) and quantum computing under Peter DeSantis, Andy Jassy is explicitly betting that tight integration between models, chips and infrastructure is how you win the next decade of AI. The move also elevates Pieter Abbeel, one of the field’s most respected researchers, to lead frontier model research inside Amazon, giving the company more academic credibility as it chases OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic. ([aboutamazon.com](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/andy-jassy-peter-desantis-amazon-leadership-update/))
For the race to AGI, this is Amazon trying to compress its organizational distance from rivals. Until now, its AI story has felt fragmented: Alexa, Bedrock, Nova, and custom silicon all advanced, but not always synchronized. A single org with a mandate across models, hardware and quantum gives Amazon a chance to close that gap, especially if DeSantis can turn chip advantages into lower training and inference costs. It also marks a passing of the torch: Rohit Prasad, who defined Amazon’s first wave of conversational AI and then its AGI push, is out just as the company enters a more capital‑intensive, high‑stakes phase. Expect more aggressive model roadmaps, deeper integration of Nova into AWS services, and increased pressure on Nvidia as Amazon leans harder on its own Trainium stacks. ([investing.com](https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/amazons-jassy-announces-leadership-changes-for-ai-silicon-development-93CH-4413460?utm_source=openai))
Who Should Care
Companies Mentioned
Related Deals
OpenAI is in early-stage talks to raise up to $100 billion in new funding that could lift its valuation to roughly $750–830 billion, according to multiple media reports citing unnamed sources.
Amazon→DOE signed nonbinding MOUs with 24 AI and compute organizations to apply advanced AI and high-performance computing to Genesis Mission scientific and energy projects.
Preliminary talks for a potential funding round of up to $100 billion that would value OpenAI around $750 billion.
Nvidia acquired SchedMD, developer of the open-source Slurm workload manager, as part of a broader push to expand its open-source AI software and model stack with Nemotron 3.
Disney granted OpenAI’s Sora a one‑year exclusive license to use over 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters for user‑generated AI video content as part of a broader three‑year partnership.
