Andy Jassy has appointed Peter DeSantis to lead a new organization consolidating Amazon’s efforts in expansive AI models—including Nova—silicon development such as Graviton, Trainium, and Nitro, and quantum computing. DeSantis, with over 27 years at Amazon, previously led the 2006 launch of Amazon EC2 and spearheaded the 2015 acquisition of Annapurna Labs, continuing to manage that team. He most recently led AWS Utility Computing services, encompassing compute, storage, and database solutions across a global infrastructure spanning 38 geographic regions and 120 Availability Zones. This consolidation aims to maximize the potential of these technologies for both customers and Amazon, with Pieter Abbeel leading frontier model research within the new organization.
Peter DeSantis’s New Leadership Role
Andy Jassy has appointed Peter DeSantis to lead a new organization focused on Amazon’s most expansive AI models—including Nova—silicon development (like Graviton, Trainium, and Nitro), and quantum computing. This move aims to unify focus on these key technologies and capitalize on advantages gained from optimizing models, chips, and cloud infrastructure. DeSantis, with over 27 years at Amazon, previously led AWS Utility Computing services, encompassing compute, storage, and various AI offerings – recognized as an industry leader.
DeSantis brings significant experience to this new role, having previously spearheaded the acquisition of Annapurna Labs and led AWS Infrastructure, which spans 38 geographic regions and 120 Availability Zones. He also led the launch of crucial AWS services like Block Storage, File Storage, and Load Balancing. This appointment frees DeSantis to concentrate on invention cycles and leadership in these new areas, reporting directly to Jassy, and builds on recent launches like Nova 2 models at re:Invent.
Pieter Abbeel will lead the frontier model research team within this new organization, building the base models for AGI. Abbeel is a leading AI researcher and co-founder of Covariant, specializing in generative AI and reinforcement learning. The organizational shift also recognizes Rohit Prasad’s contributions – Prasad led the creation of Amazon Nova and the AGI organization but will be leaving Amazon at the end of the year, having built a team and technology used by tens of thousands of companies.
AI and Silicon Technology Development
Amazon is reorganizing leadership to focus on advancements in artificial intelligence and silicon technology. Peter DeSantis will lead a new organization driving expansive AI models like Nova and AGI, alongside silicon development – specifically Graviton, Trainium, and Nitro – and quantum computing. This move recognizes the growing importance of these technologies and aims to unify efforts to maximize potential for both customers and Amazon. DeSantis previously led the acquisition of Annapurna Labs, the team building Amazon’s custom silicon.
The company is also investing heavily in custom silicon to optimize AI capabilities. Advancements include the Graviton series CPUs, and Trainium chips, designed to accelerate AI model training and deployment at a lower cost. These developments, combined with AI models like Nova, are intended to deliver industry-leading price-performance and differentiate Amazon within the cloud computing landscape. Amazon notes the advantages of optimizing across models, chips, and cloud infrastructure.
Furthermore, Amazon’s AI efforts extend to frontier model research, with Pieter Abbeel leading the team building base AI models for AGI. Rohit Prasad, who led the creation of Amazon Nova and the AGI organization, is leaving Amazon at the end of the year, having built twelve foundation models now used by tens of thousands of companies. This organizational shift underscores Amazon’s commitment to leading in AI innovation and delivering meaningful capabilities to customers.
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.
Andy
Rohit Prasad’s Contributions and Departure
Rohit Prasad will be leaving Amazon at the end of the year. He joined the company in 2013 and played a key role in the early development of Alexa, growing it to a service used by hundreds of millions of customers. More recently, Prasad led the creation of Amazon Nova and the AGI organization for the past two years. His work resulted in twelve state-of-the-art foundation models.
Prasad’s team built foundation models that demonstrate industry-leading price-performance and are currently utilized by tens of thousands of companies across a broad range of industries and use cases. The source highlights that he established a strong team and fostered a culture of ambitious invention within the organization. Amazon leadership recognizes his missionary spirit, passion, and selflessness.
Leadership acknowledges Prasad’s technical vision and the impact of everything he built at Amazon. His departure comes as Amazon reorganizes to focus on expansive AI models, silicon development, and quantum computing. This shift aims to capitalize on the traction Amazon Nova is seeing and optimize across models, chips, and cloud infrastructure.
Amazon’s Investments in AI and Infrastructure
Amazon is consolidating leadership of key technologies driving future customer experiences under Peter DeSantis. He will lead a new organization focused on expansive AI models like Nova, silicon development – including Graviton, Trainium, and Nitro – and quantum computing. DeSantis previously led Amazon EC2, built core AWS infrastructure services (Block Storage, File Storage, etc.), and spearheaded the acquisition of Annapurna Labs, the team building custom silicon. This reflects a strategic move to unify these areas for greater innovation.
Peter DeSantis’s expanded role also includes leadership over AWS Utility Computing services – compute, storage, database, analytics, AI services, and messaging – currently recognized as an industry leader. He previously managed AWS infrastructure spanning 38 geographic regions and 120 Availability Zones globally. This consolidation aims to leverage DeSantis’s extensive experience and technical depth to optimize the interplay between AI models, custom chips, and cloud infrastructure, driving advancements for customers.
Recent investments highlight Amazon’s commitment to AI and infrastructure. The company announced a $35 billion investment in India, $15 billion in Northern Indiana, and up to $50 billion to expand AI and supercomputing infrastructure for US government agencies. These moves, alongside plans for data center campuses in Mississippi, demonstrate Amazon’s dedication to building the foundational technologies for its future, focusing on AI innovation and job creation.
