Rohit Prasad Departs Amazon Amid Major AI and Quantum Reorganization
- Rohit Prasad leaving Amazon after leading AI initiatives and Nova model development.
- Peter DeSantis to lead a new organization combining Nova, AGI, custom silicon, and quantum teams.
- AI reorganization aims to unify frontier models, robotics, and enterprise AI amid rising competition.
Amazon’s AI Chief, Rohit Prasad, who has led the company’s artificial intelligence initiatives and overseen the development of its homegrown Nova AI models, is set to leave the company at the end of the year. Prasad joined Amazon in 2013 during the early days of Alexa and was appointed senior vice president and head scientist for artificial general intelligence (AGI) in mid-2023, spearheading efforts to strengthen Amazon’s AI capabilities amid rising competition from OpenAI, Google, and other AI leaders.
In a memo on Wednesday, CEO Andy Jassy announced a major reorganization of Amazon’s AI and computing teams. Peter DeSantis, a 27-year Amazon veteran and top cloud infrastructure executive, will lead a new group that combines the Nova and model research teams with the company’s custom silicon efforts and quantum computing initiatives. DeSantis, who helped launch Amazon EC2 and oversaw the acquisition of chip designer Annapurna Labs, will report directly to Jassy.
As part of the reorganization, AI researcher Pieter Abbeel will lead the frontier model research team within Amazon’s AGI division while continuing his work with the company’s robotics team. This move follows Amazon’s recent unveiling of its Nova 2 models at the annual re:Invent conference, highlighting the company’s push to close the gap with AI rivals.
Jassy described the reorganization as a step to unify Amazon’s most important AI bets at an 'inflection point' for the technology, bringing together advanced AI models, custom chips like Graviton and Trainium, and quantum computing under one umbrella. Prasad’s departure was framed as his personal decision, with Jassy praising him as 'missionary, passionate, and selfless', noting his role in building differentiated technology, a strong team, and a culture of ambitious invention.
While Prasad’s next move is unknown, he has consistently emphasized practical AI applications over speculative visions of AGI, focusing on building generally intelligent systems that can be specialized for real business purposes.
The reorganization coincides with Amazon strengthening its position in enterprise AI through its Bedrock platform and the Nova Forge service, which allows businesses to customize models with their own data. The company continues to invest in AI partnerships, including talks to potentially invest over $10 billion in OpenAI, signaling its intent to compete aggressively in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
