Amazon is winding down most of its flagship Nova AI models and refocusing its artificial intelligence division toward a single new frontier model expected to debut later this year, according to reporting from Business Insider on July 28. The company has begun deprecating its high-end Premier and Omni models, along with the Reel video-generation and Canvas image-generation tools, with some employees describing these models as operating in “keep the lights on” mode—an engineering term for software that remains supported for existing customers but is no longer a development priority.
The restructuring follows recent layoffs in Amazon’s Artificial General Intelligence organization and the closure of its AGI Lab, a San Francisco-based research group Amazon created in 2024 after hiring most of the team behind AI startup Adept. The shift signals a major change in strategy for a company that, just three years ago, CEO Andy Jassy personally championed as the team that would build Amazon’s most ambitious foundation models.
Rather than investing across multiple text, image, and video models, Amazon is now concentrating engineering talent and computing resources on its highest priority: a new frontier-model effort known internally as Frontier Model Research, or FMR. Led by researcher Pieter Abbeel, who joined Amazon through the 2024 acquisition of AI robotics startup Covariant, the FMR initiative has become the organization’s primary focus. According to multiple sources, Amazon is developing a new flagship foundation model expected to debut at the company’s re:Invent annual conference in late November or early December 2026.
The reorganization reflects the strategic direction of Peter DeSantis, who took over Amazon’s AGI organization in December 2025 after the departure of longtime Alexa executive Rohit Prasad. People familiar with the transition said DeSantis has pursued a more focused AI strategy than his predecessor, concentrating resources on frontier-model development rather than maintaining multiple specialized model families. DeSantis combined the AGI organization with Amazon’s silicon development and quantum computing groups, signaling a shift toward integrated hardware and software development for competitive advantage.
An Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider that the company has long supported AI models in production for extended periods because customers depend on them, and emphasized that Amazon remains committed to investing in frontier models. “AI models remain one of the most important things we’re working on, and that hasn’t changed,” the spokesperson said. “As with any AI portfolio, we continually evolve our model lineup based on what customers need, and we always provide customers clear guidance and migration paths as models advance.”
The organizational change does not necessarily mean Amazon is abandoning Nova altogether. The remaining Nova portfolio includes the Nova 2 Sonic and Nova 2 Lite foundation models, Nova Forge (a service for building and customizing models), and Nova Act, Amazon’s AI agent technology. The new frontier model that FMR is developing could emerge under the Nova brand. However, the shift marks a notable departure from the company’s AI ambitions of recent years, when AWS used its re:Invent 2024 conference to unveil Nova Omni 2 as its flagship multimodal reasoning model.
The layoffs surprised many employees, according to people familiar with the matter, because frontier model researchers had long been among Amazon’s most prized technical talent. Employees said the AGI organization operated differently from the rest of Amazon, maintaining separate leveling and compensation systems to compete more aggressively for AI talent. The unexpected nature of the cuts and the lack of clear guidance about Nova’s long-term future have fueled uncertainty across the division.
Sources
- Business Insider — Amazon’s decision to wind down Nova models, shift to Frontier Model Research under Pieter Abbeel, closure of AGI Lab, Peter DeSantis’s narrower strategy, and employee reactions.
- Reuters — Confirmation of Amazon winding down flagship Nova models and the shift toward frontier-model development.
- GeekWire — Details on Amazon’s closure of its San Francisco AGI Lab and confirmation that frontier model research continues under Pieter Abbeel.
- Yahoo Finance — Information on Amazon’s shift of engineering talent and computing resources to Frontier Model Research.
- The Street — Confirmation that a new flagship foundation model is expected to debut at Amazon’s re:Invent conference later in 2026.
