Amazon Hands AI Keys To A 27-Year Company Insider

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is reorganizing parts of its business as several emerging technologies reach a scale that can power a large share of future customer experiences. CEO Andy Jassy said the company is creating a new organization led by longtime executive Peter DeSantis, who will oversee Amazon's most advanced AI models, custom chip development, and quantum computing. The goal is to bring together work on AI software, silicon, and infrastructure under a single leader to accelerate innovation and long-term impact for customers. Also Read: Amazon Closing The Gap In AI Race: Analysts Leadership Appointments DeSantis, who has spent more than 27 years at Amazon, previously led the launch and expansion of Amazon EC2, helped build core Amazon Web Services, drove the acquisition of Annapurna Labs to develop custom chips, and ran AWS infrastructure and utility computing at a global scale. He will report directly to Jassy. As part of the shift, AI researcher Pieter Abbeel will lead Amazon's frontier model research within the AGI group while continuing his work with the company's robotics efforts. Existing AWS Utility Computing leaders will remain in place, with some expanded responsibilities. Executive Transition Jassy also confirmed that Rohit Prasad, who played a key role in building Alexa and later led the creation of Amazon Nova and the AGI organization, will leave Amazon at the end of the year after more than a decade at the company. Jassy said the changes position Amazon to align its AI models, chips, and cloud infrastructure better, setting the stage for faster progress and new customer capabilities in the years ahead. AI Strategy, Cloud Growth, And Market Context Amazon stock gained nearly 1% year-to-date amid concerns over slowing cloud growth, high capital expenditures for AI infrastructure, and potential oversupply in cloud capacity. Meanwhile, a separate report indicated Amazon is in talks to invest $10 billion in OpenAI. Reuters reported that Amazon is holding "fluid talks" about joining a funding round that could value OpenAI at more than $500 billion, potentially giving the AI company access to Amazon's Trainium chips. Amazon already works closely with OpenAI, having finalized a $38 billion cloud services deal last month. Earlier, CEO Andy Jassy stated that AI continues to drive strong growth across Amazon, with AWS reaccelerating to more than 20% year-over-year growth as demand for AI and core infrastructure remains robust. AMZN Price Action: Amazon.com shares were up 0.83% at $223.10 during premarket trading on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data. Read Next: Amazon Restructures Workforce, Slashes Luxembourg Jobs While Doubling Down On AI Photo by bluestork via Shutterstock