Amazon shelves most Nova models, pivots to frontier AI push

Amazon is undertaking a major restructuring of its AI strategy, winding down most of its in-house flagship models and reorganizing around a new frontier model initiative. The company has begun deprecating the high-end Nova Premier and Omni models, along with the Reel video-generation model and Canvas image-generation model. These models are now operating in what Amazon engineers call "KTLO" (keep the lights on)—a term meaning they remain supported for existing customers but are no longer a major development priority.

The shift reflects a broader organizational reorganization. In 2023, CEO Andy Jassy personally championed the creation of Amazon's AGI organization to build foundation models and other technologies, prompting the formation of six new research groups. However, by 2024, the company established AGI Lab after hiring most of the team behind AI startup Adept and licensing its technology. The lab, led by Adept cofounder David Luan, focused on long-term AI research. Luan departed Amazon in February, and the company shut down AGI Lab as part of the latest reorganization. The AGI organization itself was originally led by Rohit Prasad, a longtime Alexa executive, until his December 2025 departure.

Resources are now concentrating on a new initiative called Frontier Model Research (FMR), led by researcher Pieter Abbeel, who joined Amazon through the company's acquisition of AI robotics startup Covariant. The FMR initiative has become the AGI organization's top priority this year and is developing a new flagship foundation model expected to debut at Amazon's re:Invent annual conference this fall. The broader AGI organization was also reorganized under senior vice president Peter DeSantis in December, combining it with Amazon's silicon development and quantum computing organizations. DeSantis has pursued a more focused AI strategy than his predecessor, concentrating engineering talent and computing resources on a smaller number of frontier-model efforts rather than pursuing multiple model families spanning text, image, and video generation.

While the restructuring does not necessarily mean Amazon is abandoning Nova entirely, the remaining Nova portfolio now consists of 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). Employees report receiving little guidance about the long-term future of Nova models, creating uncertainty across the organization. The layoffs surprised many employees, especially given that frontier model researchers had long been among Amazon's most prized technical talent. AGI operated with separate leveling and compensation systems to compete more aggressively for AI talent. An Amazon spokesperson said the company has long supported AI models in production for extended periods because customers depend on them, and that Amazon remains committed to investing in frontier models. However, the changes mark a major shift from just last year, when AWS unveiled Nova Omni 2 as its flagship multimodal reasoning model at re:Invent.

Amazon's restructuring reflects a strategic reset after three years of rapid expansion that failed to establish competitive parity in frontier AI. In 2023, CEO Andy Jassy personally championed the AGI organization and prompted the creation of six new research groups, signaling Amazon's ambition to build the company's most advanced foundation models. However, the broad portfolio approach—spanning Nova text models, image generation via Canvas, and video generation via Reel—proved unsustainable given the immense computational and talent requirements of frontier AI development. The departure of AGI leader Rohit Prasad in December 2025 and the subsequent reorganization under Peter DeSantis signal a shift toward concentration rather than diversification.

The elevation of Frontier Model Research, now led by researcher Pieter Abbeel (brought to Amazon through its 2023 acquisition of AI robotics startup Covariant), indicates where Amazon's priorities now lie. By deprecating the high-end Nova Premier and Omni models while retaining lighter-weight variants like Nova 2 Sonic and Nova 2 Lite, Amazon is signaling that its previous flagship products cannot compete with frontier models from rivals such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and others. The shutdown of AGI Lab—the research group built around talent and technology licensed from AI startup Adept—further underscores the company's retrenchment. Amazon's statement that it "continually evolves our model lineup based on what customers need" masks a more fundamental admission: the company spread itself too thin and must now consolidate to have a fighting chance at the frontier.