Amazon has hired longtime AWS CEO Peter DeSantis to lead its new artificial intelligence organization

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced in a letter to employees on Wednesday that Peter DeSantis, a longtime AWS executive, will lead a new AI-focused organization within the company.

This organization will be responsible for Amazon’s AI models like Nova, as well as silicon development and quantum computing, which help make AI tools faster and more efficient.

DeSantis spent 27 years at Amazon, including eight years as senior vice president of AWS, the cloud provider that powers about a third of the Internet. At AWS’s recent re:Invent event, Amazon reiterated its commitment to AI for enterprise use, so it makes sense for the company to assemble a new AWS leadership team.

“With the Nova 2 models just launched at re:Invent, the rapid growth of our custom silicon, and the benefits of optimization across models, chips, software, cloud, and infrastructure, we wanted to free up Peter to focus his energy, invention cycles, and leadership on these new areas,” Jassy wrote.

Amazon’s increased focus on AI comes at a time when the company is looking to strengthen its foothold in the AI ​​race, perhaps more through investments than its own innovations. Last month, AWS announced a $50 billion investment in the US government’s AI infrastructure. Amazon is also reportedly in talks to invest $10 billion in OpenAI, and has already invested $8 billion in OpenAI competitor Anthropic.