Amazon is reshaping its AI strategy, phasing out most of its internally developed flagship Nova models and redirecting core engineering and compute resources to a new Frontier Model Research, or FMR, program, according to Business Insider, which cited people familiar with the matter.
The move comes as competition in generative AI intensifies. Business Insider said Amazon has begun a broad reorganization of its AI development priorities, following recent layoffs in its AGI division and changes in senior leadership.
Most flagship Nova models are being downgraded to maintenance status
The clearest sign of that shift is Amazon’s decision to gradually retire several of its flagship Nova products. Business Insider said the affected lineup includes the high-end Premier and Omni models, Reel for video generation, and Canvas for image generation.
Some internal employees said those models have been moved into KTLO, short for “Keep The Lights On.” In practice, that means Amazon will continue to provide basic support for existing customers, but the products are no longer being treated as major priorities for development and updates.
That does not mean the company is walking away from the Nova brand altogether. The report said Amazon will keep operating baseline models such as Nova 2 Sonic and Nova 2 Lite, along with Nova Forge and the AI agent technology Nova Act.
Engineering talent and compute are being redirected to FMR
The engineering capacity and scarce computing resources freed up by the pullback are now being shifted to FMR. The initiative is led by Pieter Abbeel, a researcher who joined Amazon after the company acquired AI robotics startup Covariant.
According to Business Insider, FMR has become Amazon’s top strategic AI priority this year. The team is working on a new flagship foundation model that is expected to debut at Amazon’s annual re:Invent conference this fall.
Leadership reshuffle pushed Amazon from a broad AI push to a narrower one
The report tied the strategic reversal to internal management changes. Back in 2023, Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy had supported the AGI organization’s effort to build Amazon’s most ambitious foundation model, with the team led at the time by longtime Alexa executive Rohit Prasad.
That setup has since changed. Business Insider said Prasad left at the end of 2025. It also reported that AGI Lab, a long-term research group led by Adept co-founder David Luan, was shut down last week, while Luan himself had departed Amazon in February this year.
Amazon’s AGI organization has now been folded under Senior Vice President Peter DeSantis. Under his direction, the company’s AI strategy has shifted away from building multiple text, image, and video models at the same time, toward concentrating resources on a smaller number of frontier models.
Amazon says AI models remain one of its top priorities
In response, an Amazon spokesperson said: “AI models remain one of our most important areas of work, and that has not changed. Like any AI product portfolio, we’ll continue to adjust our model lineup based on customer needs, and we’ll provide clear guidance and migration paths as models are upgraded.”
Business Insider said the reorganization reflects Amazon’s effort to take a more focused approach as it competes with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.