What happened
David Luan, head of Amazon's San Francisco AI Lab and leader of its Nova Act agentic AI effort, announced his departure from the company this week. Luan joined Amazon's artificial general intelligence organisation in 2024 following Amazon's $330 million deal to license technology from Adept AI, a startup he co-founded. His exit follows a broader reshuffle of Amazon's AI leadership, including the December departure of Rohit Prasad and the appointment of Peter DeSantis to oversee a new AI model development unit.
Why it matters
Leadership instability within Amazon's AI division risks slowing its ambitious $200 billion 2026 capital spending plan for AI development. Luan's departure, following Rohit Prasad's exit and Peter DeSantis's appointment, signals ongoing strategic re-evaluation within Amazon's AGI efforts, particularly concerning agentic AI. This internal flux could impact the integration and deployment timelines for new AI capabilities, affecting platform engineers and product teams relying on Amazon's foundational models.
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