In a Wednesday message to employees, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed that veteran AWS executive Peter DeSantis will now head a newly formed organization dedicated to artificial intelligence. This team will oversee Amazon’s AI models, including Nova, along with silicon development and quantum computing initiatives—areas that enhance the speed and efficiency of AI tools.

DeSantis brings 27 years of experience at Amazon, having served eight of those as a Senior Vice President at AWS, the cloud platform that supports roughly one-third of the internet. The move follows Amazon’s recent emphasis on enterprise AI at the AWS re:Invent event, signaling a strategic decision to carve out a specialized group from AWS leadership.

Jassy explained the rationale in his note: “With our Nova 2 models just launched at re:Invent, our custom silicon growing rapidly, and the advantages of optimizing across models, chips, and cloud software and infrastructure, we wanted to free Peter up to focus his energy, invention cycles, and leadership on these new areas.”

This heightened focus on AI coincides with Amazon’s push to solidify its position in the competitive AI landscape, often leaning on strategic investments alongside in-house development. Last month, AWS committed $50 billion toward the U.S. government’s AI infrastructure. Additionally, Amazon is said to be discussing a potential $10 billion investment in OpenAI and has already invested $8 billion in Anthropic, a key competitor to OpenAI.