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Amazon Cuts Most Nova Models to Focus on One Frontier Foundation Model

Centralizing engineering and compute under Pieter Abbeel's Frontier Model Research aims to speed flagship model development to provide clear customer migration paths.

Overview

  • Amazon has begun deprecating most of its flagship Nova models, including Premier, Omni, Reel and Canvas, as it reallocates talent and compute to a single frontier effort, according to reports on Tuesday, July 28, 2026.
  • The prioritized program is called Frontier Model Research (FMR) and is led by Pieter Abbeel; Amazon expects to surface a new next‑generation flagship foundation model at this year’s re:Invent, though that debut remains unconfirmed by the company.
  • The change follows recent cuts in the company's AGI organization and the shutdown of AGI Lab, and it consolidates AGI work under senior cloud executive Peter DeSantis.
  • Amazon says it will keep supporting production models customers rely on and will offer migration guidance, while retaining parts of the Nova lineup such as Nova 2 Sonic, Nova 2 Lite, Nova Forge and Nova Act.
  • The move narrows Amazon's parallel model research and could speed a single high‑profile product, but it also concentrates hiring and compute pressure and may shift AWS's focus toward supplying infrastructure and fewer in‑house models.