Amazon Reportedly Scales Back Nova AI Models to Focus on Frontier Research

Amazon is reportedly scaling back most of its in-house Nova AI models, including Nova Premier, Omni, Reel, and Canvas. According to the report cited by The Decoder, those models remain online for existing customers in “keep the lights on” mode but are no longer being actively developed.

For customers and developers, the key takeaway is continuity without momentum: existing access may remain, but the center of product energy appears to be moving elsewhere.

The pullback follows layoffs in Amazon’s AGI division and the closure of the AGI Lab Amazon founded in 2024 after acquiring Adept. Amazon first unveiled the Nova models in December 2024, making the reported change a notable reset in its in-house AI roadmap.

The move does not mean Amazon is leaving AI. Instead, it points to a sharper focus on fewer, more strategic model efforts.

Resources are now reportedly flowing to the Frontier Model Research group led by Pieter Abbeel, who joined through Amazon’s acquisition of robotics startup Covariant. A new foundation model is expected to debut at Amazon’s re:Invent conference this fall.

A spokesperson told Business Insider that AI models remain one of Amazon’s most important projects. That framing suggests the company is repositioning its AI work rather than retreating from it.

Amazon is also described as one of the biggest backers of Anthropic and OpenAI, with related investments that could top $100 billion. That gives Amazon multiple paths in the AI race: internal frontier research, customer-facing AWS infrastructure, and major external model partnerships.

Readers should watch re:Invent for the clearest signal of how Amazon wants its next foundation model to fit alongside Nova, Anthropic, OpenAI, and AWS.