Amazon Acquires AI Startup Adept Founders and Licenses Agent Technology
Amazon hires the co-founders of AI startup Adept and licenses their agent technology to boost its in-house generative AI efforts. Adept remains operational under new leadership as it pivots to focus exclusively on enterprise agentic AI solutions.
Amazon hires the co-founders and key employees from AI startup Adept as part of a deal to license the startup's agent technology. Adept CEO David Luan and his fellow co-founders join Amazon to work under Rohit Prasad, who leads a new AGI team focused on building large language models. This strategic move brings valuable talent and advanced multimodal foundational models into Amazon's growing generative AI division.
Adept operates as an independent company under new leadership, with head of engineering Zach Brock stepping in as CEO. The startup shifts its focus away from building foundation models to concentrate entirely on practical agentic AI solutions for enterprise customers. Adept states that its existing products continue to run on a combination of its proprietary AI models, agentic data, and custom infrastructure.
This agreement provides a crucial lifeline for Adept, which reportedly explores acquisition talks with other tech giants like Meta and Microsoft in recent months. For Amazon, the licensed technology accelerates its roadmap to build digital agents that automate software workflows. Adept originally launches two years ago with a vision to create an AI teammate capable of navigating any software tool using natural language, raising over $415 million and reaching a $1 billion valuation.