Amazon expands Bedrock with new AI model marketplace, a day after unveiling its own ‘Nova’

At the Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent conference, Amazon unveiled its Nova artificial intelligence models, developed in-house, with CEO Andy Jassy emphasizing that Amazon remains committed to offering a broad selection of AI models from multiple providers. This highlights Amazon’s strategy to diversify its offerings while continuing to expand its AI capabilities.

A key component of this strategy is the Amazon Bedrock service, which provides customers with managed access to a variety of generative AI models. During the keynote, Swami Sivasubramanian, Amazon’s VP of AI and Data, announced the launch of a Bedrock Marketplace. This marketplace will give users access to specialized foundation models from leading AI providers, including Luma AI and Poolside. These models are designed for niche applications such as biology and other unique business use cases, aiming to streamline the development process by offering a unified platform for discovering and testing emerging models.

As part of the expansion, over 100 AI models will be available in the Bedrock Marketplace. This move positions Amazon as a strong competitor to other cloud giants like HuggingFace and Google’s Vertex AI, which also provide extensive AI model options through their respective platforms.

In addition to the Bedrock Marketplace, Amazon also introduced its Nova models, which will initially be available through Bedrock. These models come in various forms, from basic text-only models to more advanced models capable of video generation. Jassy explained that these models were first developed for internal use within Amazon before being shared with the public, reflecting Amazon’s ongoing investment in AI innovation.

With these announcements, Amazon aims to solidify AI as a core service offering, similar to its foundational services like compute, storage, and databases. This reinforces the growing importance of AI inference as a key element for businesses leveraging AWS, positioning AI alongside the traditional building blocks of cloud infrastructure.