Amazon is closing its San Francisco AGI site as part of the layoffs it made this week in its artificial general intelligence organization, but said its frontier model research lab will continue.

A company spokesperson confirmed the news of the site closure, which was first reported by The Information. Amazon’s frontier model research work will carry on under Pieter Abbeel, a UC Berkeley professor who joined Amazon in 2024 when the company licensed the technology and hired the team from Covariant, the robotics startup he co-founded.

The AGI Lab was founded in December 2024 and initially built around several dozen employees Amazon brought in from the startup Adept, including its co-founder and CEO David Luan.

The team grew to about 80 people at its peak, according to The Information, but more than a dozen of the Adept hires have since left, Luan among them. Earlier this week, Amazon confirmed it was cutting an unspecified number of jobs across the broader AGI organization.

Impacted employees will have the chance to explore other roles at Amazon, the spokesperson said, and the company is supporting them through that process.

Nova Act, the browser-agent model and service that came out of the group, remains available on AWS and in use by customers. More broadly, AWS has continued to build out its agentic AI lineup, including Bedrock AgentCore and applications like Kiro, Quick, Continuum and Transform.

The moves come as Amazon invests heavily in helping customers deploy AI, including a $1 billion AWS effort to embed engineers with businesses building AI agents. The initiative reflects an expanded industry focus toward putting agents and models to better use for customers.

Startups innovating across advanced manufacturing and computational health made up the latest cohort of the Seattle accelerator run by Creative Destruction Lab (CDL).

The nine-month, nonprofit program based at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business graduated 17 early stage companies. It’s the fifth cohort since CDL launched its Seattle hub in 2021.

CDL, which runs startup programs around the world, does not take equity from companies and relies on funding from founding members such as the UW and Microsoft. Founders in the cohort get access to mentors including startup founders, investors, and other leaders from across the Pacific Northwest.

Startups that have participated have collectively raised more than $330 million in follow-on venture capital funding since 2022, according to CDL.

The list below includes the companies that just graduated, with descriptions provided by CDL. See past graduates here.

Manufacturing

• 3D Spark — An AI-powered B2B platform that lets engineering, procurement, and sales teams rapidly evaluate and compare manufacturing methods for custom parts by analyzing manufacturability, cost, lead time, and CO₂ footprint. 
• Outrun Robotics — An industrial automation company that builds and deploys capable, flexible, intelligent robotic workstations to automate stationary, repetitive work in factories. 
• Xronos — Empowers developers to rapidly and confidently design, test, and deploy software to automate the physical world. 
• Loadsters — A lightweight, rechargeable, modular conveyor-belt system that makes it easier for ramp agents to load and unload cargo and luggage in narrowbody aircraft, for airlines and ground handlers. 
• Velodex Robotics — Building general-purpose robotic manipulation, initially targeting high-volume production in the food industry. 
• AILOS Robotics — Builds the gearboxes robots need at every joint, making modern robotics lighter, faster, safer, more sustainable, and more affordable. 
• R2 Labs — Redefining industrial automation with the R2 Autonomy Controller (RAC), bringing vision, AI, and real-time intelligence to existing PLC-based systems. 
• Neuramill — AI tools for high-precision manufacturing; the copilot for CNC, sitting between CAD and CAM. 

Computational health

• Navis Bio — Software and AI tools for highly-customized intelligence on biopharma assets.
• Cubtale — The first parenting platform integrated with healthcare systems, delivering AI-powered, personalized care guidance and rich behavioral data analytics from birth to early childhood. 
• Vocxi — A breath-based diagnostic platform that enables rapid, noninvasive detection of multiple diseases. 
• EloraHQ  — The operating system for frontline care: 90% less paperwork, 10x clients, and full revenue capture. 
• Vivo Surgery — A cloud platform that captures and organizes surgical video into AI-ready data, accelerating precision training, connected operating rooms, and the future of autonomous robotic surgery. 
• LIND AI — Helps health systems accelerate trial accrual by automating screening and surfacing the most eligible patients, with source-verified evidence at their fingertips. 
• Adentris — An AI-powered platform that integrates with EHR systems to continuously scan for quality-measure adherence and documentation issues before they lead to patient-safety risks or financial losses. 
• Exin Therapeutics — Develops gene therapies to repair circuit dysfunction, powered by an AI drug discovery platform. 
• Therassist.AI — Helps psychotherapists close the quality gap by automating notes and guiding expertise in evidence-based psychotherapy.

Applications are now open for the 2026-27 cohort, with a July 24 deadline to apply. The program is conducted virtually with three in-person session days in October, February, and April. Founders can apply here or reach out to CDL Seattle venture managers: cdl-seattle@creativedestructionlab.com.