Nvidia Corp and Cisco Systems Inc are teaming up to make it easier for corporations to build their own AI computing infrastructure, an attempt to push the technology beyond the big data-center providers.
Under an arrangement announced yesterday, Cisco is to offer Nvidia-based equipment — popular for developing artificial intelligence models — along with its networking gear.
For Nvidia, the partnership opens up another channel for its technology. Cisco, meanwhile, gets to capitalize on an AI spending boom that has helped turn Nvidia into the world’s most valuable chipmaker.
Photo: AFP
“Working closely with Cisco, we’re making it easier than ever for enterprises to obtain the infrastructure they need to benefit from AI, the most powerful technology force of our lifetime,” Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said in a statement.
Cisco is to offer M7 server computers that use Nvidia’s latest processors, as well as the chipmaker’s software, AI models and development tools. It is also offering its own cloud-based software and services for monitoring and managing such systems.
“Strengthening our great partnership with Nvidia is going to arm enterprises with the technology and the expertise they need to build, deploy, manage and secure AI solutions at scale,” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said.
The two companies made the announcement at the Cisco Live event in Amsterdam early yesterday. It is part of an effort to spread the deployment of AI hardware beyond its current concentration in data centers owned by Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc.
That group of so-called hyperscalers represents a potentially risky concentration of revenue for Nvidia. Though demand for the company’s chips remains insatiable, those customers could ultimately use more of their own technology. They are all either working on their own chips or have already begun adopting them in some way.
Cisco’s largest sales team is to sell Nvidia-based servers combined with its Ethernet networking gear. Nvidia offers an alternative called InfiniBand in its own products. The closer tie-up with Cisco gives Nvidia better access to customers who prefer to stick with the more widely used standard for transferring data between computers.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, booked its first-ever profit from its Arizona subsidiary in the first half of this year, four years after operations began, a company financial statement showed. Wholly owned by TSMC, the Arizona unit contributed NT$4.52 billion (US$150.1 million) in net profit, compared with a loss of NT$4.34 billion a year earlier, the statement showed. The company attributed the turnaround to strong market demand and high factory utilization. The Arizona unit counts Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc among its major customers. The firm’s first fab in Arizona began high-volume production
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Japanese company is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence linchpins Nvidia Corp and TSMC Softbank Group Corp agreed to buy US$2 billion of Intel Corp stock, a surprise deal to shore up a struggling US name while boosting its own chip ambitions. The Japanese company, which is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence (AI) linchpins Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), is to pay US$23 a share — a small discount to Intel’s last close. Shares of the US chipmaker, which would issue new stock to Softbank, surged more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. Softbank’s stock fell as much as 5.4 percent on Tuesday in Tokyo, its
COLLABORATION: Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture would make AI data center equipment, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) would operate a US factory owned by Softbank Group Corp, setting up what is in the running to be the first manufacturing site in the Japanese company’s US$500 billion Stargate venture with OpenAI and Oracle Corp. Softbank is acquiring Hon Hai’s electric-vehicle plant in Ohio, but the Taiwanese company would continue to run the complex after turning it into an artificial intelligence (AI) server production plant, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said yesterday. Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture between the two companies would make AI data
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
RSS