Cisco Expands Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA, adds Supermicro as Partner

Cisco AI Factory Supermicro Expansion

Cisco has added Supermicro as a rack-scale compute partner to Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA, the joint infrastructure framework the two companies introduced in March 2025.

The expansion brings Supermicro’s liquid- and air-cooled dense GPU systems into the program alongside Cisco’s Silicon One and NVIDIA Spectrum-X-based networking, targeting deployments on the NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 and HGX Rubin NVL8 platforms.

Powering the AI Factory: How Siemens and NVIDIA Co-Design Compute at Gigawatt Scale

NVDA-Siemens Power Collaboration

Today’s AI factories are gated by power, including how much a site can draw from the grid, how efficiently that power reaches a GPU, and how much useful compute each watt produces.

Let’s look at the problem through the lens of the long-time collaboration between Siemens and NVIDIA, which pairs their respective strengths to jointly address this problem.

AMD Launches Helios Rack-Scale Platform, MI400 Series and Strong Partnerships

Image of an AMD EPYC processor

AMD used its Advancing AI 2026 conference in San Francisco on July 22-23 to launch a full-stack of AI infrastructure products spanning silicon, rack-scale systems, and developer software. The centerpiece is AMD Helios, the company’s first fully integrated rack-scale AI system, which combines 72 Instinct MI455X GPUs, 18 sixth-generation EPYC “Venice” CPUs, Pensando networking, and ROCm software into a single liquid-cooled rack rated at up to 2.9 exaflops of FP4 inference performance.

Google Cloud Next ‘26: Storage Infrastructure Advances + the NetApp Partnership

Disk Drive

At its recent Next ’26 conference, Google Cloud advanced its storage portfolio across three fronts: high-performance infrastructure for AI training and inference, intelligent metadata capabilities built directly into the storage layer, and expanded ecosystem integrations. 

The announcements span Cloud Storage Rapid, Google Cloud Managed Lustre with 10 TB/s throughput, Hyperdisk Exapools, Smart Storage automation, and material expansions to the Google Cloud NetApp Volumes service, including a deeper partnership with NetApp.

Google Cloud Next 2026: Enterprise AI Enters Production

Google Cloud Next '26

Google Cloud Next 2026, held last week in Las Vegas, delivered a clear, consistent message: the experimental phase of enterprise AI is over, and the production phase of autonomous agent deployment has begun. Google made an incredible 260 announcements at the event, with most aligned with the idea that enterprises will increasingly operate through fleets […]

IBM TechXchange 2025: Enterprise AI Comes of Age in Orlando

IBM TechXchange 2025

I’ve just returned from IBM TechXchange 2025 in Orlando, and if there was one overarching message from this year’s event, it was this: the era of AI experimentation is over, and IBM is ready to help enterprises bring it to production environments.I’ve just returned from IBM TechXchange 2025 in Orlando, and if there was one overarching message from this year’s event, it was this: the era of AI experimentation is over, and IBM is ready to help enterprises bring it to production environments.

Research Note: IBM and AMD Collaborate on Classical-Quantum Computing

IBM Heron Quantum Processor

IBM and AMD recently announced a strategic collaboration to develop quantum-centric supercomputing architectures that combine quantum computers with high-performance computing infrastructure. The partnership is based on a memorandum of understanding between the companies, with no immediate financial exchange.

Research Note: DXC Technology and 7AI Partner on Agentic Security Operations

Abstract image representing cybersecurity

Announced earlier this month at Black Hat, DXC Technology has partnered with cybersecurity startup 7AI to launch the DXC Agentic Security Operations Center (SOC) for delivering managed security services.

The collaboration integrates 7AI’s autonomous AI agents into DXC’s global security operations workflow, covering alert ingestion, investigation, and remediation processes.

Research Note: AGNTCY Moves to Linux Foundation

AGNTCY

AGNTCY delivers foundational infrastructure for the “Internet of Agents”, enabling AI agents from different frameworks, vendors, and deployment environments to discover each other, establish identity, communicate securely, and share runtime observability data.

Open Flash Platform Initiative Aims to Redefine Flash Storage for AI

Deal

Six industry participants recently launched the Open Flash Platform (OFP) initiative, backed by six founding members: Hammerspace, the Linux Foundation, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), ScaleFlux, SK hynix, and Xsight Labs.

The initiative purports to address the challenges presented by the next wave of AI-driven data storage, specifically the limitations of power, heat, and data center space.

Research Note: Nutanix & Pure Storage Partnership

Pure Storage Logo

At the recent Nutanix .NEXT event, Pure Storage and Nutanix announced a collaboration to deliver a jointly certified solution combining Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure with Pure Storage FlashArray over NVMe/TCP.

The alliance targets enterprise customers seeking alternatives to traditional virtualization stacks, particularly VMware deployments.

Quick Take: UALink & OCP Join Forces

The Open Compute Project (OCP) Foundation and the Ultra Accelerator Link (UALink) Consortium have announced a strategic collaboration to standardize and deploy high-performance, open scale-up interconnects for next-generation AI and HPC clusters.

Research Note: Scality-Veeam Unified Software Appliance

Scality-Veeam Appliance

Scality and Veeam have developed a unified software appliance that runs on commodity x86 servers. It combines Scality’s ARTESCA object storage with Veeam’s Backup and replication software.

The new integration promises to streamline deployment, enhance security, and reduce implementation costs. It also eliminates the need for separate physical or virtual infrastructure for Veeam while providing a hardened security environment with reduced attack surface.

Research Note: UALink Consortium Releases UALink 1.0

UALink

The UALink Consortium recently released its Ultra Accelerator Link (UALink) 1.0 specification. This industry-backed standard challenges the dominance of NVIDIA’s proprietary NVLink/NVSwitch memory fabric with an open alternative for high-performance accelerator interconnect technology.

Research Note: Dynatrace & AWS New Strategic Collaboration

Deal

Dynatrace and AWS announced a multi-year strategic collaboration agreement, deepening their decade-long partnership that began in 2014. This expanded collaboration aims to address enterprise challenges in digital transformation through enhanced AI-powered observability and security solutions.

Research Note: Check Point & Wiz Enter Strategic Partnership

Deal

Wiz and Check Point recently announced a strategic partnership to integrate cloud network security with cloud-native application protection. The collaboration will merge Check Point’s AI-driven cloud security and networking capabilities with Wiz’s Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP).

Quick Take: Ambient IoT Alliance

Deal

The newly launched Ambient IoT Alliance aims to develop and promote a global ecosystem for ambient IoT, which refers to battery-free, energy-harvesting devices that seamlessly connect to existing wireless networks. These devices can track real-time data such as location, temperature, humidity, and more—all without requiring traditional power sources.

Research Note: CyberArk/SentinelOne Partnership

Deal

CyberArk and SentinelOne have formed a strategic partnership to integrate CyberArk’s Endpoint Privilege Manager (EPM) with SentinelOne’s Singularity XDR platform.
The collaboration enhances endpoint security by combining privilege management with advanced threat detection and response capabilities.

The AI Debate at Davos: Concerns and Controversies Surrounding Stargate

World Economic Forum

The annual World Economic Forum in Davos is known for sparking high-profile discussions on global challenges, and this year was no exception. Against the backdrop of the recently announced $500 billion Stargate Project — an ambitious AI infrastructure initiative led by OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle—prominent figures in artificial intelligence (AI) raised concerns about the future of the technology and its societal implications.

Research Note: The Stargate Project

Stargate Project

The Stargate Project, announced at a political event on January 25, 2025, is a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX that will invest up to $500 billion by 2030 to develop AI infrastructure across the United States.

Quick Take: NTT DATA and Google Cloud Expand Strategic Partnership in APAC

Deal

NTT DATA recently announced an expanded partnership with Google Cloud to advance the adoption of cloud-based data analytics and generative AI solutions for enterprises in the Asia Pacific region.

The expanded relationship combines NTT DATA’s industry-specific expertise with Google Cloud’s AI and analytics infrastructure to drive sector-specific innovation and efficiency improvements across healthcare, financial services, retail, manufacturing, and public sector verticals.

Quick Take: Palantir and L3Harris Collaboration on AI and Defense Innovation

Deal

L3Harris Technologies and Palantir Technologies announced they are entering a significant partnership focused on advancing AI and edge computing capabilities for both government and commercial sectors.

Building on an existing collaboration for the U.S. Army’s TITAN ground system, the alliance enhances the deployment of AI and next-generation tech solutions at the edge

Cisco and Nutanix Embark on Strategic Relationship

Deal

Cisco and Nutanix are collaborating to offer an integrated hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) product line that combines Cisco’s SaaS-managed compute and networking solutions with Nutanix’s software-defined storage platform.