• About Us
  • Partnership Opportunities
  • Privacy Policy

Data Center Frontier

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing.

  • Cloud
    • Hyperscale
  • Colo
    • Site Selection
    • Interconnection
  • Energy
    • Sustainability
  • Cooling
  • Technology
    • Internet of Things
    • AI & Machine Learning
    • Edge Computing
    • Virtual Reality
    • Autonomous Cars
    • 5G Wireless
    • Satellites
  • Design
    • Servers
    • Storage
    • Network
  • Voices
  • Podcast
  • White Papers
  • Resources
    • COVID-19
    • Events
    • Newsletter
    • Companies
    • Data Center 101
  • Jobs
You are here: Home / Featured / NVIDIA to Acquire Mellanox in $6.9 Billion HPC Deal

NVIDIA to Acquire Mellanox in $6.9 Billion HPC Deal

By Rich Miller - March 11, 2019

NVIDIA to Acquire Mellanox in $6.9 Billion HPC Deal

The NVIDIA DGX-1 is packed with GPUs, providing 170 teraflops of computing power in a 3U form factor. DGX systems are commonly used for natural language processing. (Photo: Rich Miller)

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

In a deal underscoring the growing importance of data center networking, technical computing heavyweight NVIDIA has agreed to acquire networking specialist Mellanox for $6.9 billion deal.

The transaction has strategic implications for the data center and high performance computing (HPC) sectors, as chipmaker Intel was also rumored to be among the bidders for Mellanox, a leader in interconnect technology that ties together computing resources. Mellanox pioneered the InfiniBand interconnect technology, which along with its high-speed Ethernet products is now used in over half of the world’s fastest supercomputers and in many leading hyperscale datacenters.

NVIDIA said the deal will position the company to optimize data-intense computing workloads across the entire computing, networking and storage stack to achieve higher performance and lower cost solutions for customers.

“The data center has become the most important computer in the world,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. ““The emergence of AI and data science, as well as billions of simultaneous computer users, is fueling skyrocketing demand on the world’s datacenters,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Addressing this demand will require holistic architectures that connect vast numbers of fast computing nodes over intelligent networking fabrics to form a giant datacenter-scale compute engine. The computer no longer starts and ends at the server.”

NVIDIA’s graphics processing (GPU) technology has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the rise of specialized computing, gaining traction with workloads in supercomputing, artificial intelligence (AI) and connected cars. NVIDIA has been investing heavily in innovation in AI, which it sees as a pervasive technology trend that will bring its GPU technology into every area of the economy and society.

Focus on Interconnects

Interconnects are network components that allow compute nodes to communicate with each other. Ethernet and Infiniband have been the leading interconnect technologies in high-performance computing.

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang shows off new hardware for the DGX-2, the upgraded version of the company's desktop supercomputer. (Photo: NVIDIA Corp.)

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang . (Photo: NVIDIA Corp.)

In 2014 NVIDIA introduced NVLink, an interconnect optimized to connect GPUs to CPUs, or connect nodes in an all-GPU system. It also has a long history of collaboration with Mellanox. The two companies have worked together on many HPC projects, including the world’s two fastest supercomputers, Sierra and Summit, operated by the U.S. Department of Energy. Many of the world’s top cloud service providers also use both NVIDIA GPUs and Mellanox interconnects.

“We share the same vision for accelerated computing as NVIDIA,” said Eyal Waldman, founder and CEO of Mellanox. “Combining our two companies comes as a natural extension of our longstanding partnership and is a great fit given our common performance-driven cultures. This combination will foster the creation of powerful technology and fantastic opportunities for our people.”

The deal will be closely watched by Wall Street, which has been keenly focused on NVIDIA’s progress in the data center sector, where Intel CPUs have long been the dominant compute platform. In recent years, NVIDIA’s stock performance has been buffeted by sales of its GPUs to cryptocurrency specialists, whose buying patterns have fluctuated wildly along with the price of bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies.

NVIDIA plans to acquire common shares of Mellanox for $125 per share in cash, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $6.9 billion, and to fund the acquisition through cash on its balance sheet. Once complete, the combination is expected to be immediately accretive to NVIDIA’s non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP earnings per share and free cash flow. The transaction has been approved by both companies’ boards of directors and is expected to close by the end of calendar year 2019, subject to regulatory approvals.

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

Tagged With: High, HPC, Mellanox, NVIDIA

Newsletters

Stay informed: Get our weekly updates!

Are you a new reader? Follow Data Center Frontier on Twitter or Facebook.

About Rich Miller

I write about the places where the Internet lives, telling the story of data centers and the people who build them. I founded Data Center Knowledge, the data center industry's leading news site. Now I'm exploring the future of cloud computing at Data Center Frontier.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Voices of the Industry

Overcoming Supply Chain Roadblocks: How to Avoid Disruptions in Your Data Center

Overcoming Supply Chain Roadblocks: How to Avoid Disruptions in Your Data Center The data center industry continues to experience significant global supply chain problems. Brett Williams of Service Express, explores the importance of leveraging the secondary hardware market to overcome supply chain roadblocks.

White Papers

Government Data Centers

Federal and State Government Data Centers: Balancing Modernization and Servicing Imperatives

The purpose of this new Vertiv white paper is to help federal and state agency decision makers, including data center operations, IT, facilities and desktop technology managers, and communications room operators, consider whether to service new and existing equipment. Get the full report today.

Get this PDF emailed to you.

We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

DCF Spotlight

Data center modules on display at the recent Edge Congress conference in Austin, Texas. (Photo: Rich Miller)

Edge Computing is Poised to Remake the Data Center Landscape

Data center leaders are investing in edge computing and edge solutions and actively looking at new ways to deploy edge capacity to support evolving business and user requirements.

An aerial view of major facilities in Data Center Alley in Ashburn, Virginia. (Image: Loudoun County)

Northern Virginia Data Center Market: The Focal Point for Cloud Growth

The Northern Virginia data center market is seeing a surge in supply and an even bigger surge in demand. Data Center Frontier explores trends, stats and future expectations for the No. 1 data center market in the country.

See More Spotlight Features

Newsletters

Get the Latest News from Data Center Frontier

Job Listings

RSS Job Openings | Pkaza Critical Facilities Recruiting

  • Critical Power Energy Manager - Data Center Development - Ashburn, VA
  • Site Development Manager - Data Center - Ashburn, VA
  • Data Center Facility Operations Director - Chicago, IL
  • Electrical Engineer - Senior - Dallas, TX
  • Mechanical Commissioning Engineer - Calgary, Alberta

See More Jobs

Data Center 101

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Open Spectrum, brings our readers a series that provides an introductory guidebook to the ins and outs of the data center and colocation industry. Think power systems, cooling, solutions, data center contracts and more. The Data Center 101 Special Report series is directed to those new to the industry, or those of our readers who need to brush up on the basics.

  • Data Center Power
  • Data Center Cooling
  • Strategies for Data Center Location
  • Data Center Pricing Negotiating
  • Cloud Computing

See More Data center 101 Topics

About Us

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing. We write about what’s next for the Internet, and the innovations that will take us there. We tell the story of the digital economy through the data center facilities that power cloud computing and the people who build them. Read more ...
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

About Our Founder

Data Center Frontier is edited by Rich Miller, the data center industry’s most experienced journalist. For more than 20 years, Rich has profiled the key role played by data centers in the Internet revolution. Meet the DCF team.

TOPICS

  • 5G Wireless
  • Cloud
  • Colo
  • Connected Cars
  • Cooling
  • Cornerstone
  • Coronavirus
  • Design
  • Edge Computing
  • Energy
  • Executive Roundtable
  • Featured
  • Finance
  • Hyperscale
  • Interconnection
  • Internet of Things
  • Machine Learning
  • Network
  • Podcast
  • Servers
  • Site Selection
  • Social Business
  • Special Reports
  • Storage
  • Sustainability
  • Videos
  • Virtual Reality
  • Voices of the Industry
  • Webinar
  • White Paper

Copyright Data Center Frontier LLC © 2022