HPE

Recent news

• Jun 16, 2026

  HPE Interview: Why Data Center Efficiency Is Now Core to IT Decisions

  HPE principal technologist Andrew DesRochers says customers are shifting conversations from sustainability rhetoric to operational efficiency as AI deployments collide with limits in energy, cooling, and water.

  • Main announcement/action:Andrew DesRochers (HPE) states that energy availability, cooling infrastructure, resource utilization, and utility timelines are now primary drivers of IT and site-selection decisions as AI moves from experimentation to production; this perspective was shared in an interview at HPE Discover 2026.
  • Background and details: Customers are increasingly evaluating alternatives such as direct liquid cooling, waterless cooling, and even high-voltage DC; operators are focusing on measurement and analytics, distinguishing training vs. inference workloads, and considering utility interconnection timelines and community scrutiny of water consumption when planning deployments.
• May 20, 2026

  Cowboy Space and the Case for Orbital AI Data Centers

  Cowboy Space Corporation (formerly Aetherflux) has rebranded, raised $275 million in a Series B at a reported $2 billion valuation, and unveiled a vertically integrated plan to build solar-powered AI data centers in low Earth orbit while developing its own launch vehicle.

  • Main announcement: Cowboy filed with the FCC for the “Stampede Data Center System“ — a proposed 20,000-satellite non-geostationary constellation operating in dawn-dusk sun-synchronous shells (≈700–1,000 km), and says launches could begin as early as 2028; the company also reports it raised $275 million in Series B funding at a $2 billion valuation and aims for a vertically integrated rocket-plus-data-center architecture.
  • Background and implementation details: The company describes each orbital vehicle as potentially 20,000–25,000 kg, producing roughly 1 MW and supporting ~800 onboard GPUs; it plans an initial satellite later this year to demonstrate space-to-Earth power beaming, and CEO Baiju Bhatt has said the first integrated rocket-and-data-center launch is unlikely before late 2028, with further regulatory approvals (including FAA launch authorization) still required.
• May 8, 2026

  Supermicro’s New AI Campus Embodies the Industrialization of AI Infrastructure

  Supermicro announced the opening of its largest U.S. Data Center Building Block Solutions (DCBBS) campus near its San Jose headquarters on April 27, 2026.

  • Main announcement: The new DCBBS campus spans ~32.8 acres and more than 714,000 square feet, becomes Supermicro’s fourth Bay Area location, expands the company’s regional footprint to nearly 4 million square feet, and will support advanced system design, domestic manufacturing, testing, service, and global distribution for Supermicro’s AI infrastructure portfolio. The facility includes 10 MW of on‑campus power capacity and is positioned as a rack‑scale, liquid‑cooled AI integration and validation hub.
  • Background and related details: Supermicro frames this as a move from server manufacturing to rack-scale DCBBS integration, part of a global footprint spanning Taiwan, Malaysia, and the Netherlands; the company reported fiscal 2025 net sales of $22 billion (up from $15 billion the prior year), projected fiscal 2026 revenue of at least $33 billion, and in early May projected quarterly revenue of $11–$12.5 billion. On May 6, Supermicro signed a non-binding MOU with NANO Nuclear to explore pairing microreactor generation (KRONOS platform) with Supermicro’s liquid‑cooled AI systems (no commercial deployment timeline announced).
• May 6, 2026

  Switch storm coming: Gartner forecasts price hikes, long lead times for enterprise data center switches

  Gartner has warned that switch vendors are pivoting engineering and physical resources toward AI data centers, causing higher prices and longer lead times for general-purpose data center customers.

  • Main announcement/action: Gartner report authors (including Andrew Lerner) state vendors are “aggressively pivoting resources” to AI infrastructure networks, predicting switch price increases of 15% to 40% and lead times of 3–9 months (up from 1–2 months in mid-2025); the report frames AI spending to surpass general-purpose data center networks in 2026 and more than double through 2029.
  • Background and details: The report and analysts (Zeus Kerravala, ZK Research) note constrained engineering talent, memory and laser supply; only about 200 companies operate high-end AI data centers versus roughly 100,000 traditional data center organizations, and AI players collectively spend three times what smaller companies spend. Gartner recommends actions such as extending equipment lifecycles, better utilization, certified refurbished programs (Cisco, HPE), exploring other vendors, cloud/colocation migration, and ordering early if buying new switches.
• Apr 7, 2026 · IT Brief Asia

  Nutanix adds AI & cloud tools amid infrastructure push

  Nutanix has announced additions to the Nutanix Cloud Platform including new AI, Kubernetes on bare-metal, expanded storage and cloud management capabilities.

  • Main announcement: Nutanix introduced Agentic AI (early access) and NKP Metal (early access), made Unified Storage 5.3 and Data Lens 2.0generally available, and released Nutanix Cloud Manager 2.0 GA; it also launched a Foundation Central appliance to simplify AHV deployment on servers from Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, HPE and Lenovo and expanded synchronous DR support for Dell PowerFlex and integration for Everpure //c FlashArray. These features target AI workloads, bare-metal Kubernetes, air-gapped on-prem deployments, and multisite/multidomain cluster management.

  • Background and details: The updates address server and storage supply constraints and aim to broaden deployment options (on-premise, edge, public cloud) including AWS GovCloud support; other planned ecosystem support includes AMD GPU-accelerated servers, Dell PowerStore, NetApp ONTAP, Lenovo ThinkSystem, additional Cisco integrations, zero-copy migrations from VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes to AHV vDisks, and a certified integration between Nutanix Database Service and MongoDB Ops Manager.

• Apr 2, 2026

  The Genesis Mission: How AI Supercomputing Is About to Reshape American Science and Energy

  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has launched the Genesis Mission, chartered to double U.S. R&D productivity within a decade by deploying a platform combining high-performance computing, AI supercomputing, and quantum computing.

  • Main action: The DOE’s Genesis Mission is standing up national AI supercomputing infrastructure through the Genesis Consortium with 27 industrial partners, including Nvidia, Oracle, AMD, and HPE; Argonne will host a system with ~10,000 GPUs (operational this year), Oak Ridge will host a comparably sized cluster targeting 2026, and a 100,000-GPU cluster is planned for Argonne in 2027. The program pairs this compute platform with a portfolio of national challenges (energy, physical sciences, national security) and a university engagement effort to train future scientists in AI-enabled methods.
  • Background and concrete details: The initiative was launched by President Trump and chartered through the DOE; examples cited include fusion surrogate models that run thousands to tens of thousands times faster than traditional simulations, Grid FM from Brookhaven that could cut a ~20-year grid-simulation workload to two months, and DOE Office of Electricity efforts to reduce interconnection delays by addressing the 80–90% deficiency rate in interconnection applications. Named private partners and startups involved include Periodic Labs, Radical AI, and the Prometheus Project.
• Mar 31, 2026

  Cisco extends its Enterprise Agreement to include Nutanix Cloud Platform

  Cisco has extended its Enterprise Agreement to include the Nutanix Cloud Platform, adding Nutanix HCI to Cisco’s EA licensing and services program.

  • Main announcement: Cisco has officially extended its Enterprise Agreement (EA) to include Nutanix Cloud Platform (HCI), providing customers with predictable pricing, price protection for the EA term, and flexible, true-forward consumption (ability to increase Nutanix usage during the year and pay at the annual anniversary) without renegotiating contracts.
  • Background and implementation details: Cisco and Nutanix have had a multi-year partnership (Cisco ended development of HyperFlex in 2023 and handed HCI to Nutanix); the vendors deliver products such as Cisco Compute Hyperconverged with Nutanix (combining Cisco hardware and Nutanix Cloud Platform), tightened Intersight–Nutanix integrations, support for Nutanix GPT-in-a-Box, and e-bonded global support and remote cluster deployment capabilities (per World Wide Technology commentary).
• Mar 23, 2026

  How Stadium Data Centers Power Fans, Operations, and Broadcast

  HPE deployed a multi-site, redundant core for the Milano Cortina Olympics and HPE and Cisco executives outlined stadium data center and networking architectures prepared for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

  • Main announcement/action: HPE deployed a multi-site, redundant core across two locations with fiber and WAN connectivity to roughly 40 venues for the Milano Cortina Olympics; the end-to-end architecture combined HPE and Juniper technologies with Mist AI cloud management, Juniper MX backbone routers, and Juniper SRX firewalls to provide redundant, AIOps-enabled venue networks.
  • Background and further details: Stadiums typically run two physically isolated data centers (an IT data center for ticketing/guest services and a media data center for high-bandwidth broadcast); live production can reach 100 Gbps for 8K/16K workflows, and AI-enabled edge systems (AIOps, Media eXchange Layer) are being adopted ahead of the 2026 World Cup across 16 stadiums in Canada, the United States, and Mexico; HPE/Cisco technologies were also noted at venues including Levi’s Stadium, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and others.
• Mar 23, 2026

  Super Micro Indictment Highlights AI Infrastructure Supply Chain Risks

  Super Micro Computer said co-founder and senior vice president Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw has resigned following a federal indictment that was unsealed on March 19 alleging a scheme to move systems containing Nvidia AI chips into China.

  • Main announcement:Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw resigned from Super Micro Computer following a federal indictment unsealed on March 19 that alleges a scheme to transfer systems containing Nvidia AI GPUs into China; the company publicly acknowledged the resignation in response to the indictment.
  • Background and context: The article documents how surging GPU demand, export controls, and supply-chain pressure intersect; analyst Matt Kimball highlights Super Micro’s historical positioning as a lower-cost, faster-to-market white-box vendor, raises concerns about governance and alleged ethical lapses, and notes that Nvidia was not implicated in the indictment.
• Mar 22, 2026

  Super Micro Indictment Highlights AI Infrastructure Supply Chain Risks

  Super Micro Computer announced the resignation of co-founder and senior vice president Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw following a federal indictment unsealed on March 19 alleging a scheme to move systems containing Nvidia AI chips into China.

  • Main action:Resignation of Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw after a federal indictment unsealed March 19 alleging an alleged scheme to transfer systems with Nvidia GPUs into China; the indictment document was linked in the article.
  • Background and context:Export controls on high-end GPUs, surging GPU demand, and Super Micro’s historical positioning as a faster, lower-cost white-box vendor (compared to Dell, HPE, Lenovo) are central; analysts (Matt Kimball) flagged supply-chain integrity, vendor governance, and procurement diversification as immediate implications for data center operators and enterprise buyers.
• Mar 19, 2026

  Dell, HPE, and Others Unveil AI Innovations at GTC 2026

  Dell announced advances to its Dell AI Factory, including the Dell Data Orchestration Engine and new storage and server roadmaps.

  • Main announcement:Dell announced the Dell Data Orchestration Engine (no-code/low-code) powered by Dataloop, plus Dell Lightning File System (now available) and Dell Exascale Storage for deployments exceeding 10 petabytes; Dell PowerEdge systems with Nvidia RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition are shipping now and the Dell AI Factory with Nvidia Modular Architecture will begin in April 2026. Dell also plans availability timelines: PowerEdge R9822 and M9822 Vera CPU servers in September 2026 and the PowerEdge XE9812 (Vera Rubin NVL72) in the second half of 2026.

  • Background and other details:HPE announced HPE AI Grid and Private Cloud AI (air-gapped options) with Private Cloud AI scaling up to 128 GPUs, and timeline notes: HPE Vera Rubin NVL72 rack-scale available December 2026 and the HPE Cray Supercomputing GX240 Vega CPU blade in 2027. Storage vendors: NetApp launched NetApp AI Data Engine (AIDE) co-engineered with Nvidia; Everpure extended Evergreen//One to FlashBlade//EXA and announced a Data Stream beta launching later in 2026; VAST Data released pre-built open-source pipelines for Nvidia AI blueprints.

• Mar 17, 2026

  NVIDIA Debuts Vera CPU to Anchor Next Phase of AI Infrastructure

  Nvidia has launched the Vera CPU, a processor designed to serve as the orchestration/control plane for agentic AI, unveiled at GTC 2026.

  • Launch details: Vera was unveiled at GTC 2026; built on Nvidia Grace architecture with 88 custom Arm-based “Olympus” cores (each core can run two tasks via Spatial Multithreading), LPDDR5X memory delivering up to 1.2 TB/s bandwidth, and a second-generation Scalable Coherency Fabric; tightly integrated with Rubin GPUs via NVLink-C2C (up to 1.8 TB/s coherent bandwidth) and positioned as the host CPU for HGX Rubin NVL8 systems.
  • Scale & ecosystem: Rack-scale Vera systems support up to 256 liquid-cooled CPUs and >22,000 concurrent CPU environments; ecosystem and early adopters named include Meta Platforms, Alibaba, ByteDance, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, CoreWeave, Nebius Group, Lambda, and OEMs Dell Technologies, HPE, Lenovo, Supermicro; Nvidia and analysts claim lower power than x86 and a design optimized for agentic and reinforcement-learning orchestration.
• Mar 16, 2026

  Who’s in the data-center space race?

  SpaceX, Google, Nvidia, and multiple startups are actively developing solar-powered orbital data center constellations and prototype satellites to run AI workloads in space.

  • Main announcement/action:SpaceX filed an FCC proposal for an orbital data center constellation of up to one million satellites and merged with xAI; Google’s Project Suncatcher plans to place TPUs in solar-powered satellite constellations, and Nvidia launched an H100 GPU into space with Starcloud. Key timelines: Google expects prototype launches (two satellites) by early 2027 and needs launch costs < $200 per kilogram (targeted mid-2030s); Axiom Space aims for first ISS data center nodes by end of this year and three interconnected nodes by 2027.
  • Background and details: Multiple startups (Lonestar, Aetherflux, Star Catcher, Loft Orbital, Starcloud, Satlyt, Astro Digital, Mission Space) and an Ariane Group/Airbus/Thales Alenia Space/HPE consortium (Ascend Horizon) plan space data center initiatives aiming for deployments by 2030; China’s Star Computing project targets 400 AI training satellites and 2,400 inference satellites by 2030, with further expansion to 2035. The article references technical constraints (launch cost, cooling via radiation, radiation hardening, maintenance and debris risk) and prototype/in-orbit demonstrations scheduled 2026–2027.
• Mar 12, 2026

  Cisco grows high-end optical support for AI clusters

  Cisco has announced the Open Transport 3000 Series multi-rail open line system and several accompanying optical products and upgrades.

  • Main announcement: Cisco unveiled the Open Transport 3000 Series, a multi-rail open line system that integrates optical components for multiple fiber rails into a single line card to improve power, density, and capacity for hyperscalers, neocloud operators, and large enterprise AI; Cisco also announced the NCS 1014 (1RU, 800GE line card with 12.8T capacity and MACsec support) and a QSFP-DD Pluggable Protection Switch Module with sub-50 ms failover and ~90% rack space saving.
  • Background and product details: Cisco stated AI optics TAM > $20B/year by 2030; NCS 1014 doubles density vs prior NCS generations, supports C&L-band and 800GE clients (map to a wavelength or inverse multiplex across two wavelengths); the QSFP28 100ZR 0 dBm coherent pluggable (Acacia-developed Bright) is targeted at edge/access/enterprise/campus deployments.