Nvidia (NVDA) and Cisco (CSCO) are extending their strategic partnership as they seek to accelerate and make it easier for corporations to deploy AI systems. As part of the strategic partnership, the companies have broadened the list of products that will feature each other’s technologies as part of the artificial intelligence initiative.
Nvidia-Cisco AI Deal
Consequently, Nvidia’s networking add-on Spectrum-X-Ethernet will start featuring Cisco’s chips that handle broader connectivity functions. Cisco, which has struggled to sell its machinery to hyperscaler data centres, expects the strategic collaboration to strengthen its prospects for a bigger slice of the AI spending. Therefore, NVidias’ networking gear is to include Cisco’s Silicon One chips. The integration should strengthen Silicon One chips prospects in a market that Broadcom products have dominated for years.
Nvidia and Cisco are strengthening ties at a time when a small group of companies has dominated the AI data centre buildup. Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN) have been the market leaders in the segment owing to their vast engineering teams capable of designing and deploying machinery. By joining forces, Nvidia and Cisco hope to strengthen their prospects in the sector.
In addition, the collaboration seeks to remove barriers for customers and ensure they can optimize their infrastructure investments to unlock the full potential of artificial intelligence. Additionally, they hope to tap into the tremendous opportunities cropping up as enterprises remain under pressure to deploy AI quickly and more efficiently.
Alibaba AI Boost
Meanwhile, Alibaba’s (BABA) long-term prospects have received a significant boost amid the artificial intelligence boom and integration. The company delivered the fastest revenue growth rate in more than a year as its recovery from a turbulent year gathers steam.
The company’s two most significant divisions, cloud services, which house its AI initiatives, and e-commerce, saw better-than-expected revenue gains that suggest Chinese consumption has recovered from its post-Covid lows. Alibaba’s increasing resolve to compete in the artificial intelligence market contributed to investors’ optimism. Alibaba will invest more in AI infrastructure over the next three years than it has over the last ten years, according to CEO Eddie Wu.
Following the largest quarterly growth in cloud services revenue in roughly two years, Alibaba reported an 8% increase in sales to $38.6 billion in the December quarter. Revenue increased 13% to $4.3 billion for that division, which houses the company’s AI-related projects and provides computing power for outside clients—sales in international commerce.
Alibaba has made investments in several of China’s most promising startups, such as Moonshot and Zhipu, since the release of OpenAI’s chatbot. It has also cut prices to entice back customers who had fled during the turbulent years and gave priority to growing the cloud business that supports AI development. It also made the decision to invest heavily in AI, entering a race then headed by Baidu Inc. The Chinese internet giant also unveiled Qwen, an AI model that demonstrated its increasing prominence in the industry and did well in official benchmark tests. In a show of faith in Alibaba’s AI abilities, Apple Inc. is integrating its AI technology into Chinese iPhones.
