What you need to know
- AMD announced plans to acquire Pensando for approximately $1.9 billion.
- Pensando specializes in improving data center performance through processor optimization.
- Several big-name organizations already work with Pensando, including Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, and IBM Cloud.
AMD just announced an agreement to purchase Pensando for approximately $1.9 billion. Pensando's distributed services platform helps improve data center performance through the use of processor optimization. The portfolio of Pensando should pair with AMD's existing offering, according to AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su.
"All major cloud and OEM customers have adopted EPYC processors to power their data center offerings," said Su. "Today, with our acquisition of Pensando, we add a leading distributed services platform to our high-performance CPU, GPU, FPGA and adaptive SoC portfolio."
Pensando already has several high-profile clients, including Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Goldman Sachs. The purchase should improve AMD's ability to compete in the data center industry. Analyst Patrick Moorhead likens Pensando to AWS Nitro.
Pensando is very much software defined, but very much has hardware. If you're confused, think AWS Nitro for everyone else. $AMD pic.twitter.com/42mnduY8E9Pensando is very much software defined, but very much has hardware. If you're confused, think AWS Nitro for everyone else. $AMD pic.twitter.com/42mnduY8E9— Patrick Moorhead (@PatrickMoorhead) April 4, 2022April 4, 2022
Girish Bablani, the corporate vice president of Microsoft Azure also weighed in on the announced acquisition. "We have seen a 40x improvement in overall cloud based connection related performance. Pensando delivered this in less than 12 months. This partnership has enabled a transformational 'limitless networking' shift that will ensure our customers have access to the highest performing products and services they expect from Microsoft Azure."
The acquisition of Pensando should fill several gaps that AMD has in the data center space, allowing it to play catchup with the likes of Intel and NVIDIA.
"This gets AMD into the NPU or IPU market," said Moorhead (via TechCrunch). "It will compete with Intel, Nvidia and Marvell. Pensando has a very good array of enterprise and cloud customers. I like it."
