VMware, Nvidia target businesses that want their own AI

VMware

22/08/2023 17:30

By Stephen Nellis
       Aug 22 (Reuters) - VMware Inc  VMW.N  on Tuesday said it
has developed a new set of software tools in partnership with
Nvidia Corp  NVDA.O  aimed at businesses which want to develop
generative artificial intelligence in their own data centers
rather than the cloud.
    VMware, which is close to being acquired by chip firm
Broadcom Inc  AVGO.O  in a $69 billion deal, makes software that
corporations use to run their privately owned data centers. For
more than two decades, VMware's tools have been used by
businesses to divvy up the computing power in central processor
chips, which are the brains of traditional servers.
    On Tuesday, the company released a new set of tools help
designed to manage Nvidia chips, which dominate the market for
AI systems that can read and write text in human-like ways.
Companies like Microsoft Corp  MSFT.O , for example, are
offering cloud-based systems that can read through a business
team's emails and chats and help generate a short update on a
the team's progress. 
    Raghu Raghuram, VMware's chief executive, told Reuters
businesses are interested in the technology for everything from
helping software developers write code faster to writing legal
contracts more quickly. But some VMware customers want to do
that work in their own data centers when the data is sensitive.
    "Imagine a common use case: I want it to read all my legal
contracts so I can generate new contracts faster. Obviously,
that is going to be super, super secretive - you don't want that
data escaping anywhere," Raghuram said.
    VMware said the new tools will be available next year. The
company declined to say how it will be priced, other than saying
that the cost will be based on how many Nvidia chips the
customer uses the software to manage.

 (Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; editing by
Jonathan Oatis)
 ((Stephen.Nellis@thomsonreuters.com;))