Cisco is joining an industry group led by BlackRock, Microsoft, Nvidia and others to develop secure and scalable infrastructure to support AI workloads.
The AI Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), which was originally formed in late 2024 under the name Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership, consists of a group of investors, asset owners, and corporations with plans to raise up to $30 billion for the development of data centers for artificial intelligence and the energy infrastructure to power them. AIP collaborators also include energy companies GE Vernova and NextEra Energy as well as United Arab Emirates investment firm MGX and Elon Musk’s xAI.
While it has detailed little about its actual plans, AIP says the technology infrastructure needed to support this evolution requires hardware, software and security purpose-built for AI.
“The addition of Cisco reinforces AIP’s commitment to an open-architecture platform and fostering a broad ecosystem that supports a diverse range of partners on a non-exclusive basis, all working together to build a new kind of AI infrastructure,” the group said in a statement.
Separately, Cisco announced AI initiatives centered in the Middle East region. Last week, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins visited Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain. This week, Jeetu Patel, executive vice president and chief product officer, is in Saudi Arabia, where he is participating in President Trump’s state visit to the region, according to Cisco. Related new projects include:
- An initiative with HUMAIN, Saudi Arabia’s new AI enterprise to help build an open, scalable, resilient and cost-efficient AI infrastructure: “This landmark collaboration will set a new standard for how AI infrastructure is designed, secured and delivered – combining Cisco’s global expertise with the Kingdom’s bold AI ambitions. The multi-year initiative aims to position the country as a global leader in digital innovation,” Cisco stated.
- A collaboration with the UAE-basedG42 to co-develop a secure AI portfolio and AI-native services: Cisco and G42 will work together to assess the potential to co-develop and jointly deploy AI-powered cybersecurity packages, as well as a reference architecture that integrates Cisco’s networking, security, and infrastructure solutions specifically designed for high-performance computing. This collaboration aims to help customers build and secure AI-ready data centers and develop AI workloads effectively, according to the companies.
- Interest in Qatar’s digital transformation: Qatar’s Ministry of Interior and Cisco signed a letter of intent to collaborate on Qatar’s digital transformation, AI, infrastructure development and cybersecurity.
Source:: Network World