Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: HPE-Nvidia Is A ‘Massive Partnership,’ Exits Sphere Stage With A ‘Go HPE!’

Nvidia and HPE introduced new co-developed, co-branded AI offerings that, ‘with a giant go to market’ can ‘bring AI to the world’s enterprises for the very first time,’ said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang onstage at HPE Discover.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Tuesday told 15,000 Hewlett Packard Enterprise customers and partners packed into the Sphere arena in Las Vegas that the “massive” partnership between HPE and Nvidia—backed by HPE’s channel ecosystem—brings the power of AI to enterprise customers for the first time.

“With a giant go to market, we can now bring AI to the world’s enterprises for the very first time,” said Huang (pictured above right), clad in his usual black leather jacket. “This is a massive partnership and a really comprehensive solution that we can take to the market. So it is a very big deal today.”

Huang said HPE’s partner network is key to bringing the power of AI to enterprises around the world. The technology ingredients are fundamental, he said, but ultimately you also need domain expertise from partners to fuel the AI revolution. “This is where this network of partners connecting all of this technology with a giant go to market [comes into play],” he said.

“This giant go to market, this network and ecosystem of partners and service providers, because of this it makes it possible for the first time to bring generative AI to every single company in the world,” Huang said.

The Sphere stage was the setting for the introduction of a comprehensive GenAI solutions portfolio, where Huang joined HPE CEO Antonio Neri (pictured above left) in the first-ever keynote at the Sphere to mark the launch of the new co-developed and co-branded “Nvidia AI Computing By HPE” offerings.

The biggest game changer in the expansion of the decades-long partnership between the two companies is an HPE Private Cloud AI offering developed with Nvidia that is designed to be up and running with just three clicks.

The HPE-Nvidia partnership goes beyond the HPE Private Cloud AI and compute offerings. It also extends into the channel with joint enablement and training programs that include combined market development funds for partners.

Neri said HPE and Nvidia have developed the turnkey HPE Private Cloud AI as a single integrated product that is ready to run AI solutions out of the box with just a few clicks. “When I say turnkey, I mean the simplest experience today for deploying and operating the AI Nvidia software stack in the industry,” Neri said.

All it takes is “three clicks,” said Huang. “The thing that is really amazing is you say it works right out of the box—inside that box are CPUs, Nvidia Grace CPUs, Nvidia GPUs, networking, NVSwitches, either Infiniband or Ethernet switches, and all of that technology and all of that software, all integrated,” he said. “No. 2, we have made it so you can have small, medium, large and extra large. And as you know, the more you buy, the more you save. So you want the extra-large version, but you can start anywhere. This is really a big deal that we have integrated everything into a really easy-to-use Private Cloud AI solution. All of the complexity that goes into all the technology has been provided to you, hidden from you, and it is helping you operate it over time.”

Huang also gave a nod to HPE’s liquid cooling prowess for AI systems which he said will result in “higher performance” and lower infrstructure costs. “The overhead of all the liquid to air, air to liquid, all of that is now gone, liquid to liquid,” he said. “So the future of liquid cooling is going to result in everything from better performance to lower infrastructure and lower operating costs.”

When Neri pointed out that HPE is uniquely positioned to deliver direct liquid cooling, Huang joked: “Nobody has more liquid than Antonio!” That line was met with applause from the audience.

Huang was scheduled to walk the show floor at HPE Discover with Neri to see a number of the demos.

“Thank you, Jensen, for inspiring us,” said Neri. “It is great to have you here, an amazing innovator, a force for changing the world,” he said. “And for me, it is a pleasure to always learn from you.”

Huang exited the stage with the cry—“Go HPE!” Neri responded: “Go Nvidia!”

The Partner AI Opportunity

Michael Maher, director of professional services at CPP Associates, Clinton, N.J., one of HPE’s top GreenLake partners, said the HPE-Nvidia partnership is democratizing AI.

“HPE and Nvidia are making AI accessible to everybody, not just folks with the biggest budgets in the world, but small and medium businesses that want to grow and take advantage of artificial intelligence and what it can offer their businesses to change their landscape and revenue models and their workstreams and workflows.”

Maher said the comprehensive and deep integration of the Nvidia AI Computing By HPE solutions takes the “pain” out of finding a path to AI for businesses that do not have data scientists, developers, AI architects or even governance specialists.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for CPP to help customers realize the potential of what they want to do, their growth capabilities, the next step in the evolution of their business and beyond,” he said.

Maher said having Huang onstage with Neri for Discover to establish the power of the partnership was a coup for HPE. “This relationship between Nvidia and HPE unlocks the true potential of AI for everybody,” he said. “This is all about going boldly to nowhere business has gone before. What HPE and Nvidia are doing is unleashing the full potential and promise of what AI can bring to small, medium and large businesses.”

Rob Schaeffer, president and chief revenue officer of e360, a top HPE partner based in Concord, Calif., said he was blown away by the HPE-Nvidia innovation.

“Amazing!” said Schaeffer in a text message to Neri after the keynote address. “Inspiring! You have raised the bar for us all. Brilliant days ahead for all of us in the HPE community. Thank you.”

Schaeffer told CRN the AI revolution has channel partners on the “precipice of amazing” times right now and in the future.

The HPE-Nvidia partnership is different than any other partnership in the market, said Schaeffer.

“The difference between HPE and all its competitors is that HPE is an engineering company at its core,” he said. “Many of the other companies are assemblers of technology and componentry that comes together, but at HPE it is engineered from the ground up. That is what was announced by HPE and Nvidia today. These solutions are truly integrated at an engineering level. What this allows us to do is not only be able to take that to a client and talk to them about the art of possibility with AI but to architect a business outcome with probability of success.”

Schaeffer said he sees a new opportunity to speak with customers about the ability to make AI a reality. “Now we can bring that to reality by harnessing our customers’ data to get insights with a compute platform that is purpose-built to take advantage of the large language models,” he said. “The great news is we have technology that allows us to say, ‘Yes, we can achieve this and do it in a reasonable time and at a reasonable cost. The answer is absolutely, yes.’”