AMD to buy Pensando for $1.9bn

Advanced Micro Devices said on Monday that it has agreed to buy cloud start-up Pensando for $1.9bn to expand its data centre solutions capabilities.

Founded in 2017, Pensando is pioneering distributed computing designed for the New Edge, powering software-defined cloud, compute, networking, storage and security services to transform existing architectures into the secure, ultra-fast environments demanded by next generation applications, AMD said.

The company’s products are already deployed at scale across cloud and enterprise customers, including Goldman Sachs, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud.

AMD chair and chief executive Dr. Lisa Su said: "To build a leading-edge data centre with the best performance, security, flexibility and lowest total cost of ownership requires a wide range of compute engines.

"All major cloud and OEM customers have adopted EPYC processors to power their data centre offerings. Today, with our acquisition of Pensando, we add a leading distributed services platform to our high-performance CPU, GPU, FPGA and adaptive SoC portfolio. The Pensando team brings world-class expertise and a proven track record of innovation at the chip, software and platform level which expands our ability to offer leadership solutions for our cloud, enterprise and edge customers."

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of the year.