# AMD Pensando

> AMD Pensando builds programmable data processing units and AI network interface cards that take networking, security and storage chores away from general-purpose processors. Founded in 2017 by a veteran Cisco team, Pensando raised about $313 million, put its silicon into major clouds and enterprise systems, and was acquired by AMD in 2022 for approximately $1.9 billion. Its technology now anchors the networking layer of AMD's broader data-center and rack-scale AI strategy.

- **Founded:** 2017
- **Headquarters:** Milpitas, United States
- **Founders:** Prem Jain (Co-founder and former CEO), Soni Jiandani (Co-founder and former Chief Business Officer), Mario Mazzola (Co-founder), Luca Cafiero (Co-founder)
- **Products:** Distributed Services Platform, AMD Pensando Elba DPU, AMD Pensando Giglio DPU, AMD Pensando Pollara 400 AI NIC, AMD Pensando Salina DPU
- **Notable:** Raised about $313 million before acquisition., Reported roughly 100,000 chips in active service by the time AMD announced the deal in 2022., Acquired by AMD in May 2022 in a transaction valued at approximately $1.9 billion.

## Products & services

- **Distributed Services Platform** — A programmable packet processor, software stack and policy architecture for networking, security, storage and observability services.
- **AMD Pensando Elba DPU** — A second-generation P4-programmable DPU delivering dual 200 Gbps line-rate acceleration for networking, storage and security.
- **AMD Pensando Giglio DPU** — A power- and performance-efficient evolution of the Elba architecture for dual 200 Gbps infrastructure acceleration.
- **AMD Pensando Pollara 400 AI NIC** — A 400 Gbps Ethernet AI network interface card with programmable congestion control, selective retransmission and rapid fault detection.
- **AMD Pensando Salina DPU** — A third-generation, 5 nm, P4-programmable DPU aimed at front-end networking for cloud and AI data centers.
- **AMD Pensando Vulcano 800 AI NIC** — An 800 Gbps AI NIC for scale-out and scale-across networking in AMD's Helios rack-scale platform.

## Achievements

- Raised about $313 million before acquisition.
- Reported roughly 100,000 chips in active service by the time AMD announced the deal in 2022.
- Acquired by AMD in May 2022 in a transaction valued at approximately $1.9 billion.
- Won public deployments or collaborations with Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Goldman Sachs and HPE Aruba Networking.
- Microsoft reported 100x better connections-per-second performance for Accelerated Connections compared with its previous solution.
- AMD says DXC Technology estimates $65 million in total-cost-of-ownership savings from DPUs in Aruba CX 10000 switches.
- Expanded from cloud infrastructure offload into 400 Gbps and 800 Gbps networking for large AI systems.

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — AMD made the 400 Gbps Pollara 400 AI NIC available for purchase, positioning it as a programmable, Ultra Ethernet-ready adapter for AI scale-out networks.
- **2025-06** — AMD previewed the Helios open rack-scale design combining Instinct GPUs, EPYC CPUs and Pensando Pollara networking, with Vulcano networking on the roadmap.
- **2025-12** — AMD announced Pollara 400 AI NIC-ready server platforms from an expanding OEM ecosystem.
- **2026-07** — AMD introduced the Salina DPU for front-end acceleration and the Vulcano 800 AI NIC for scale-out and scale-across networking in Helios.

## Links

- Website: https://www.amd.com/en/products/data-processing-units/pensando.html
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/amd-pensando
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/AMDPensando
- GitHub: https://github.com/amd/pensando-elk
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AMD
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amd/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AMD/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/amd-pensando
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-26