Bitfusion Acquisition Extends VMware Virtualization of GPUs

VMware has championed the virtues of virtualization of the x86 architecture for more than 20 years, and now the company plans to extend its commitment to virtualizing new architectures used for training AI models. VMware has announced its intended acquisition of Bifusion, provider of a multi-cloud AI infrastructure “disaggregation platform” for GPUs and FPGAs – i.e., hybrid virtualization of accelerated compute.VMware, the “digital workspace” company majority owned by Dell Technologies, said it will integrate Bitfusion into its vSphere platform and “deliver a cloud operational model to an emerging part of the data center as well as bridge the gap” between CPU-only and accelerated computing infrastructures. The goal, said Alex Wang, VMware’s VP of strategy and corporate development, is “helping customers to efficiently share GPU resources powering their AI-enabled apps — on-premises and in the cloud.”