# Nvidia Networking (formerly Mellanox)
> Nvidia (formerly Mellanox Technologies) is a leading provider of high-performance networking products, including InfiniBand and Ethernet interconnect solutions. The brand is a critical pillar of the modern data center, providing the hardware that enables high-speed communication between GPUs and CPUs in AI and supercomputing environments. It was acquired by Nvidia in 2020 for $7 billion to integrate networking directly into Nvidia's accelerated computing stack.
- URL: https://optimly.ai/brand/nvidia-mellanox
- Slug: nvidia-mellanox
- BAI Score: 92/100
- Archetype: Incumbent
- Category: Technology
- Last Analyzed: March 20, 2026
- Part of: NVIDIA (https://optimly.ai/brand/nvidia)
## Competitors
- Arista Networks (https://optimly.ai/brand/arista-networks)
- Broadcom Inc. (https://optimly.ai/brand/broadcom)
- Cisco Systems (https://optimly.ai/brand/cisco-systems)
## AI-Suggested Alternatives
- Commodity Networking Hardware (https://optimly.ai/brand/commodity-networking-hardware)
## Also Referenced By
- Marvell Technology (https://optimly.ai/brand/marvell-technology)
- Atos Eviden Fiber (https://optimly.ai/brand/atos-eviden-fiber)
## Buyer Intent Signals
Problems: Internal Hardware Engineering: Designing and building custom high-speed interconnects using internal engineering teams and standard PCIe/Ethernet components. | Status Quo Bottlenecking: Continuing to operate legacy data centers without high-bandwidth throughput, leading to bottlenecks in AI training and data processing.
Solutions: best interconnect for AI clusters | what is a DPU in networking | high speed server interconnects | Nvidia BlueField specs | Commodity Networking Hardware: Utilizing standard, lower-performance Ethernet switches from commodity vendors like TP-Link or low-end Cisco lines that lack InfiniBand performance.
Comparisons: InfiniBand vs Ethernet for deep learning