Cornelis Networks Aims for AI Fabric Growth with Lisa Spelman at the Helm
Cornelis Networks shot a huge salvo today into the fabric community with the announcement of Intel veteran Lisa Spelman assuming the CEO seat for the startup. Rumblings started on the Internet yesterday that a major Intel executive was leaving the firm for a new home. Spelman was an Intel veteran, having served long-standing leadership roles in the data center and AI group as well as leading the company’s Xeon processor strategy. She’s been widely hailed as a face to watch for higher levels of corporate leadership, making this departure yet another strategic talent exit for the chip giant.
What does this mean for Cornelis? The company has a history of leadership in the HPC arena, having delivered Omni-Path fabrics to data centers and having delivered a robust portfolio of high speed fabric solutions. For those who may remember, Omni-Path was originally designed within the walls of Intel before being re-born as an independent company four years ago. And while HPC fabrics are interesting, the strategic value of Cornelis, and likely the reason why Spelman was interested in driving this tech further into the market, is AI’s insatiable fabric demand. We’ve written about the need for a fabric alternative to NVIDIA’s InfiniBand solutions on the TechArena at length before, and the Ultra Ethernet consortium is certainly building a groundswell of momentum for alternative solutions for AI clusters.
If you’d asked me yesterday who was going to lead new fabric innovation for AI, I likely wouldn’t have Cornelis on the top of my list. But the addition of Spelman, and her deep knowledge of the AI landscape, incredible relationships with ecosystem and customers built from her time driving Xeon processors, and frankly business savvy in terms of what it takes to create categories and grow tech leadership with customers, Cornelis has placed themselves squarely in the mix. I’m interested to learn more about how the Omni-Path based IP mixes with AI customer requirements, how Lisa will place a different focus on delivery of tech from previous leadership, and how strategic collaborations will be brought to bear to scale Cornelis’s ascent in the marketplace. Watch this space for more information in the weeks ahead as Cornelis begins to unveil it’s expected evolution.
Cornelis Networks shot a huge salvo today into the fabric community with the announcement of Intel veteran Lisa Spelman assuming the CEO seat for the startup. Rumblings started on the Internet yesterday that a major Intel executive was leaving the firm for a new home. Spelman was an Intel veteran, having served long-standing leadership roles in the data center and AI group as well as leading the company’s Xeon processor strategy. She’s been widely hailed as a face to watch for higher levels of corporate leadership, making this departure yet another strategic talent exit for the chip giant.
What does this mean for Cornelis? The company has a history of leadership in the HPC arena, having delivered Omni-Path fabrics to data centers and having delivered a robust portfolio of high speed fabric solutions. For those who may remember, Omni-Path was originally designed within the walls of Intel before being re-born as an independent company four years ago. And while HPC fabrics are interesting, the strategic value of Cornelis, and likely the reason why Spelman was interested in driving this tech further into the market, is AI’s insatiable fabric demand. We’ve written about the need for a fabric alternative to NVIDIA’s InfiniBand solutions on the TechArena at length before, and the Ultra Ethernet consortium is certainly building a groundswell of momentum for alternative solutions for AI clusters.
If you’d asked me yesterday who was going to lead new fabric innovation for AI, I likely wouldn’t have Cornelis on the top of my list. But the addition of Spelman, and her deep knowledge of the AI landscape, incredible relationships with ecosystem and customers built from her time driving Xeon processors, and frankly business savvy in terms of what it takes to create categories and grow tech leadership with customers, Cornelis has placed themselves squarely in the mix. I’m interested to learn more about how the Omni-Path based IP mixes with AI customer requirements, how Lisa will place a different focus on delivery of tech from previous leadership, and how strategic collaborations will be brought to bear to scale Cornelis’s ascent in the marketplace. Watch this space for more information in the weeks ahead as Cornelis begins to unveil it’s expected evolution.
