Cisco to Collaborate with AI Infrastructure Partnership to Drive Investment in Data Centers and Enabling Infrastructure

Cisco announced that it will collaborate with the AI Infrastructure Partnership, which is led by BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners, MGX, Microsoft, NVIDIA and xAI. Cisco’s addition as a technology partner to AIP, alongside previously announced energy collaborations with GE Vernova and NextEra Energy, further strengthens the AIP platform as it seeks to invest in secure, efficient and scalable infrastructure to support AI workloads.

AIP will initially seek to unlock $30 billion in capital from investors, asset owners, and corporations, which it in turn expects to mobilize up to $100 billion in total investment potential when including debt financing.

Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO, Cisco, said, “AI is only as effective as the technology that connects and secures it. By collaborating across our industry and leveraging public and private partnerships, we intend to build the infrastructure necessary to fulfill the promise of AI as we work together to drive innovation and economic growth.”

Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, said, “On behalf of the partnership, we are thrilled to welcome Cisco, which will provide differentiated value to our ability to meet the evolving needs of AI infrastructure. The continued evolution of the AI ecosystem presents generational investment opportunities for our clients and partnership across technology, energy, and private capital will be critical to unlocking this growth.”

Cisco joins the partnership with the belief that AI is set to be an economic multiplier, unlocking new ways of automating and augmenting the human workforce across all industries. The technology infrastructure needed to support this evolution requires hardware, software and security purpose-built for AI. The addition of Cisco reinforces AIP’s commitment to an open-architecture platform and fostering a broad ecosystem that supports a diverse range of partners on a non-exclusive basis, all working together to build a new kind of AI infrastructure.

Source: Cisco media announcement