Intel Spinoff and Rivals Challenge Nvidia's AI Networking Monopoly
Source: The Register: Biting the hand that feeds
Cornelis Networks and Delos Data are targeting NVLink's proprietary lock-in on GPU-to-GPU communication, which forces data center operators into expensive vendor capture at scale. These startups are betting that open standards for AI interconnect will appeal to hyperscalers tired of single-supplier dependency, particularly as training cluster sizes—and thus interconnect costs—explode. They face the brutal combinatorial problem of software ecosystem fragmentation that has historically buried open networking efforts. The test is whether cloud operators will tolerate the operational complexity and slower adoption of standards-based alternatives when Nvidia's vertical integration simply works.