Under the expanded agreement NVIDIA will enable Cisco Silicon One coupled with NVIDIA SuperNICs to become part of the NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform.

Cisco says the expanded partnership, based on the NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform, aims to give organisations flexibility and choice as they look to meet the demand of AI workloads.

The goal of the expanded partnership is to allow customers to optimise their AI infrastructure investments with a common architecture, using their existing management tools and processes, spanning front and back-end networks.

“Enterprises are under immense pressure to deploy AI quickly and effectively, and many leaders struggle to justify the investment while balancing the risks,” said Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO, Cisco.

“Together, Cisco and NVIDIA are partnering to remove barriers for customers and ensure they can optimise their infrastructure investments to unlock the power of AI.”

Jensen Huang, founder and CEO, NVIDIA said AI technology is advancing at light speed and will revolutionise every industry.

“NVIDIA Spectrum-X is Ethernet enhanced and supercharged for AI," Huang said.

"Together with Cisco’s enterprise platforms and global reach, we can help companies worldwide build state-of-the-art NVIDIA infrastructure as they race to transform with AI.”

According to Cisco, customers will benefit from current and future technology advancements in the NVIDIA Spectrum-X platform such as adaptive routing, telemetry, congestion control and low latency, as well as Cisco's broader networking, security, and digital resilience portfolio, including the Splunk data platform.

Cisco and NVIDIA are planning to develop joint solutions for customers, including data centre switches, NVIDIA Cloud Partner (NCP) and Enterprise Reference Architectures, and high performing Ethernet solutions.

Cisco plans to enhance its Silicon switches to be compatible with Spectrum-X and NVIDIA’s reference architectures, with availability by the middle of calendar year 2025, including existing and upcoming Cisco Nexus, Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric, and Cisco UCS products.

The timeline for new Cisco Spectrum switches will be announced at a later date.