NetApp buys DataPelago to bring AI computing to the storage layer
What's the deal? NetApp has acquired DataPelago, a California-based AI data infrastructure company, in a move to bring GPU-accelerated data processing directly to the storage layer. DataPelago will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary. Terms were not disclosed.
What each side brings: NetApp says it manages more enterprise data across more environments than any rival. DataPelago's core technology, Nucleus, is a universal data processing engine that uses accelerated computing across CPUs and GPUs to process data where it lives.
Why now? Enterprises have spent billions on GPUs and AI models, but fragmented data leaves that compute idle. NetApp's pitch is that the bottleneck is no longer the chips — it's preparing, governing, and activating data fast enough to put AI into production.
What's the endgame? By processing data at the storage layer rather than moving it to external compute clusters, DataPelago says Nucleus cuts infrastructure costs by up to 80% and runs up to 10 times faster than conventional approaches. NetApp calls the result "true zero-copy activation" of enterprise data.
The quotes: "AI is the defining platform shift of our era," said NetApp chief executive officer George Kurian, framing data as customers' "most important asset." DataPelago founder and chief executive officer Rajan Goyal said joining NetApp lets it pair "breakthrough processing technology with the industry's best data infrastructure portfolio."
The signal: The deal follows recent NetApp partnerships with Cisco, Google Cloud, Red Hat, and SK Telecom, and reflects a broader race among infrastructure vendors to make stored data AI-ready at the source. As models and chips grow more capable, the competitive edge shifts to whoever can activate data without copying or moving it.
Read more: Associated Press
Image credit: Schlüsselbein2007
