The 25 Hottest AI Companies For Data Center And Edge: The 2024 CRN AI 100 (2024)

Here are the 25 companies leading the AI revolution and innovation race in servers, chips, networking, storage, microprocessors, laptops and PCs in 2024.

AI innovation around chips, servers, data management and storage devices are infiltrating the data center and edge computing environments, while new AI-powered PCs and laptops have become one of the hottest topics in 2024.

Some of the largest and most valuable tech companies in the world are turning their sights on the AI and generative AI market by launching new hardware and software that are fueling the AI boom—including new CPUs for AI workloads, AI-powered data management and protection, as well as AI copilot initiatives to boost AIOps.

“Early adoption of [AI] innovations will lead to significant competitive advantage and ease the problems associated with utilizing AI models within business processes,” said Afraz Jaffri, director and analyst at IT research firm Gartner, in a recent report.

[Related: Kyndryl Builds 6,000-Strong Google Cloud Army To Drive AI]

AI can provide technologies and automation techniques that offer transformational benefits while also addressing the limitations and security risks of fallible systems. On the GenAI side, the technology helps enable organizations to gain a deeper understanding of operational processes, make suggestions for process improvement and automate complex processes.

CRN’s list of 25 companies that are leading the AI revolution in data centers, edge computing and laptops include behemoths like Nvidia, Cisco Systems, Intel, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Supermicro.

However, there are also many AI startups that provide partner programs on CRN’s list, including Prosimo, Alcion and Run:ai—which are all making waves in the industry.

“Numerous startups emerged in 2023 to innovate with generative AI, and we expect this to grow,” said Gartner’s Jaffri.

As part of CRN’s inaugural AI 100 list, CRN breaks down the 25 AI companies that are driving AI innovation and paving the way for the future.

Acer

Jason Chen

Chairman, CEO

Acer’s AI laptops and PCs feature specialized hardware with dedicated AI processors such as Intel AI Boost or AMD Ryzen AI that offload tasks from the CPU for accelerated performance. Other AI offerings from the company include AI video and audio features as well as one-click access to Microsoft Copilot.

Alcion

Niraj Tolia

Co-Founder, CEO

Alcion’s AI-driven approach to security protecting data from ransomware, malware and outages makes it a top Microsoft 365 backup provider. Alcion uses AI and predictive analytics to understand and protect customers’ data and provide a SaaS platform for Microsoft MSPs.

AMD

Lisa Su

Chair, CEO

AMD powers the AI world with a slew of AI-focused server processors, graphics cards, accelerators for GenAI, adaptive SoCs for AI inference, and a portfolio to support AI deployments from the cloud to the edge to endpoints. AMD’s CDMA architecture is built to accelerate compute-intensive AI workloads.

Cisco Systems

Chuck Robbins

Chair, CEO

From Cisco’s new AI Assistant for Webex to its GenAI Protection for LLM security, the world’s largest networking company is investing heavily in AI on multiple fronts. Cisco has created AI-ready infrastructure including its AI network fabrics, server innovation alongside Nvidia and the Cisco Networking Cloud for simplified AI management and operations.

Cohesity

Sanjay Poonen

President, CEO

An innovator in the AI-powered data security and management market, Cohesity offers a host of AI-based threat detection, rapid recovery and immutable backup snapshots, as well as a new GenAI search assistant, Cohesity Gaia. The company boosted its AI data and management capabilities with the recent acquisition of Veritas’ data protection business.

DataDirect Networks

Alex Bouzari

Co-Founder, Chairman, CEO

DataDirect Networks is an AI and multi-cloud data storage and management specialist with a focus on GPU and CPU efficiencies. The company recently launched DDN Infinia, a storage platform offering containerization and simplified workflows for data demands around large language models, GenAI and complex movements from the edge to data centers and the cloud.

Dell Technologies

Michael Dell

Founder, Chairman, CEO

Dell owns a massive portfolio of server, storage and data management offerings specifically for AI use cases. With the recent launch of a new lineup of Latitude laptops and Precision workstations, Dell now provides a broad portfolio of commercial AI laptops and workstations.

Extreme Networks

Ed Meyercord

President, CEO

Extreme Networks’ cloud networking, SD-WAN and network switches are helping to power the AI era. The company’s new ExtremeCloud IQ CoPilot provides AIOps and machine learning for end-to-end visibility to help customers be more data-driven and proactive.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Antonio Neri

President, CEO

HPE owns a vast portfolio of AI-designed servers, storage and software offerings as well as HPE GreenLake for Large Language Models to train, tune and deploy large-scale AI models. HPE Supercomputing was architected for large-scale AI workloads for rapid development, iteration and scale of AI from proof of concept to production.

Hitachi Vantara

Sheila Rohra

CEO

Hitachi Vantara provides storage and data platforms to power AI along with its AI Operations to manage Hitachi infrastructure and boost IT operational efficiency and minimize risks. Hitachi Vantara recently formed a new organization, dubbed Generative AI Center, to promote effective and new use cases for GenAI.

HP Inc.

Enrique Lores

President, CEO

HP is building one of the world’s largest AI PC portfolios, launching new business laptops, mobile workstations and small-form-factor desktops in 2024 to power a diverse range of AI workloads. HP’s new AI Studio is an AI workflow platform that gives AI developers and data scientists tools to boost project collaboration.

Intel

Pat Gelsinger

CEO

The microprocessor giant owns a portfolio full of AI-optimized hardware and AI development tools, including TensorFlow, PyTorch and its Neural Compressor to speed up AI inferencing. Intel recently unveiled its new Edge Platform, an open software platform for customers to develop, deploy, run, secure and manage AI applications at scale.

Juniper Networks

Rami Rahim

CEO

Juniper Networks’ new AI-Native Networking Platform is designed to fully integrate AI into a customer’s network operations and use AI to make network connections more reliable, secure and measurable. Juniper’s portfolio of networking hardware and software includes its AI Data Center offering to enable high-performing AI training and inference networks.

Lenovo

Yuanqing Yang

Chairman, CEO

Lenovo provides over 150 AI turnkey offerings and AI-optimized platforms—from PCs and workstations to edge and data center infrastructure—as well as an AI Discovery Center of Excellence for fast AI adoption. Lenovo recently launched new edge services to enable mass deployment of remote computing capabilities and accelerate AI readiness and applications.

NetApp

George Kurian

CEO

The storage giant launched a slew of AI products this year, including NetApp AIPod for AI-optimized converged infrastructure for AI projects, FlexPod for AI reference architectures with new Nivida support, and new security capabilities including AI embedded in storage to fight ransomware. NetApp seeks to be the trusted storage and data protection company for customers’ AI turnkey solutions.

Nutanix

Rajiv Ramaswami

President, CEO

Nutanix provides servers, networking and storage hardware and software specifically tailored for AI workloads. The company offers integrated data services and security to protect AI models and data, as well as its new Nutanix GPT-in-a-Box offering that enables users to deploy a curated set of large language models using leading open-source AI frameworks.

Nvidia

Jensen Huang

Co-Founder, President, CEO

Nvidia is a powerhouse in delivering AI microprocessors. The company owns several AI-designed architectures, including Grace CPU for large data centers, Hopper GPU for accelerated computing and BlueField DPU for sustainable data centers. The company’s AI Enterprise software layer powers the end-to-end workflow of AI, while Nvidia’s AI Foundation models and services help build powerful applications.

Prosimo

Ramesh Prabagaran

Co-Founder, CEO

Red-hot startup Prosimo launched a new AI Suite for Multi-Cloud Networking this year to help enterprises adopt, manage and troubleshoot AI applications and workloads. The cloud networking company does 100 percent of its business through ecosystem partners, with nearly 90 percent of enterprise customers having already commissioned an AI cloud project.

Pure Storage

Charles Giancarlo

Chairman, CEO

Pure Storage helps businesses optimize AI development with storage AI offerings that streamline data curation, training and inference for peak performance. Pure’s storage platforms optimize GPU compute and networking, while its AI portfolio also includes automation for access to data sources, storage resources and data services to quickly train models.

Run:ai

Omri Geller

Co-Founder, CEO

Run:ai provides optimization and orchestration of GPU compute resources for AI and deep learning workloads. Run:ai’s AI-cluster management platform helps customers speed up development, scale AI infrastructure and lower compute costs, while its AI Workflow management offering helps data teams work with the tools of their choice and quickly spin up a working environment.

Scale Computing

Jeff Ready

Co-Founder, CEO

Scale Computing is an edge computing and hyperconverged specialist whose platform aims to drastically reduce latency for AI workloads from the edge to data centers. The company’s HyperCore technology on its platform automatically identifies, mitigates and corrects infrastructure issues in real time, enabling AI applications to achieve maximum uptime.

Supermicro

Charles Liang

Founder, Chairman, President, CEO

Supermicro provides a slew of AI infrastructure—from GPU servers and edge AI data processing to powerful storage platforms to support AI and ML workloads. From large-scale AI training to intelligent edge inferencing, Supermicro’s turnkey reference designs and offerings streamline and accelerate AI deployment.

Vast Data

Renen Hallak

Co-Founder, CEO

Vast Data dubs itself as the world’s first data computing platform company designed to serve as the foundation for AI-automated discovery. The Vast Data Platform aims to make the entire AI data pipeline simple to deploy and manage, with a storage architecture that delivers file, object, database and edge-to-cloud services in a unified system.

Versa Networks

Kelly Ahuja

CEO

Versa Networks’ AI-powered Unified SASE Platform integrates data sets from across a customer’s entire infrastructure into a unified data lake. The company’s VersaAI then taps into the data lake to extract AI insight that is applied across the Versa product suite, along with newly embedded GenAI capabilities to identify malicious behaviors and secure generative AI tools.

Weka

Liran Zvibel

Co-Founder, CEO

AI-native data platform provider Weka looks to set the standard for AI infrastructure with its cloud and hardware-agnostic software for performance-intensive applications. The Weka Data Platform transforms stagnant data silos into dynamic data pipelines that help AI, machine learning and GPU workloads run more efficiently, while providing data access from data centers and the edge to multi-cloud environments.