“This is an industry-changing deal for HPE’s AI business and HPE’s AI partners,” said Advizex CEO CR Howdyshell. “Winning a deal like this with Elon Musk is a sure thing, but X was very challenging.”
Hewlett Packard Enterprise has won a $1 billion AI server contract with Elon Musk’s X social media platform, Bloomberg reports.
The blockbuster deal was reached last year, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the deal, who requested anonymity because the deal was private.
HPE declined to comment.
Mr. X could not be reached for comment.
The invaluable deal with X is a vote of confidence in HPE’s AI server business, which grew 16% to $1.5 billion in the latest quarter.
HPE stock rose 25 cents, or 1%, to $22.33 in after-hours trading. HPE stock’s 52-week high is $24.24.
CR Howdyshell, CEO of Advizex, a Fulcrum IT Partners company and leading provider of HPE AI solutions, said the big win was an “industry-changing deal” for HPE’s AI business and HPE’s AI partners. said.
“We’re definitely winning a deal like this with Elon Musk, but X was very challenging,” Howdyshell said. “These are difficult deals to achieve. This strengthens our opportunity to deliver AI solutions as an HPE partner.”
While the deal with X looks like a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Howdyshell said he expects even bigger AI deals to come in 2025. “Our OEM partners are saying they look at this AI business as a three-year TAM (total addressable market) of $1 trillion,” he said.
Advizex saw first-hand the power of the HPE-Nvidia portfolio with the $40 million deal it signed last year with Hut 8, a Bitcoin miner and next-generation infrastructure platform provider. That contract was for 125 HPE Cray XD670 supercomputer nodes and 1,000 Nvidia H100s. GPU.
Howdyshell said he is excited about the partnership between HPE and Nvidia and the opportunities that lie ahead for Advizex. In fact, the Fulcrum team, including Advizex and AI pioneer Razor, which is part of the Fulcrum portfolio, met with Nvidia this week for a two-day sales and technology briefing. “Working with Nvidia is a huge boost for our business,” he said. “We are committed to significantly expanding our partnership with Nvidia from GPUs to networking, software and services.”
In fact, Howdyshell said he expects a third of Advizex’s revenue this year could come from its AI business. “This is our number one focus area for opportunity and growth in 2025,” he said. “This doesn’t just mean GPUs. It’s networking, software, and services.”
Key to Advizex’s market entry is the Razor team, which has deep vertical market AI expertise. “Razor is collaborating with Nvidia to advance this AI opportunity with us,” he said.
Advizex deploys scalable Razor AI solutions to all major vertical markets including manufacturing, healthcare, retail, finance, and SLED.
Another big advantage for Advizex in the AI channel battle is the ability to bring razor-sharp business focus to the opportunity presented by the creation of a new High Performance Computing and AI business unit led by Advizex Vice President and General Manager Steve Kucker. That’s what I’m guessing.
“We have the focus, the people, the resources, and the ability to tell the story. We are confident that with our OEMs we will achieve incredible success in the AI solutions business.” said.
