Intel Buys Barefoot Networks, Boosts Data Center Interconnect

Intel signed an agreement to buy fellow chipmaker Barefoot Networks in a deal that will boost its hyperscale cloud data center business. The companies didn’t disclose the price. The acquisition follows a spate of recent silicon vendor acquisitions and comes as Intel exited the 5G business — and reportedly lost a bidding war with rival Nvidia for another networking interconnect superstar, Mellanox. Nvidia recently paid $6.9 billion for Mellanox (the acquisition hasn’t yet closed), while Intel reportedly bid $5.5 billion for that chipmaker. Barefoot makes Ethernet switch silicon and software for use in the data center, and it’s probably best known for its P-4 programmable Tofino Ethernet switches that are widely used for interconnect in major cloud providers’ data centers. In a blog post, Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of Intel’s Data Center Group, said Barefoot’s data center interconnects played a key role in the acquisition.