HPE writes $14B check for Juniper Networks to boost AI networking technology

After a number of days of speculation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise has officially entered an agreement to buy Juniper Networks for $14 billion.

HPE, which has a market cap of about $21 billion says the acquisition is expected to double its networking business by adding a significant though somewhat overlapping  campus and data center product line up. For the first time in Juniper’s history, its enterprise networking business was the largest of its three core divisions – cloud, service provider and enterprise – in the first quarter of 2022 and it has continued to grow since then.  Juniper’s market cap is about $12 billion.

The buy is primarily about AI technology for HPE which gets Juniper’s cloud-based MIST AI technology which proactively manages wired and wireless networks in the deal.  Most recently  Juniper integrated the ChatGPT AI-based large language model (LLM) with Mist’s virtual network assistant, Marvis. Marvis can detect, describe and help fix myriad network problems, including persistently failing wired or wireless clients, bad cables, access-point coverage holes, problematic WAN links, and insufficient radio-frequency capacity. 

Networking will become the new core business and architecture foundation for HPE’s Hybrid Cloud and AI solutions delivered through the company’s overarching  HPE GreenLake hybrid cloud platform, the companies said in a release. The combined company will offer secure, end-to-end AI-native solutions that are built on the foundation of cloud, high performance, and experience-first, and will also have the ability to collect, analyze, and act on aggregated telemetry across a broader installed base, according to the companies. 

“Through its suite of cloud-delivered networking solutions, software, and services including the Mist AI and Cloud platform, Juniper helps organizations securely and efficiently access the mission-critical cloud infrastructure that serves as the foundation of digital and AI strategies,” the companies stated.   “The combination with HPE Aruba Networking and purposely designed HPE AI interconnect fabric will bring together enterprise reach, and cloud-native and AI-native management and control, to create a premier industry player that will accelerate innovation to deliver further modernized networking optimized for hybrid cloud and AI.”

Putting further emphasis on the importance of AI in the deal, the company combination will let HPE focus on building the AI Data Center, wrote Juniper CEO Rami Rahim in a blog about the deal.