Broadcom used VMware Explore 2025 in Las Vegas to unveil a sweeping set of updates to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), positioning the platform as an AI-native private cloud environment with integrated security, compliance, and developer productivity features. Nine of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies now run VCF, and customers worldwide have licensed more than 100 million cores, underscoring its role as a backbone for enterprise infrastructure. With the release of VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, Broadcom is making VMware Private AI Services a standard entitlement, transforming VCF into a unified platform for both traditional enterprise applications and modern AI workloads.
The integration with NVIDIA brings support for the Blackwell architecture, including NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Server Edition and forthcoming Blackwell B200 GPUs, as well as ConnectX-7 NICs and BlueField-3 DPUs. Together with VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA, this enables enterprises to deploy generative, agentic, and physical AI applications at scale without departing from the operational workflows of VCF. Broadcom also announced an expanded AI collaboration with AMD, integrating AMD ROCm Enterprise AI software and Instinct MI350 GPUs for large language model fine-tuning, retrieval-augmented generation, and inference.
Beyond AI infrastructure, Broadcom introduced major enhancements to security and developer productivity. VCF Advanced Cyber Compliance delivers continuous compliance enforcement, automated cyber recovery in isolated clean rooms, and advanced platform security. VMware vDefend now extends Zero Trust lateral security to AI workloads and introduces detection for fileless malware, while VMware Avi Load Balancer adds post-quantum cryptography and Model Context Protocol (MCP) traffic security. For developers, new features include native vSAN S3 Object Store for unstructured data, GitOps with Argo CD and Istio for secure app delivery, and expanded collaboration with Canonical for faster and more secure deployment of container-based AI applications.
- VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 now generally available with VMware Private AI Services included as standard
- NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, networking, and AI software integrated into VCF; AMD ROCm and Instinct GPUs also supported
- New VCF AI services include GPU Monitoring, Model Store, Agent Builder, Vector Database, and Data Indexing/Retrieval
- Intelligent Assist AI-driven support tool in tech preview for faster issue resolution
- Multi-accelerator Model Runtime and multi-tenant Models-as-a-Service for flexible and efficient AI deployment
- VCF Advanced Cyber Compliance automates compliance enforcement and cyber recovery
- VMware vDefend expands Zero Trust and advanced threat detection to AI workloads
- Avi Load Balancer introduces post-quantum cryptography, mutual TLS for Kubernetes, and MCP traffic protection
- Developer-focused updates include vSAN native S3 object storage, GitOps-driven Kubernetes, Argo CD, Istio integration, and Canonical partnership expansion
“It’s undeniable that customers are resetting their cloud strategies and building out their private clouds to support better developer velocity with IT control, and more cost-efficient AI deployments,” said Krish Prasad, senior vice president and general manager, VMware Cloud Foundation Division, Broadcom. “With VMware Cloud Foundation, infrastructure and cloud operators get the cost and operational benefits of virtualization for AI workloads without sacrificing performance. Developers get access to native AI services delivered directly from the private cloud platform for a frictionless experience.”
🌐 Analysis: Broadcom is using VMware Explore to sharpen its pitch for VMware Cloud Foundation as the enterprise alternative to hyperscale public clouds. By embedding Private AI Services into VCF 9.0, Broadcom is ensuring customers don’t need add-on purchases to operationalize AI in private cloud environments. The dual partnerships with NVIDIA and AMD broaden customer choice across accelerators, while Canonical strengthens VCF’s container-native appeal. This move places VCF in closer competition with Red Hat OpenShift AI and Nutanix GPT-infra offerings, but Broadcom’s scale in enterprise accounts gives it a strategic advantage in positioning VCF as the default AI-native private cloud platform.