NetApp Announces Intent to Acquire PEAK:AIO to Advance Scalable AI Infrastructure Architecture

NetApp® (NASDAQ: NTAP), the intelligent data infrastructure company, today announced its intent to acquire PEAK:AIO, a pioneer in next-generation metadata architecture and high-performance parallel file systems. The planned acquisition is expected to accelerate NetApp's AI infrastructure roadmap by augmenting metadata services and parallel namespace innovation designed to help AI clouds scale shared storage alongside growing GPU clusters.

As AI becomes embedded in every enterprise workload, organizations are confronting a new challenge: traditional storage architectures were not designed for the unprecedented scale, concurrency, and performance requirements of AI factories, AI clouds, and next-generation data-intensive applications. NetApp is building an architecture that disaggregates metadata from data and enables metadata services to scale independently, creating a foundation for AI infrastructure capable of supporting trillions of files, exabyte-scale environments, and massively parallel workloads.

The acquisition reinforces NetApp's strategy to address the rapidly growing market for AI infrastructure. By combining PEAK:AIO's specialized metadata innovations with NetApp ONTAP® software, customers will benefit from a differentiated architecture that preserves the resilience, security, and operational maturity of ONTAP while introducing a new level of scalability for AI workloads.

"AI clouds need high-performance shared storage that can scale alongside growing GPU clusters while maintaining the resilience, security, and operational simplicity organizations depend on," said George Kurian, Chief Executive Officer at NetApp. "With PEAK:AIO, we are delivering on our vision for a new generation of AI infrastructure that combines scalable metadata services with the proven foundation of ONTAP to help customers maximize infrastructure efficiency and support AI at hyperscale cloud."

PEAK:AIO’s technology originated from collaborations with leading research institutions, including Los Alamos National Laboratory and Carnegie Mellon University, and was designed to address some of the industry's most demanding data-intensive computing challenges. The planned integration will add specialized metadata services and parallel namespace innovation to NetApp's ONTAP-based data architecture, while creating a clear evolution path for existing ONTAP customers.

"NetApp and PEAK:AIO connected through the shared belief that the AI era demands a fundamentally new approach to data infrastructure," said Mark Klarzynski, Chief Technology Officer and Founder at PEAK:AIO. "What excites us most about joining NetApp is the opportunity to pair our culture of innovation with the reach, scale, and customer trust of a global leader. Together with NetApp, we have an opportunity to help shape that future and deliver technologies that make managing data at a massive scale both practical and accessible."

PEAK:AIO’s metadata innovation extends metadata scale, delivers a global namespace, and enables parallel NFS-based access for massively parallel workloads, while NetApp contributes trusted ONTAP expertise, global reach, and operational maturity to make AI-scale file infrastructure more practical and accessible. Together, they are expected to deliver new capabilities that simplify the deployment and operation of shared storage for increasingly large AI environments.

The architecture is intended to support trillions of files and multi-exabyte deployments while preserving the resiliency, security, and operational simplicity customers expect from ONTAP. Designed around the needs of large-scale AI environments, it combines scalable metadata services, standards-based parallel NFS access, and ONTAP as the resilient data foundation to help reduce data-related GPU stalls, improve infrastructure efficiency, and accelerate AI innovation.

The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

"Safe Harbor" Statement Under U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the anticipated benefits of the acquisition of PEAK:AIO, including the ability to accelerate NetApp's AI infrastructure roadmap, add specialized metadata services and parallel namespace innovation to NetApp's ONTAP-based data architecture, create a clear evolution path for existing ONTAP customers, combine PEAK:AIO's specialized metadata innovations with NetApp's ONTAP software, extend metadata scale, deliver a global namespace, and enable parallel NFS-based access for massively parallel workloads, support trillions of files and multi-exabyte deployments while preserving the resiliency, security, and operational simplicity, deliver new capabilities that simplify the deployment and operation of shared storage for increasingly large AI environments; our business, economic and market outlook; our overall future prospects; demand for our AI solutions and other offerings; and our ability to deliver increasing results and value for our stakeholders. These and other important factors are described in reports and documents we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the factors described under the sections titled "Risk Factors" in our most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q. All statements made in this release are made only as of the date set forth at the beginning of this release. We disclaim any obligation to update information contained in this press release whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Statement of Product Direction

This press release discusses NetApp's vision for future innovation, including the anticipated alignment and integration of PEAK:AIO’s technology with NetApp’s portfolio. This information is shared solely for informational purposes and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. NetApp makes no commitment and has no obligation to develop or deliver any products, services, integrations, or any related features, material, code or functionality described herein, including any capabilities resulting from the acquisition of PEAK:AIO. The development, release and timing of any features or functionality for NetApp products and services, including those offering PEAK:AIO’s technology, remains at the sole discretion of NetApp. NetApp's strategy and possible future developments, product and platform directions, and functionality, including plans related to PEAK:AIO's technology, are all subject to change without notice. We disclaim any obligation to update information contained in this press release whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

About NetApp

For more than three decades, NetApp has helped the world’s leading organizations navigate change – from the rise of enterprise storage to the intelligent era defined by data and AI. Today, NetApp is the Intelligent Data Infrastructure company, helping customers turn data into a catalyst for innovation, resilience, and growth.

At the heart of that infrastructure is the NetApp data platform – the unified, enterprise-grade, intelligent foundation that connects, protects, and activates data across every cloud, workload, and environment. Built on the proven power of NetApp ONTAP, our leading data management software and OS, and enhanced by automation through the AI Data Engine and AFX, it delivers observability, resilience, and intelligence at scale.

Disaggregated by design, the NetApp data platform separates storage, services, and control so enterprises can modernize faster, scale efficiently, and innovate without lock-in. As the only enterprise storage platform natively embedded in the world’s largest clouds, it gives organizations the freedom to run any workload anywhere with consistent performance, governance, and protection.

With NetApp, data is always ready – ready to defend against threats, ready to power AI, and ready to drive the next breakthrough. That’s why the world’s most forward-thinking enterprises trust NetApp to turn intelligence into advantage.

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About PEAK:AIO

PEAK:AIO is a Manchester UK-based software-defined AI storage company. Its platform delivers high-performance AI storage from a single server to exabytes on any industry-standard hardware. PEAK:AIO is deployed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, NHS AIDE, Oxford Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Liverpool, University of Strathclyde MediForge Hub, and Zoological Society of London. Learn more at https://peakaio.com.

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