Blackstone Invests $300 Million at a $5 billion Valuation in DDN, AI and Data Intelligence Solutions Leader, to Fuel Further Rapid Growth
DDN, a global leader in AI and data intelligence solutions, has secured a $300 million investment from Blackstone Tactical Opportunities at a $5 billion valuation. The investment will fuel DDN's growth in serving AI and high-performance computing needs.
Founded in 1998, DDN supports over 500,000 NVIDIA GPUs and serves thousands of customers, including financial services, life sciences, public sector clients, AI hyperscalers, and cloud providers like xAI and Lambda. The company's high-performance data intelligence platform powers NVIDIA clusters, enabling rapid data accessibility with high throughput and low latency for AI and HPC workloads.
The investment marks Blackstone's first institutional investment in DDN, strengthening its position in high-intensity AI workloads. DDN's platform facilitates rapid data ingestion, real-time processing, and faster insight generation for enterprise deployments of LLMs, Gen AI, and RAG applications.
DDN, leader globale nelle soluzioni di intelligenza artificiale e gestione dei dati, ha ottenuto un investimento di 300 milioni di dollari da Blackstone Tactical Opportunities a una valutazione di 5 miliardi di dollari. Questo investimento alimenterà la crescita di DDN nel servire le esigenze di IA e calcolo ad alte prestazioni.
Fondata nel 1998, DDN supporta oltre 500.000 GPU NVIDIA e serve migliaia di clienti, tra cui servizi finanziari, scienze della vita, clienti del settore pubblico, hyperscaler di IA e fornitori di cloud come xAI e Lambda. La piattaforma di intelligenza dei dati ad alte prestazioni dell'azienda alimenta i cluster NVIDIA, consentendo un'accessibilità rapida ai dati con elevato throughput e bassa latenza per i carichi di lavoro di IA e HPC.
L'investimento segna la prima partecipazione istituzionale di Blackstone in DDN, rafforzando la sua posizione nei carichi di lavoro AI ad alta intensità. La piattaforma di DDN facilita l'ingestione rapida dei dati, l'elaborazione in tempo reale e la generazione di approfondimenti più rapida per le implementazioni aziendali di LLM, Gen AI e applicazioni RAG.
DDN, líder global en soluciones de inteligencia artificial e inteligencia de datos, ha asegurado una inversión de 300 millones de dólares de Blackstone Tactical Opportunities a una valoración de 5 mil millones de dólares. La inversión impulsará el crecimiento de DDN en la atención de las necesidades de IA y computación de alto rendimiento.
Fundada en 1998, DDN soporta más de 500,000 GPU NVIDIA y atiende a miles de clientes, incluidos servicios financieros, ciencias de la vida, clientes del sector público, hyperscalers de IA y proveedores de la nube como xAI y Lambda. La plataforma de inteligencia de datos de alto rendimiento de la empresa potencia los clústeres de NVIDIA, permitiendo un rápido acceso a los datos con alto rendimiento y baja latencia para cargas de trabajo de IA y HPC.
La inversión marca la primera inversión institucional de Blackstone en DDN, fortaleciendo su posición en cargas de trabajo de AI de alta intensidad. La plataforma de DDN facilita la ingesta rápida de datos, el procesamiento en tiempo real y la generación de información más rápida para las implementaciones empresariales de LLM, Gen AI y aplicaciones RAG.
DDN은 인공지능 및 데이터 인텔리전스 솔루션의 글로벌 리더로서 3억 달러 투자를 Blackstone Tactical Opportunities로부터 50억 달러 평가를 받았습니다. 이 투자는 DDN이 인공지능 및 고성능 컴퓨팅의 필요를 충족하는 데 도움이 될 것입니다.
1998년에 설립된 DDN은 500,000개 이상의 NVIDIA GPU를 지원하며, 금융 서비스, 생명 과학, 공공 부문 고객, AI 하이퍼스케일러 및 xAI, Lambda와 같은 클라우드 제공업체를 포함하여 수천 개의 고객에게 서비스를 제공합니다. 이 회사의 고성능 데이터 인텔리전스 플랫폼은 NVIDIA 클러스터를 통해 데이터 접근성을 빠르게 하며, AI와 HPC 작업에 대해 높은 처리량과 낮은 대기 시간을 제공합니다.
이 투자는 DDN에 대한 Blackstone의 첫 기관 투자를 의미하며, 고강도 AI 작업에서의 입지를 강화합니다. DDN의 플랫폼은 데이터의 신속한 수집, 실시간 처리 및 LLM, Gen AI 및 RAG 애플리케이션의 기업 배포를 위한 더 빠른 통찰력 생성을 용이하게 합니다.
DDN, leader mondial dans les solutions d'intelligence artificielle et d'intelligence des données, a obtenu un investissement de 300 millions de dollars de la part de Blackstone Tactical Opportunities à une évaluation de 5 milliards de dollars. Cet investissement soutiendra la croissance de DDN pour répondre aux besoins en IA et en calcul haute performance.
Fondée en 1998, DDN prend en charge plus de 500 000 GPU NVIDIA et sert des milliers de clients, y compris des services financiers, des sciences de la vie, des clients du secteur public, des hyperscalers IA et des fournisseurs de cloud comme xAI et Lambda. La plateforme d'intelligence des données haute performance de l'entreprise alimente les clusters NVIDIA, permettant un accès rapide aux données avec un haut débit et une faible latence pour les charges de travail d'IA et de HPC.
Cet investissement marque le premier investissement institutionnel de Blackstone dans DDN, renforçant ainsi sa position dans les charges de travail d'IA à forte intensité. La plateforme de DDN facilite l'ingestion rapide de données, le traitement en temps réel et la génération d'insights plus rapide pour les déploiements d'entreprise de LLM, Gen AI et applications RAG.
DDN, ein globales führendes Unternehmen im Bereich KI und Datenintelligenzlösungen, hat eine Investition von 300 Millionen Dollar von Blackstone Tactical Opportunities zu einer Bewertung von 5 Milliarden Dollar gesichert. Die Investition wird DDNs Wachstum zur Deckung der Bedürfnisse der KI und der Hochleistungsrechnungen vorantreiben.
Gegründet im Jahr 1998 unterstützt DDN über 500.000 NVIDIA-GPUs und bedient Tausende von Kunden, darunter Finanzdienstleistungen, Lebenswissenschaften, öffentliche Sektor Kunden, KI-Hyperscaler und Cloud-Anbieter wie xAI und Lambda. Die Hochleistungs-Datenintelligenzplattform des Unternehmens treibt NVIDIA-Cluster an und ermöglicht einen schnellen Datenzugriff mit hoher Durchsatzrate und niedriger Latenz für KI- und HPC-Workloads.
Die Investition markiert Blackstones erste institutionelle Investition in DDN und stärkt dessen Position bei hochintensiven KI-Workloads. Die Plattform von DDN ermöglicht eine schnelle Datenerfassung, die Verarbeitung in Echtzeit und eine schnellere Einsichtsgenerierung für Unternehmensimplementierungen von LLMs, Gen AI und RAG-Anwendungen.
- Secured $300 million investment from Blackstone
- Company valued at $5 billion
- Supports over 500,000 NVIDIA GPUs
- First institutional investment, validating business model
- Strong customer base across multiple sectors
- None.
Insights
This
The infrastructure demands for AI workloads are experiencing exponential growth, particularly in areas like Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI. DDN's technology stack, which optimizes data throughput and reduces latency, is essential for organizations seeking to maximize their expensive GPU investments. Blackstone's investment validates DDN's market position and suggests significant growth potential in enterprise AI adoption.
Blackstone's investment strategy here is particularly noteworthy. As the first institutional investor in a mature company valued at
The deal aligns with Blackstone's broader digital infrastructure thesis, complementing their existing investments in data centers and CoreWeave. This creates potential synergies across their portfolio and positions them strongly in the AI infrastructure value chain. The
The timing of this investment coincides with a critical inflection point in enterprise AI adoption. DDN's focus on practical AI deployments, including LLMs and RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), addresses immediate market needs for AI implementation. Their established presence in key verticals like financial services and life sciences provides multiple growth vectors as these sectors accelerate AI integration.
The competitive landscape for AI infrastructure is intensifying, but DDN's two-decade expertise in high-performance storage and existing relationships with major cloud providers create significant barriers to entry. Blackstone's backing should accelerate DDN's market expansion and potentially position them for future strategic options, including a possible IPO or strategic sale at a higher valuation.
Founded in 1998, DDN has thousands of customers and supports over 500,000 NVIDIA GPUs for organizations ranging from top financial services, life sciences, and public sector clients to AI hyperscalers and cloud providers such as xAI and Lambda. DDN high-performance data intelligence platform is used to power NVIDIA clusters. DDN’s solutions help make data rapidly accessible for analysis and processing at high throughput and low latency – which are critical to helping power highly data-intensive AI and HPC workloads and ensuring maximum GPU utilization for the best performance and return on investment possible. Building on its two-decade heritage as a leader in high-performance storage, the company is a partner of choice for leading organizations seeking to implement scalable, reliable, and secure AI applications that deliver tangible business outcomes. DDN’s platform enables rapid data ingestion, real-time processing, and significantly faster insight generation—accelerating enterprise deployments of LLMs, Gen AI, and RAG for customer-facing applications, predictive analytics, and operational improvements.
“Blackstone’s support accelerates our mission to redefine the enterprise AI infrastructure category and scale at an even faster rate,” said Alex Bouzari, CEO and Co-Founder of DDN. “By fueling our mission to push the boundaries of data intelligence, we believe we can empower organizations worldwide with next-level AI solutions that drive groundbreaking innovation and deliver significant returns on their investments.”
“This investment enables us to execute our strategy to bring enterprise-grade AI solutions to companies of all sizes, transforming industries and delivering measurable outcomes,” said Paul Bloch, President and Co-Founder of DDN. “DDN is laser-focused on solving real AI business challenges, from accelerating LLM deployments to enhancing inferencing, so our customers can unlock their data’s potential and achieve tangible ROI faster than ever.”
Jas Khaira, Head of Blackstone Tactical Opportunities,
John
Blackstone is a leader in investing in the digital infrastructure driving AI innovation. Blackstone is the largest data center provider in the world with holdings across the
BofA Securities acted as the exclusive financial advisor to DDN in connection with the transaction.
For more information about DDN’s mission to transform data intelligence and redefine enterprise AI, visit www.ddn.com, DDN blog, and register for "Beyond Artificial".
About Blackstone
Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. We seek to deliver compelling returns for institutional and individual investors by strengthening the companies in which we invest. Our more than
About DDN
DDN is the world’s leading AI and data intelligence company, empowering organizations to maximize the value of their data with end-to-end HPC and AI-focused solutions. Its customers range from the largest global enterprises and AI hyperscalers to cutting-edge research centers, all leveraging DDN’s proven data intelligence platform for scalable, secure, and high-performance AI deployments that drive 10x returns. Follow DDN: LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.
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Media:
Outcast for DDN
Brian Cronkhite: bcronkhite@thisisoutcast.com
Matt Anderson for Blackstone
Matthew.Anderson@blackstone.com
Source: Blackstone
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