Intel today agreed to acquire Smart Edge, an edge computing platform designed to run on Intel’s silicon, from Pivot Technology Solutions. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in a matter of weeks, were not disclosed.

The chipmaker declined to share detailed plans about how it will integrate Smart Edge with Intel’s products, but it noted that the platform runs on Intel’s Xeon Scalable processors today and will eventually work with Intel Optane memory, Intel field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and other accelerators. Intel also plans to use Smart Edge’s software to bolster its Open Network Edge Services Software project.

The company is expanding into edge computing, which it estimates will be a $65 billion silicon addressable market by 2023, according to a group of analysts’ predictions compiled by Intel. That $65 billion opportunity is comprised of $10 billion in autonomous driving, $30 billion in IoT, and $25 billion at the network edge, according to Intel.

Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of Intel’s Data Center Group (DCG), discussed the network edge opportunity as “another exciting area of growth” during Intel’s investor meeting in May. “This is not theoretical for us, between our IoT business, our network business inside of DCG and a portion of our FPGA business, we already have a $9.5 billion revenue run rate across these three segments, growing it over 20% year-on-year,” he said.

Many of the technologies Intel invented for the data center and cloud are moving into network infrastructure, including the core, access points, and the edge, Shenoy explained. “As the build out of 5G continues, we expect more and more of that compute to move further to the edge, to move closer to the user, in industrial contacts, in autonomous driving.”

He described the edge of the network as “maybe one of the most attractive opportunities for [Intel],” and said the company is well positioned to capitalize on the high performance computing requirements that will drive wider adoption and use cases among service providers.

By bringing Smart Edge into the fold, Intel says it will also be able to reduce the total cost of ownership for edge computing and surface the opportunity for more businesses. The agreement with Pivot also calls for the company to be a preferred partner, authorized Smart Edge reseller, and preferred systems integrator for Smart Edge-based services.

“This transaction enhances our ability to address the 5G network transformation with a leading position in edge computing. We plan to take full advantage of our combined technologies and teams to accelerate the development of the edge computing market while creating a compelling solution for customers,” said Dan Rodriguez, vice president of Intel’s DCG and general manager of the Network Compute Division, in a prepared statement.

In aggregate, this is not theoretical for us, between our IoTG business, our network business inside of DCG and a portion of our FPGA business, we already have a $9.5 billion revenue run rate across these three segments, growing it over 20% year-on-year. So we're super excited about the position we have and we're even more excited about the position we could have as we go through time.”

Intel recently announced a new series of FPGAs designed to support connectivity protocols and boost the acceleration of workloads in the cloud, which should factor into its plans for Smart Edge. About 25 Smart Edge employees will join Intel’s Network and Custom Logic Group when the deal closes.