Nvidia today unveiled its plans to acquire Cumulus Networks for an undisclosed sum in a bid to bolster the chipmaker’s presence in the networking space.

Combined with Mellanox, which Nvidia bought last year for more than $6.9 billion, the chipmaker says Cumulus’ open networking platform will help to accelerate the development and adoption of the software-defined data center.

“The Cumulus acquisition, along with Mellanox, strengthens our position to reshape the modern data center to handle the exponential growth in AI [artificial intelligence] and [high-performance computing],” an Nvidia spokesperson wrote in an email to SDxCentral. “Cumulus’ networking software expertise augments Nvidia’s strategy of innovating across the entire stack, from silicon to systems to software, to deliver unique value to customers.“

Nvidia claims that with Cumulus it will be able to innovate across the entire networking stack from chips and systems to software. But while the acquisition will enable tighter integration, the companies won’t be starting from scratch.

Mellanox’s ties to Cumulus date back to 2013 when the company announced a partnership with the SDN vendor.

Today, Cumulus’s networking operating system supports more than 100 hardware platforms, with the company’s ENIE environment serving as the foundation for Mellanox’s bare-metal switches, and Cumulus Linux shipping with every Mellanox Spectrum switch.

Late last year Mellanox and Cumulus joined forces to develop, DENT a distributed Linux software frame work for retail and enterprises operating at the edge.

While Nvidia is not disclosing financial details of the Cumulus purchase, the company expects the deal to close sometime during the second quarter of fiscal year 2020.

As part of the acquisition, Cumulus Networks CEO Josh Leslie will join Nvidia. “We look forward to welcoming the talented Cumulus team under his leadership,” the Nvidia spokesperson wrote.

The announcement comes less than a week after Cumulus unveiled version 3.0 of its NetQ telemetry and validation platform.

The service was just one of several software offerings cited in Nvidia’s announcement.

NetQ uses telemetry data to correlate configuration and operation status across the network to identify and track state changes while improving the overall visibility of the network. The version three Cumulus added lifecycle management capabilities, making it easier for users to roll out updates and configuration files with the push of the button.

Word of the acquisition piqued the interest of Pluribus Networks CEO Kumar Srikantan, who saw the move as an opportunity for his own company to shine.

In an email to SDxCentral, he said the recent acquisitions of Big Switch by Arista and Cumulus by Nvidia leave his company as one of the last viable independent networking ecosystem providers.

“We are now seeing broad deployments in massive, mission-critical networks including large enterprise, hyperscalers, and service providers as customers recognize the value and simplicity of software-defined and open networking,” Srikantan said, adding that Pluribus was well positioned to “scale into a disruptive force” in these markets.