In Jensen's 5 layer cake analogy for AI (energy, chips, infrastructure, models, applications), the middle layer (esp the software infra part) is much less understood - and thats where @VAST_Data became a $30B company few people know about, powering @SpaceXAI, @CoreWeave, @nebiusai, @MistralAI, @nscale etc My conversation with Renen Hallak, CEO: 00:00 Intro 00:51 The hidden software layer in NVIDIA's AI stack 02:28 What actually makes an "AI factory"? 05:13 Should Walmart and Goldman build their own AI? 06:20 "We infer during the day, fine-tune at night" 13:16 Announcement: frontier models & sensitive data 15:32 From P vs. NP to founding VAST Data 17:32 OpenAI, Navier–Stokes and 10,000 agents 20:25 The pre-transformer insight behind VAST 21:55 DASE: VAST's "shared everything" architecture 25:18 "Storage was where startups go to die" 27:39 Trillions of vectors: why old databases break 29:01 Are S3, Snowflake and Databricks ready for AI 31:29 Data gravity, vendor lock-in and zero churn 33:13 Training vs. inference: why the infrastructure changes 34:46 Model routing, KV caches, RAG & agent memory 36:59 Identity, permissions and security for AI agents 40:27 Can multi-agent systems unlock scientific discovery? 41:55 DataEnclave: how confidential AI protects data and weights 45:16 Who should be AI's trust layer? 46:37 "Sometimes it scares me": 500 petabytes to 2 exabytes 50:08 Is circular AI financing creating systemic risk 51:32 Why VAST is profitable when AI infra isn't 53:24 What separates the winning neoclouds? 55:06 "Their lunch is being eaten": why hyperscalers lag 59:10 Where will the trillions accrue across the AI stack 1:01:18 NVIDIA: "There's no legal document between us" 1:03:59 What VAST learned from xAI and @elonmusk 1:05:36 "Bad things loudly and often": building at AI speed 1:06:53 More change in 10 years than the previous 1,000? 1:08:39 VAST's endgame: all the data in the world

Enterprises won't risk their data, and AI labs won't hand over weights. Vast Data's DataEnclave aims to solve the trust problem in both directions. Thanks to VAST Data thenewstack.io/vast-dataencl…

VAST DataEnclave puts AI models and regulated data inside NVIDIA Confidential Computing: encrypted guest memory, GPU memory, and NVLink, keys released only after attestation. Ships Q1 2027. storagereview.com/news/vast-… #ConfidentialAI #VAST #AI @VAST_Data

🔐 New research from VP & Principal Analyst Michael Leone (@LeoneDataAI) examines how confidential AI brings models to regulated data while protecting records and model weights. The brief explores @VAST_Data Enclave and four requirements buyers should use to evaluate confidential enclaves. moorinsightsstrategy.com/res… @PatrickMoorhead @VAST_Data

When the data can't move: What it takes to run enterprise AI anywhere venturebeat.com/ai/when-the-…

Some of the biggest Voice AI opportunities live in places where the cloud isn’t always an option. That’s why Deepgram is excited to support @VAST_Data's launch of DataEnclave – bringing leading AI models into customer-controlled infrastructure while helping protect sensitive data and models in use. Deepgram already supports self-hosted Voice AI for enterprises that need greater control over where their workloads run. With VAST DataEnclave, those teams have another path to put real-time Voice AI to work in the environments that matter most. Because the best AI infrastructure meets enterprises where they are. More on DataEnclave: bit.ly/4hhYt4T

Introducing VAST DataEnclave. Built on NVIDIA Confidential Computing, this new runtime in the VAST AI Operating System enables leading models to securely run against sensitive enterprise data while protecting customer and model IP.

9.22.26 AI becomes {un}bounded.

Stacking up 700+ LLM training jobs from the VAST fleet shows high write intensity due to checkpointing, but no matching read bursts. Only burst is at job start. There is no “feeding the GPU” bottleneck. Read bursts are one and done.

ICYMI: An #NVIDIADGX AI supercomputer is now online at @NPS_Monterey. The DGX GB300 with NVIDIA Mission Control software gives NPS students and faculty access to AI computing, including model training and inference capability for applications spanning weather prediction, cybersecurity, and response planning. Thank you to our partners @DDNintelligence, @VAST_Data, and @Vertiv for helping to bring up this system with us. Learn how we're helping to fuel AI innovation with NPS ➡️ nvda.ws/4bzMwWv

SkyPilot + VAST Data: AI Infra Meetup in SF on Aug 18. Talks on infra, agent sandboxes, and the systems behind model training & inference. Check it out :)

What does sovereign AI actually require to perform at production scale? Jason Hammons, VP Systems Engineering – International at @VAST_Data, discusses how our approach to distributed inference gives AI natives and enterprises the foundations to scale. Watch in full: bit.ly/4wFfbSa

Co-built with @togethercompute, our next-gen AI Factory is deploying @nvidia GB300 NVL72 for AI inference and reasoning at scale. With Pegatron, @Vertiv, and @VAST_Data, we’re bringing high-density compute, advanced cooling, and AI-optimized storage together to power the future.

600 Petabytes. One massive, unified data foundation for the APAC region. We are thrilled to announce an expanded strategic partnership with Australian Neocloud provider @sharon__ai to build one of the largest sovereign AI data foundations in the region: vastdata.com/press-releases/…

One of Europe's largest @nvidia GB300 NVL72 deployments is coming online, and @MistralAI has adopted the VAST AI Operating System as part of its data foundation. More on the partnership: vastdata.com/press-releases/…

The Redpoint InfraRed 100 is now live. These are the companies building the infrastructure that powers everything happening in AI right now, from world models and agent runtimes to the sandboxes, databases, and security tools agents depend on. Congratulations to this year's honorees! Read the full 2026 InfraRed Report: our state of the union on AI and cloud infrastructure 👉 redpoint.com/reports/the-inf…

Today on NYSE Live | @VAST_Data CEO Renen Hallak talks firm's $30B valuation and @NoubarAfeyan of @FlagshipPioneer on AI in science at Semafor World Economy. Plus, @OreContango reveals next move following merger after ringing the Opening Bell! nitter.net/i/broadcasts/1yKAPMvkL…

@JeffDenworth Co-Founder at @VAST_Data talks all things AI and the latest collaborations with @nvidia at Vast Forward 2026! Watch for more conversations with top tech leaders ⤵️ piped.video/6f1QcMskJJ0?si=_iC7…

Today, VAST Data announced our Series F at a $30 billion valuation. This milestone reflects accelerating demand for a new data infrastructure stack purpose-built for AI. Learn more: vastdata.com/press-releases/…

SkyPilot now works natively with @VAST_Data storage 🤝 Training runs often start with a dead period - copying data while GPUs sit idle. With VAST + SkyPilot, you can skip that entirely. • Mount petabyte-scale data directly. No staging, no prefetch pipelines, no idling • Stream at NVMe speeds to SkyPilot-managed nodes across any Kubernetes, Slurm, or neocloud • Switch compute providers without touching your storage config Read the blog by the @Vast_Data team: vastdata.com/blog/instant-da…