HPE to acquire supercomputer maker Cray for $1.3 billion – update

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is said to be in talks with supercomputer maker Cray for a takeover. The deal may be announced this week. If it goes through, it will likely be HPE’s largest acquisition since its IPO in 2015.

Cray currently has a market value of approximately $1.2 billion. What HPE will pay for the supercomputer maker is not known, but according to Bloomberg sources, advanced talks are underway. The companies are not responding to the story.

Supercomputer builder Cray is involved in many large projects. For example, it was recently announced that Cray is working with AMD to create an exascale cluster for the US Department of Energy. That system should be ready in 2021 and then deliver 1.5 exaflops of computing power. Cray is also working with Intel on another exascale supercomputer for the same ministry. These are projects of 600 and 500 million dollars.

Hewlett Packard was split in 2015 into two parts: HP for consumer products and HP Enterprise for business and infrastructure. HPE is already active in the supercomputer market, but with the acquisition of Cray, the company would take a much larger role in that market.

Update 18:20: Cray confirms the takeover. HPE pays $1.3 billion. The companies expect the acquisition to be completed in the first quarter of next year.

Supercomputer built by Cray