During calendar-year 2023, data center customers invested significantly in server and storage networking, which drove total annual server-class Ethernet NIC market revenues to $6 billion, according to a recent report from Crehan Research.
Spending on accelerated networking was particularly strong, resulting in SmartNIC revenue – including DPUs and IPUs – surpassing foundational/performance NIC revenue during the year and now comprising more than half of the total revenue.
“Although foundational/performance NICs still account for most of the server-class Ethernet NIC shipments, broader adoption of SmartNICs coupled with their higher average selling price pushed these products to account for a majority of the total server-class Ethernet NIC market revenue,” said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research.
Crehan also reported that the SmartNIC revenue increase was much stronger for merchant-built SmartNICs, as opposed to the self-built proprietary SmartNICs that were the early driver of growth in this market. “Even before generative AI arrived, data center networking customers – especially the larger cloud service providers – were significantly deploying SmartNICs to offload, secure and accelerate the increased volume and complexity of their server and storage networking traffic," Crehan said.
