BULL AND KALRAY PARTNER TO DEVELOP THE NEXT GENERATION OF HIGH-SPEED NETWORKS, AT THE HEART OF THE AI REVOLUTION

Grenoble, July 28 ^th , 2026 – Bull, a leader in advanced computing and artificial intelligence, and Kalray (Euronext Growth Paris: ALKAL), a specialist in hardware and software technologies for high-performance computing and data infrastructure, announce a strategic partnership focused on networking technologies for AI and HPC infrastructures. The two companies will also collaborate on Ultra Ethernet compatibility, a new open standard that has the potential to shape the network for future generations of supercomputers and AI Gigafactories.[1]

A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES OF NEXT-GENERATION AI AND HPC INFRASTRUCTURES

The growing adoption of artificial intelligence, which relies on massive data flows, is driving increased demand for new AI and HPC network infrastructures that are ever faster, more scalable, and more cost-effective.

The partnership between Bull and Kalray is being established against this backdrop of rapid acceleration, where issues of digital sovereignty, mastery of critical technologies, and reducing dependence on non-European sources are becoming crucial for businesses, government agencies, and research centers. 

By leveraging technologies designed in Europe, Kalray and Bull aim to help secure critical value chains, reduce dependence on non-European technologies, and thereby promote solutions tailored to the needs of private and public entities operating critical infrastructure.

Emmanuel Le Roux, CEO of Bull, stated:

“The development of new interconnect solutions represents a strategic milestone in meeting the needs of future generations of supercomputers and AI infrastructures. The collaboration we've signed with Kalray enables us to develop advanced technologies—particularly for the cloud and AI—and to build high-performance solutions, all while contributing to a strong European drive toward technological sovereignty. In a sector largely dominated by non-European technologies, we are particularly proud to offer a European alternative by producing a chip built on the most advanced technology nodes available today.”

Éric Baissus, Chairman of Kalray's Management Board, stated:

“The signing of this agreement with Bull is further recognition of the relevance of our technological vision and the quality of the innovations developed by our teams. At a time when AI is redefining the needs for computing power, networking, and energy efficiency, we are excited to contribute, alongside a player as prestigious as Bull, to the design of the infrastructure that will shape the digital economy for decades to come. This agreement also illustrates the ability of European leaders to join forces to develop strategic technologies, promote open standards such as Ultra Ethernet, and lay the foundations for sustainable technological sovereignty.”

A STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIP COMBINING LICENSING AND CO-DEVELOPMENT

The partnership focuses on developing interconnect solutions for very large-scale AI and high-performance computing infrastructures, with a major evolution that fully integrates cloud and AI requirements.

For Kalray, the agreement is part of its strategy to leverage its “semiconductor” technologies through its new business model, which combines IP licensing, co-development, and services.

As part of this effort, Kalray will license its software and hardware technologies—developed over more than a decade—as well as its expertise in data processing architectures, to help develop these solutions.

Kalray will supply and integrate its advanced IP blocks, including, in particular, the “Kalray Networking Engine” subsystem, which has been modified to support a performance of 1.6 Tbps and is based on an array of 64 of Kalray's new-generation KV5 cores—which are ultra-high-performance and compatible with the RISC-V standard. The first solutions resulting from this partnership are expected to be commercially available on a large scale in 2028.

A NEW MILESTONE IN BULL'S STRATEGY FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE SOVEREIGN NETWORKS

For Bull, this partnership is expected to accelerate the evolution of its network technology, BXI, to meet the needs of future AI infrastructures by combining performance, openness, and control over the value chain. In particular, it will contribute to:

• Evolve BXI toward the Ethernet standard and the open security and virtualization management protocols required for AI workloads in cloud environments;
• Offer full compatibility with the Ultra Ethernet standard, widely adopted throughout the AI industry;
• Offer a hybrid approach for HPC and AI—unique in the market—enabling a computer to benefit from the best of both worlds: leveraging BXI's specific features to provide ultra-low latency and specialized congestion management essential for HPC applications, then switching to Ultra Ethernet mode for AI applications in virtualized environments, while utilizing all available bandwidth, up to 1.6 Tbps per network card;
• Significantly strengthen BXI's technological sovereignty by co-developing certain IP, thereby ensuring security of supply and controlling the interconnect value chain—a critical factor in the overall performance of AI and HPC.

ACTIVE COLLABORATION TO ACCELERATE THE ADOPTION OF THE ULTRA ETHERNET STANDARD

Beyond this project, Bull—the initiator and sole European founding member of the global open Ultra Ethernet standard, led by the Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC)—is playing an active role alongside Kalray in bringing the first compatible products to market.

The new Ultra Ethernet standard, widely adopted by more than 170 major players and contributors in the networking, HyperScale, and AI industries, as well as by the OCP and IEEE, aims to replace current protocols such as RoCe V2 and the proprietary InfiniBand network in the coming years with open protocols including transport layers, RDMA, and congestion management layers that are far more modern and better suited to the usage constraints at scale—several hundred thousand computing nodes—imposed by AI.

The agreement between Bull and Kalray includes the joint development of technology building blocks compatible with Ultra Ethernet and their integration into future generations of Bull's networking technology. Kalray will also be able to offer the results of this collaboration to companies wishing to integrate Ultra Ethernet into their next-generation products. 

ABOUT KALRAY

Kalray (Euronext Growth Paris - FR0010722819 - ALKAL) is a fabless semiconductor company and a leader in a new generation of processors designed for applications handling massive data flows, particularly through artificial intelligence. At the forefront of innovation, Kalray's teams have developed a unique technology, along with associated solutions, enabling its customers to build increasingly intelligent, high-performance, and energy-efficient solutions.

Thanks to their patented “manycore” architecture, Kalray's MPPA® intelligent processors (known as DPUs) are capable of managing multiple data streams in parallel—without bottlenecks—enabling applications that process massive amounts of data to be smarter, more efficient, and more energy-efficient, complementing traditional approaches (CPUs and GPUs). Kalray's offering includes hardware and software acceleration solutions, licenses for the intellectual property modules required to design DPUs, as well as a co-development—or design-on-demand—service for processors and acceleration solutions optimized for specific applications in high-growth sectors such as data centers, AI Gigafactories, telecoms, aerospace, defense, and many others. www.kalrayinc.com

ABOUT BULL

Leveraging nearly a century of innovations, Bull is a global leader for High-Performance Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Quantum technologies with c.720m€ in revenue and 3,000 professionals operating in 32 countries. Built on an open, end-to-end and trusted approach, Bull designs, deploys and operates hardware, software and strategic services that unlock enterprise value, accelerate scientific research and advance society. Driven by world-class R&D, backed by 1,600 patents, manufacturing excellence and data sciences expertise, Bull enables nations and industries to fully control their AI and data and to drive progress for the benefit of the planet. www.bull.com

MEDIA CONTACTS - KALRAY

Ellyn Kalifa

communication@kalrayinc.com

Phone: +33 4 76 18 90 71

FINANCIAL PRESS CONTACT – ACTUS FINANCE ET COMMUNICATION

Serena Boni

sboni@actus.fr

Tel. +33 6 19 37 55 31

PRESS CONTACT - BULL

Constance Arnoux

communication@bull.com

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[1]  This agreement was announced in the press release issued by Kalray on July 16th, 2026.

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