Glossary term
InfiniBand
A high-bandwidth, low-latency networking protocol that NVIDIA controls via its Mellanox acquisition; the incumbent in AI clusters.
InfiniBand is a high-bandwidth, low-latency networking protocol that dominates GPU-cluster interconnect, controlled by NVIDIA following its 2019 Mellanox acquisition. Its tight integration with NVIDIA GPUs makes it the default for frontier training clusters, but that lock-in is exactly what the Ultra Ethernet initiative aims to break. The InfiniBand-versus-Ethernet contest is a key margin battleground in AI networking. See Networking & Optical 101.