SAN JOSE, Calif. & CAMPBELL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 17, 2026--
At NVIDIA GTC, Spectro Cloud and WEKA announced a partnership to simplify and accelerate the deployment of the NVIDIA AI Data Platform, a next-generation reference architecture that integrates NVIDIA‑accelerated computing, networking, and AI-ready storage to deliver high‑throughput, low‑latency data pipelines for AI workloads.
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The collaboration combines Spectro Cloud’s PaletteAI™ platform for automated, secure AI infrastructure with WEKA’s NeuralMesh™ intelligent, adaptive mesh storage solution to make it dramatically easier for enterprises to deploy AI data platform‑aligned environments at scale — turning the NVIDIA reference design for the AI Factory into an operational reality.
“AI should deliver business impact, not infrastructure complexity,” said Tenry Fu, CEO and co-founder, Spectro Cloud. “Partnering with WEKA lets us pair PaletteAI’s orchestration with an AI-native data platform inside the NVIDIA AI Data Platform reference design, giving enterprises a faster, safer path to production.”
AI Data Platform: the blueprint for the AI Factory
The NVIDIA AI Data Platform defines how to tightly integrate compute, networking, and storage so GPUs are never starved of data, unlocking near‑real‑time insights and improving AI agent accuracy.
The reference design leverages NVIDIA BlueField DPUs for accelerated networking, storage, and security offload. It integrates with NVIDIA Spectrum‑X Ethernet networking for predictable, lossless east-west traffic, and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, including NVIDIA NIM and NVIDIA NeMo microservices to power inference and model operations at enterprise scale.
Today’s announcement operationalizes that architecture with turnkey integration, automated deployment, and AI-native data performance from Spectro Cloud and WEKA. Highlights include:
One‑click AI Data Platform deployment with PaletteAI.PaletteAI uses a declarative, cloud-native approach to provision and configure AI data platform‑aligned stacks end to end. Customers can now deploy a validated, end-to-end AI data platform stack that incorporates NVIDIA BlueField DPUs, NVIDIA Spectrum‑X Ethernet networking, and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, with configuration and lifecycle automation handled by PaletteAI.
NeuralMesh™ performance for AI pipelines. NeuralMesh by WEKA delivers the ultra-low-latency, high-throughput data access required to keep GPUs continuously fed for both training and inference. Unlike traditional storage that slows as workloads grow, WEKA’s NeuralMesh architecture becomes faster and more resilient at scale. It powers high-throughput pipelines for RAG, vector search, multimodal ingestion, distributed training, and long-context inference, ensuring consistent GPU utilization and exascale performance.
Built on NVIDIA AI Enterprise. PaletteAI and WEKA align with NVIDIA AI Enterprise to ensure validated interoperability with NVIDIA NIM and NeMo microservices, providing a secure, high-performance foundation from pilot to production.
Operational efficiency at scale. PaletteAI separates platform guardrails from practitioner agility, enabling governed self‑service environments, policy‑based networking, and day‑2 operations across hybrid, multicloud and edge locations. Combined with WEKA's intelligent monitoring and self-healing capabilities, organizations can operate AI infrastructure at massive scale without adding operational complexity.
“The NVIDIA AI Data Platform represents the future of enterprise AI infrastructure, and WEKA is proud to be one of its foundational technology partners,” said Nilesh Patel, Chief Strategy Officer, WEKA. “Together with Spectro Cloud, we’re transforming the AI data platform from a reference design into a living system — one that can be deployed with a click, operated at global scale, and tuned for the microsecond latency and extreme throughput that modern agentic AI and reasoning workloads demand. ”
Available now
The Spectro Cloud × WEKA AI Data Platform Reference Architecture with NVIDIA — validated with leading OEM platforms such as Supermicro — is available to joint customers today through both companies’ sales teams and authorized partners. To learn more about PaletteAI, visit the Spectro Cloud site at spectrocloud.com. For information about NeuralMesh by WEKA, visit weka.io.
About Spectro Cloud
With our Palette and PaletteAI platforms, Spectro Cloud solves how enterprises and public sector organizations manage full-stack application and AI infrastructure in any environment: from edge to cloud, and from metal to model.
Using the power of cloud-native technologies like Kubernetes, we give platform engineers and operations teams flexibility to choose their perfect stack, while benefiting from complete repeatable consistency. We automate the full lifecycle of complex infrastructure at scale, for massive cost savings and better business outcomes. Learn more at spectrocloud.com.
About WEKA
WEKA is transforming how organizations build, run, and scale AI workflows with NeuralMesh™ by WEKA®, its intelligent, adaptive mesh storage system. Unlike traditional data infrastructure, which becomes slower and more fragile as workloads expand, NeuralMesh becomes faster, stronger, and more efficient as it scales, growing dynamically with AI environments to provide a flexible foundation for enterprise AI and agentic AI innovation. Trusted by 30% of the Fortune 50, NeuralMesh helps leading enterprises, AI cloud providers, and AI builders optimize their GPUs, scale AI faster, and lower their innovation costs. Learn more at www.weka.io or connect with us on LinkedIn and X.
New integration pairs PaletteAI™ one‑click deployment and full lifecycle management with NeuralMesh™ by WEKA® to streamline AI Data Platform deployments across data center and edge, in collaboration with NVIDIA.
CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois voters are deciding primaries Tuesday for six open U.S. House and Senate seats that will spur a new generation of leadership in the state’s heavily Democratic congressional delegation.
The retirement of longtime Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat, has triggered a competitive campaign, drawing as candidates two sitting House members and the lieutenant governor, among others. Sharp elbows and furious fundraising have marked the race, which also is a test of the influence of Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, a billionaire whose name is floated as a 2028 presidential contender.
A spate of House retirements has led to open seats with crowded contests across the Chicago area. The stakes are high, with most primary winners in the Democratic stronghold expected to win in November.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and PACs supporting the cryptocurrency and AI industries also have spent big on several of the contests.
Here’s a look at the key races:
Ten Democrats and six Republicans are running after Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, announced his retirement after five terms.
Three top Democrats have emerged: Chicago-area U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton.
Krishnamoorthi has dominated fundraising and the airwaves and was the first on television with ads in July. He started 2026 with over $15 million on hand after spending more than $6 million and raising more than $3.5 million in the final three months of last year, according to campaign finance records.
By comparison, Stratton started the year with $1 million after raising about the same amount and spending just under $1 million in the last three months of 2025. But last month Pritzker put $5 million in a super PAC largely aimed at helping get her elected.
She campaigned on Pritzker's endorsement and lit into Krishnamoorthi at debates, particularly on the five-term Democrat's voting record and donations from a contractor tied to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“That is not the example of somebody who’s going to stand up to Donald Trump and fight for all of our communities,” Stratton said during a debate in January. “I want to abolish ICE.”
Krishnamoorthi, who has called to dismantle the agency, said he donated the money to immigrant rights groups. He argued that Stratton zeroed in on him because she “didn’t have any policy ideas. She had to attack.”
Meanwhile Kelly has taken issue with Pritzker’s involvement, arguing that a sitting governor should not interfere.
Candidates have touted ties to iconic Chicagoans including President Barack Obama and the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died last month. However, an endorsement touted posthumously by Stratton caused a snag as Jackson's family withdrew it Monday, saying the draft wasn't meant for public release.
Election officials hope to see busy polls after turnout in the 2024 primary was 19%, the lowest in more than five decades.
Roosevelt Jones, 67, said his Social Security and public safety were at the forefront as he cast an early ballot for Stratton in Chicago recently.
“She seems to be the one to take care of things,” he said.
In the Republican primary, six candidates are on the ballot including Don Tracy, former Illinois Republican Party chairman, and attorney Jeannie Evans. Illinois last had a Republican in the Senate a decade ago, when Mark Kirk was defeated by current Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
Dozens of candidates are running for five open seats in the Chicago area where funding from groups supporting Israel and the cryptocurrency industry have played an outsized role.
Ten Democrats and one Republican are running in Kelly’s district, the 2nd, which spans parts of the South Side and suburbs and dips into the central Illinois farmlands. Among the Democrats are former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., son of the late civil rights leader, Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller and state Sen. Robert Peters.
The open seat in Krishnamoorthi's suburban 8th District has attracted eight Democratic candidates including former U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean and Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison.
Two other House members are retiring after long careers.
The 7th District of Rep. Danny Davis, who was first elected in 1996, covers parts of downtown, the West Side and suburbs. Democratic front-runners to replace him include state Rep. La Shawn Ford, City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, developer Jason Friedman and Kina Collins, a community organizer. Two Republicans are running.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky is also retiring, after 14 terms, and the primary field for her 9th District seat is the most crowded. Among the 15 Democratic candidates are Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, digital creator Kat Abughazaleh and state Sen. Laura Fine. Four Republicans are running.
Another open seat is that of Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who announced he would not seek reelection citing health reasons. The primary is uncontested after Garcia quietly schemed to place his chief of staff, Patty Garcia, who is not related to the congressman, on the ballot before a critical deadline. The move assured that no other Democrat would have time to circulate petitions. Then he withdrew.
Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune who is unopposed in his primary, is the first governor to seek a third term since the 1980s.
One of President Donald Trump’s most vocal critics, Pritzker used a campaign ad this month to highlight efforts to oppose the aggressive federal immigration crackdown in Chicago last year.
“I will always stand up for the law and the constitution,” he said. “Because that’s what we do in the state of Illinois.”
Pritzker has also made digs at Republican candidate Darren Bailey, a former state senator whom he handily defeated in 2022.
Bailey, among four Republicans vying for the nomination, says he is doing things differently. For one, he focused more on Chicago voters by choosing running mate Aaron Del Mar, who leads the Republican Party in Cook County.
Bailey has criticized Pritzker’s leadership, including blaming him for rising costs.
“He’s just another billionaire who has never once felt the pain he’s inflicted,” he said.
Also in the Republican primary are Ted Dabrowski, a real estate developer; Rick Heidner, a video gambling magnate; and DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick.
Patty García speaks during a news conference to announce her candidacy for the fourth district congressional race, Nov. 12, 2025, in Cicero, Ill. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
