The University of Utah (the U) is planning to join forces with two powerhouse tech firms to accelerate research and discovery using artificial intelligence (AI). The agreement with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and AI chipmaker NVIDIA will amplify the U’s capacity for understanding cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, mental health, and genetics. The initiative is projected to enable medical breakthroughs, driving innovation, and scientific discovery across disciplines.

“The U has a proud legacy of pioneering technological breakthroughs,” said Taylor Randall, president of the University of Utah. “Our goal is to make the state awash in computing power by building a robust AI ecosystem benefiting our entire system of higher education, driving research to find new cures, and igniting Utah’s entrepreneurial spirit.”

The partnership, which includes a $50 million investment of funds from both public and philanthropic sources, is projected to increase the U’s computing capacity 3.5-fold. The flagship school’s Board of Trustees gave preliminary approval to the proposed arrangement on September 9.

The structure paves a path for substantial advances in computing storage and infrastructure required for Utah-based projects in AI and innovation. The goal is to lay the foundation for a scalable AI ecosystem available to researchers, learners, and entrepreneurs across Utah. The multi-year initiative would build upon existing capabilities in AI, giving the U access to substantially more computing power.

Brynn and Peter Huntsman along with the Huntsman Family Foundation will provide a lead philanthropic gift to the U that is intended to initiate the project and help encourage other supporters to make investments required to move the work forward through AI “supercomputer” systems designed to handle enormous processing and storage needs. The university will seek remaining funds from the state of Utah and other sources.

“This AI initiative will accelerate world class cancer research that enhances capabilities in ways we hardly imagined just a few years ago,” said Peter Huntsman, CEO and chairman, Huntsman Cancer Foundation. “Huntsman Cancer Foundation recently announced our commitment to support the expansion of the educational, research, and clinical care capacity of the world renown Huntsman Cancer Institute in Vineyard, Utah, which will serve as a hub for cancer AI research. These investments will speed discoveries and enhance the state of Utah’s leadership in AI education and economic opportunity.”

Mental health will be a major focus of the AI research endeavor. 

“As the Huntsman Mental Health Institute opens its new 185,000-square-foot Translational Research Building this coming year, we’re looking forward to increasing momentum around mental health research, including the impact of this technology,” said Christena Huntsman Durham, Huntsman Mental Health Foundation CEO and co-chair. “We know so many people are struggling with mental health challenges; we’re thrilled we will be able to move even faster to get help to those who need it most.”

Check out all the latest news related to Utah economic development, corporate relocation, corporate expansion and site selection.

F5, a Seattle-based application delivery and security company, announced Thursday it will acquire Dublin-based CalypsoAI for $180 million in cash, highlighting the mounting security challenges enterprises face as they rapidly integrate artificial intelligence into their operations.

The acquisition comes as companies across industries rush to deploy generative AI systems while grappling with new categories of cybersecurity threats that traditional security tools struggle to address. CalypsoAI, founded in 2018, specializes in protecting AI systems against emerging attack methods, including prompt injection and jailbreak attacks.

“AI is redefining enterprise architecture and the attack surface companies must defend,” said François Locoh-Donou, F5’s president and CEO. The company plans to integrate CalypsoAI’s capabilities into its Application Delivery and Security Platform to create what it describes as a comprehensive AI security solution.

Companies are embedding AI into products and operations at an unprecedented pace, but this rapid adoption has created compliance gaps and heightened regulatory scrutiny. CalypsoAI addresses these challenges through what the company calls “model-agnostic” security, providing protection regardless of which AI models or cloud providers enterprises use. 

The platform conducts automated red-team testing against thousands of attack scenarios monthly, generating risk assessments and implementing real-time guardrails to prevent data leakage and policy violations.

“Enterprises want to move fast with AI while reducing the risk of data leaks, unsafe outputs, or compliance failures,” said CalypsoAI CEO Donnchadh Casey. The company’s approach focuses on the inference layer where AI models process requests, rather than securing the models themselves.

The acquisition comes during a flurry of similar moves by established companies in the cybersecurity space that are looking to add AI-powered offerings to their customers. 

F5 has also been active this year with what it considers strategic purchases. The company acquired San Francisco-based Fletch in June and observability firm MantisNet in August, demonstrating a pattern of building capabilities through acquisition rather than internal development.

The deal is expected to close by Sept. 30. 

These sales are designed to help Nebius acquire additional compute power and hardware, secure “strategic high-quality and well-located” plots of lands with reliable providers and to expand its data center footprint, according to a Wednesday (Sept. 10) news release.

“We believe this will enable us to aggressively grow our core business in 2026 and beyond as we aim to scale our global data center portfolio, including through new greenfield sites, and the expansion of our customer base, from AI native tech startups to larger enterprises,” the company said in the release.

The news came days after the company announced a new partnership with Microsoft, a $19.4 billion deal that will see Nebius deliver artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure to the tech giant.

Under this multi-year pact, Nebius will provide dedicated capacity to Microsoft from its new data center in Vineland, New Jersey beginning later this year, the company said in a news release.

“Nebius’s core AI cloud business, serving customers from AI startups to enterprises, is performing exceptionally well,” said Arkady Volozh, founder and CEO of Nebius.

“We have also said that, in addition to our core business, we expect to secure significant long-term committed contracts with leading AI labs and big tech companies. I’m happy to announce the first of these contracts, and I believe there are more to come.”

Nebius, which rebranded from Russian internet company Yandex, sold that business’s search engine last year to focus on cloud-computing services for AI operations. The company raised $700 million last year from investors that included Nvidia.

This news is happening as multiple industries — including cloud, data storage, semiconductor manufacturing and data centers — are enjoying revenue gains from AI, cementing its status as an economic driver, as PYMNTS wrote last week.

The chief catalyst is increasing enterprise adoption of AI. A 2025 PYMNTS Intelligence report found that 90% of chief financial officers (CFOs) see “very positive ROI” from generative AI, a significant increase from 26.7% in March 2024.

“With gen AI yielding such strong results, CFOs are utilizing the technology in more areas of their businesses,” the report said, including employing the technology for high-, medium- and low-impact tasks.

Cloud providers are among the clearest beneficiaries of this demand. Research firm Statista has projected that cloud infrastructure service revenues are due to surpass $400 billion for the first time. The cloud market has re-accelerated in recent quarters, primarily due to the AI boom, the company said.