VMware

VMware

Cloud computing and virtualization software provider

Overview

VMware provides software to help organizations build, run, manage, connect, and protect applications across public, private, and hybrid clouds. Its products cover the full stack: vSphere for server virtualization, vSAN for storage virtualization, and NSX for network virtualization, plus vRealize for cloud management and Carbon Black for security. These tools work by abstracting and pooling computing resources, enabling migration from on-premises data centers to scalable cloud environments and by using hyperconverged infrastructure that combines compute, storage, and networking in one system. What sets VMware apart is its integrated, end-to-end suite that connects compute, storage, networking, security, and cloud management across multiple cloud environments, with a strong focus on hybrid and multi-cloud deployments. The company’s goal is to help businesses modernize their IT infrastructure, improve security, and boost operational efficiency across diverse cloud environments.

About VMware

Simplify's Rating
Why VMware is rated
C+
Rated B on Competitive Edge
Rated C on Growth Potential
Rated C on Differentiation

Industries

Enterprise Software

Cybersecurity

Company Size

10,001+

Company Stage

Post IPO Equity

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Founded

1998

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • VMware Explore 2026 showcased VCF 9.1 memory tiering, scale, and unified operations.
  • September 21, 2026 Hands-on Labs now train admins on VCF 9.1 adoption.
  • Broadcom's 2026 security patches keep Workstation, Fusion, ESX, and vCenter actively maintained.

What critics are saying

  • Gartner says 55% of VMware users will evaluate alternatives by 2029.
  • Tottenham Hotspur exited VMware on September 3, 2026, citing 85% licensing savings.
  • September 11, 2026 EU antitrust scrutiny targets Broadcom's VMware pricing and bundling strategy.

What makes VMware unique

  • September 2026 VCF 9.1 keeps VMware's private-cloud stack integrated across compute, storage, networking.
  • VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1.1 embeds GitOps and Argo CD into private-cloud operations.
  • Broadcom's September 2026 vSphere Standard refresh preserves low-end virtualization for core installed base.

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Funding

Total Funding

$1.4B

Above

Industry Average

Funded Over

10 Rounds

Post IPO Equity funding comparison data is currently unavailable. We're working to provide this information soon!
Post IPO Equity Funding Comparison
Coming Soon

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

↑ 1%

1 year growth

↑ 1%

2 year growth

↑ 1%
The Register
Sep 22nd, 2026
Gartner: 55% of VMware users to evaluate alternatives by 2029 amid pricing complaints

Gartner predicts 55% of enterprise VMware users will evaluate alternative hybrid cloud platforms by 2029, up from 25% in 2026. The analyst firm cites increased negative sentiment regarding Broadcom's communication, commercial practices, and support delays. Customers report significant cost increases from the transition to per-core subscriptions and minimal flexibility during negotiations. Despite this, Gartner still rates VMware as a leader in both distributed hybrid infrastructure and server virtualisation markets. The firm praises VMware's core technology, sovereign cloud ecosystem, and AI integration. However, migration progress remains slow, with rivals like Nutanix facing their own challenges around complex licensing and higher-than-expected pricing. Gartner notes 2029 would align with the expiry of three-year subscriptions many organisations purchased before Broadcom's acquisition.

VMware
Sep 22nd, 2026
The next generation of Hands-on Labs.

The next generation of Hands-on Labs. September 21, 2026 Following the incredible energy and announcements at VMware Explore Las Vegas, VMware is thrilled to announce that the VMware Hands-on Labs catalog has been updated to feature VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1. The new labs provide a direct, hands-on way for administrators, architects, and platform engineers to experience the unified private cloud operating model, memory tiering enhancements, and massive scale improvements introduced in VCF 9.1. As part of this rollout, VMware is deprecating the VCF 9.0 labs from last year (the HOL-26xx series) and replacing them with its updated HOL-27xx series. If you were planning to take a specific lab from last year or are searching for a particular topic, VMware has created a quick-reference mapping guide below to help you find the new VCF 9.1 equivalent SKU. Lab SKU mapping: VCF 9.0 to VCF 9.1. Ready to explore? You don't need to build your own nested deployment to start exploring these capabilities. Head over to the VMware Hands-on Labs catalog to launch your chosen lab directly in your browser. Whether you want to test the new VCF Operations interface, experiment with NVMe memory tiering, or dive into Private AI, these environments are fully provisioned and ready for you today. The full catalog of new labs can be found here: VCF 9.1 Catalog New to Hands-on Labs? HOL account set-up cheat sheet

APAC News Network
Sep 16th, 2026
OpenAI appoints Sanjay Deshmukh as VP of APAC Sales.

OpenAI appoints Sanjay Deshmukh as VP of APAC Sales. Summarize with: New Delhi, September 16(APAC Media): OpenAI has appointed Sanjay Deshmukh as Vice President of Asia Pacific (APAC) Sales. The appointment adds a senior enterprise technology executive to OpenAI's regional sales leadership as the company builds its commercial operations across Asia Pacific. Deshmukh joins OpenAI from Elastic, where he was Vice President of Asia Pacific and Japan. He had joined Elastic in 2025 after spending about three-and-a-half years at Snowflake as Senior Regional Vice President for ASEAN and India. His move to OpenAI was announced by Deshmukh on LinkedIn, where he said he would focus on working with organisations and customers across the APAC region. The new role is focused on sales, rather than product or engineering. A report on the appointment said Deshmukh is based in Singapore and will report to OpenAI Chief Revenue Officer Dali Rajic. Before Elastic and Snowflake, Deshmukh spent several years at VMware, where he held leadership positions covering Southeast Asia, Korea and Asia Pacific. His earlier career includes senior roles at Citrix, SAP, Business Objects and Informix. His recent career has largely focused on enterprise software, cloud, data and technology sales across Asian markets. At Elastic, he served as Vice President of Sales for APJ. Summarize with:

Ars Technica
Sep 4th, 2026
VMware's vSphere Standard update faces trust crisis as SMBs choose rivals

VMware is attempting to win back small and medium-sized businesses after Broadcom's acquisition damaged trust through pricing changes and restricted product access. The company plans to update vSphere Standard, but industry experts say the damage may be irreversible. "Trust, not features, is the real deficit," said Sumit Bhatia, co-author of Navigating VMware Turmoil in the Broadcom Era. He argues Broadcom must prove sustained commitment through stable pricing and reliable renewals before SMBs consider vSphere Standard viable again. Many SMBs have already migrated to competitors like Nutanix, Proxmox, and Microsoft Hyper-V. Despite the turmoil, Broadcom's software business made $8.75 billion in revenue during fiscal Q3 2026, marking a 29% year-over-year increase. Market observers remain sceptical about whether the updated offering represents genuine commitment or another short-term tactic.

Data Center Dynamics
Sep 4th, 2026
Broadcom slams AI silicon-fueled Q3, promises double-double on the way.

Broadcom slams AI silicon-fueled Q3, promises double-double on the way. And VMware continues to tick along September 04, 2026 Broadcom posted strong, silicon-fueled results for the third quarter of fiscal 2026 - and forecast more to come - results that overshadowed robust earnings from the vendor's VMware-led Infrastructure Software business. Broadcom's overall Q3 revenues surged 86 percent Year-on-Year (YoY) to $29.6 billion, led by an outsized 127 percent increase in revenues from its Semiconductor Solutions division that totaled $20.8 billion for the quarter. Broadcom's Infrastructure Software operations posted a more modest 29 percent YoY increase to nearly $8.8 billion in revenues, with that segment's influence on Broadcom's overall revenues plummeting from 43 percent last year to just 30 percent this year. Overall net income on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis surged more than 200 percent to nearly $13.1 billion for the quarter, with Broadcom generating $14.2 billion in cash over that three-month period and laying out just $500 million in capex. Broadcom's revenue run continues to take advantage of the AI train, with CEO Hock Tan stating the vendor expects AI networking revenues to double in fiscal 2027 to $115 billion before doubling again in fiscal 2028 to $230 billion. "We have secured the supply to meet this outlook," Tan told investors during the earnings call. "This AI revenue guidance through [2028] is being provided to give you the trajectory of our growth, and that demand for compute continues to be extremely strong. As a result, I have to say we are very much on target to exceed $30 in earnings per share in fiscal 2028." Tan fanned that enthusiasm by laying out ongoing AI data center projects, including the recent expansion of a deal with Google to develop and supply future Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) and AI networking gear; work with Anthropic that includes the upcoming one-gigawatt (1GW) Ironwood, another five-gigawatts of TPU Version 8i set for fiscal 2027, and "clear line of sight to deliver another incremental 10 gigawatts." "Even as we expect Google to grow for us, Anthropic is on track to become our largest XPU customer in 2027, and sustain that in 2028," Tan added. Tan also noted that Broadcom's work with OpenAI on its AI data movement-optimized "Jalapeño" chip was also on track for a planned deployment of 1.3 gigawatts in 2027. "Together with OpenAI, we are deep in development of the next-generation XPU beyond Jalapeño, which is approaching tape-out in 2028," Tan said. "We have line of sight for OpenAI to deploy over five gigawatts of Jalapeño and its successor generation of XPU, which would make OpenAI our second largest XPU customer." Tan also turned aside investor concerns over supply chain challenges, stating that Broadcom's forecasts were "conservative" and that demand was continuing to outpace supply. "We have secured supply, and we think it's the right number to put it to [$115 billion], and if times, if circumstances change and our ability to scale more supply chain, of course, we will uplift, but at this point that's our best outlook," Tan said. "The same thinking applies to 2028, when we give you that outlook of $230 billion, this is real demand we believe based on what's available, what data center sites, locations are ready [in] 2028 with respect to our customers, the size of what we have and against the supply chain we have in leading-edge wafers, substrates, and [high-bandwidth memory]... So this is, again, a carefully structured outlook that we believe we can achieve." Broadcom's networking business was also lauded, with Tan touting the vendor as the "leader in AI networking," backed by its 100 Tbps Tomahawk 6 and recent tape-out of its 200 Tb/s Tomahawk 7. The vendor also continues to push its optical digital signal processors (DSPs), electro-absorption modulated lasers (EMLs) and continuous-wave (CW) indium phosphide (InP) lasers. "We continue to invest and invest heavily to provide the broadest and most leading-edge AI portfolio," Tan added. "In fact, our AI networking revenue is expected to grow just as fast as XPUs over the next few years, reflecting our excellent progress with this key group of [large language model] customers." Broadcom has other interests? That AI-fueled impact was further highlighted by Broadcom's non-AI semiconductor business posting a modest five percent YoY increase in revenues to $4.2 billion for the quarter, results that were flat sequentially. Tan noted that the segment is forecast to post a similar five percent YoY increase during the next quarter. Tan provided just a passing update on the VMware-linked Infrastructure Software business, claiming it was running at a 15 percent annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth level - though actual revenues are expected to slip slightly in the upcoming quarter to $8.7 billion - and that VMware's recently launched Private AI Cloud platform would help tap into growing "enterprise consumption of AI" that is "opening a new opportunity for our Infrastructure Software business." More in investment / M&A / financing.

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