Fortinet Delivers Isolated Infrastructure Acceleration for the AI Factory with NVIDIA

Rhea-AI Summary

Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) and NVIDIA announced an integrated solution on Dec. 16, 2025 that runs Fortinet's FortiGate VM directly on NVIDIA BlueField-3 data processing units (DPU).

The integration embeds firewalling, segmentation, and zero-trust controls into the data center fabric to offload security from host CPUs, reduce latency, improve isolation for AI and private-cloud workloads, and simplify policy enforcement. The solution is supported starting with FortiOS 7.6.3 and includes validated deployment guidance using Open vSwitch and VXLAN. Target users include cloud service providers, telco edge, and enterprise private clouds; customers should contact Fortinet sales for validated hardware configurations and deployment guides.

Positive

• FortiGate VM runs directly on NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPU
• Security functions offloaded from host CPU, reducing host impact
• Zero-trust segmentation enforced in the infrastructure fabric
• Validated deployment using Open vSwitch bridges and VXLAN
• Supported beginning with FortiOS 7.6.3
• Positioned for cloud providers, telco edge, and enterprise private clouds

Negative

• Requires BlueField-3 hardware and validated configurations for deployment
• Customers must contact Fortinet sales for access to validated hardware and guides

Key Figures

Supported FortiOS version FortiOS 7.6.3 Minimum version supporting FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField

Market Reality Check

$79.38 Last Close

Volume Volume 5,092,843 is near the 20-day average of 5,146,113 (relative volume 0.99). normal

Technical Shares at 81.52 trade below the 200-day MA 92.38, about 29% under the 114.82 52-week high and above the 70.12 low.

Peers on Argus

FTNT’s -0.85% move occurs as key security peers like NET -3.15%, ZS -3.03%, PANW -2.85%, and others also trade lower, suggesting broader weakness despite AI-focused product news.

Common Catalyst AI-related security remains a shared narrative, with peers like PANW also issuing AI-themed cloud security headlines.

Historical Context

Date	Event	Sentiment	Move	Catalyst
Dec 02	Cyber skills report	Neutral	+1.4%	Global Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report outlining breaches, AI adoption, and training gaps.
Nov 18	Crime bounty initiative	Positive	-2.2%	Launch of global Cybercrime Bounty program with Crime Stoppers International.
Nov 12	ROI study release	Positive	-1.8%	Forrester TEI study citing 308% ROI and efficiency gains for Secure LAN Edge.
Nov 05	Q3 2025 earnings	Positive	+0.9%	Double-digit revenue and billings growth with record GAAP and Non-GAAP margins.
Nov 05	AI data center launch	Positive	+0.9%	Secure AI Data Center and FortiGate 3800G launch targeting AI infrastructure protection.

Pattern Detected

Recent Fortinet news, including AI launches and strong earnings, typically led to modest moves, with three aligned reactions and two divergences between news tone and price.

Recent Company History

Over the last few months, Fortinet has paired solid fundamentals with AI-focused innovation. Q3 2025 results showed revenue of $1.72B (+14% YoY) and record operating margins, while guidance outlined $6.720B–$6.780B in 2025 revenue. AI and infrastructure announcements such as the Secure AI Data Center and high-ROI Secure LAN Edge study highlighted performance and efficiency. Thought-leadership reports on skills gaps and crime-disruption partnerships reinforced Fortinet’s ecosystem role. Today’s NVIDIA BlueField integration extends this AI infrastructure storyline.

Market Pulse Summary

This announcement deepens Fortinet’s AI infrastructure strategy by running FortiGate VM directly on NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs, embedding firewalling and zero-trust controls in hardware. It targets high-performance private cloud and AI factories while maintaining isolation and throughput. In context of prior AI launches and strong Q3 2025 results with revenue of $1.72B, investors may watch for adoption indicators, performance benchmarks, and follow-on customer wins tied to FortiOS 7.6.3 deployments.

Key Terms

data processing unit (DPU) technical

"FortiGate VM ... running directly on the NVIDIA BlueField-3 data processing unit (DPU)."

A data processing unit (DPU) is a specialized chip designed to handle heavy data-center chores such as moving data, securing traffic, and managing storage so the main processors can focus on applications. Think of it as a dedicated traffic manager or dishwasher that takes routine, resource-intensive tasks off the central processor; investors care because DPUs can cut operating costs, boost server performance, and influence demand for networking and chipmakers.

zero-trust technical

"By moving firewalling, segmentation, and zero-trust controls on the DPU..."

Zero-trust is a cybersecurity approach that treats every user, device and network connection as potentially risky and requires verification before granting access to data or systems. Like checking ID at every door instead of assuming people inside are safe, it limits what each user can reach and records access. Investors care because it lowers the chance and cost of breaches, supports regulatory compliance, and can protect a company’s reputation and financial value.

Open vSwitch technical

"configuration using standard Open vSwitch bridges (OVS switches for WAN and VXLAN LAN tunnels)"

Open vSwitch is software that acts like a network switch inside virtualized environments, directing traffic between software-based computers, containers and physical networks. Think of it as an invisible traffic controller for data inside cloud systems; its performance and features affect a company’s cloud efficiency, security and scaling costs, so investors watch its use or support as a signal about operational agility, potential cost savings and product competitiveness.

VXLAN technical

"OVS switches for WAN and VXLAN LAN tunnels"

VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN) is a networking technique that lets companies create many separate, secure virtual local networks that can span across different physical data centers or cloud providers, like running private neighborhood roads on top of a shared highway. For investors, VXLAN matters because it enables scalable, flexible and lower-cost network setups for cloud services and data centers, affecting a company’s ability to grow, cut operating costs, and support modern applications securely.

multitenant technical

"improving multitenant isolation, throughput, and inspection accuracy for AI workloads."

A multitenant software system runs a single application instance that serves multiple separate customers (tenants), keeping each customer's data and settings logically separate while sharing the same underlying infrastructure. For investors it matters because multitenancy can lower operating costs, speed customer growth and improve margins—like an apartment building sharing utilities versus many separate houses—while introducing trade-offs in security, performance isolation and customization.

AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.

Collaboration integrates firewalling, segmentation, and policy enforcement directly into NVIDIA BlueField-accelerated infrastructure for higher performance, stronger isolation, and simpler operations

SUNNYVALE, Calif. and SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Fortinet^® (NASDAQ: FTNT), the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, today announced an integrated solution featuring FortiGate VM, Fortinet’s virtual cloud firewall, running directly on the NVIDIA BlueField-3 data processing unit (DPU). This integration embeds networking and brings isolated infrastructure acceleration into the AI Factory, allowing core security functions to run on BlueField instead of the host. By moving protection into the data center infrastructure itself, the solution helps enterprises secure high-performance private cloud and AI environments without slowing critical workloads.

“As enterprises are modernizing their data centers to support AI, private cloud and edge applications require much higher throughput than traditional workloads,” said John Whittle, Chief Operating Officer at Fortinet. “Integrating FortiGate VM on BlueField-3 DPU gives customers a practical way to keep security aligned with these new performance demands. By moving firewalling, segmentation, and zero-trust controls on the DPU, we help organizations improve isolation, reduce latency, and simplify consistent policy enforcement across their environments.”

“AI factories demand an entirely new class of secure, accelerated infrastructure,” said Kevin Deierling, Senior Vice President of Networking at NVIDIA. “By running FortiGate VM directly on NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs, we’re extending the model of infrastructure-offloaded services to include advanced security. This collaboration allows organizations to enforce firewalling, segmentation and zero-trust policies at line rate, without impacting GPU workloads. Together with Fortinet, we’re delivering the secure, high-performance fabric customers need to build and scale their AI-powered data centers with confidence.”

A New Era of Infrastructure Acceleration
As AI and private-cloud architectures evolve, organizations are building high-density accelerated computing clusters and faster data center fabrics to support latency-sensitive workloads. By bringing isolated infrastructure acceleration directly into the compute stack, organizations can keep pace with AI-scale traffic and maintain consistent protection across their environments.

Powered by the FortiOS operating system, FortiGate VM delivers industry-leading next-generation firewall capabilities that secures hybrid and multi-cloud, and now AI factories, with consistent security policies and centralized visibility and management, reducing complexity for security teams. Integrating FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField allows organizations to offload core security functions, including firewalling, segmentation, and zero-trust controls from the host CPU to the DPU.

This shift eliminates performance impact while improving multitenant isolation, throughput, and inspection accuracy for AI workloads. Deployed on BlueField, FortiGate VM enforces segmentation policies directly within the infrastructure fabric. As a result, organizations gain the following performance and security benefits:

• Zero-impact high-performance: FortiGate VM running on BlueField executes on the DPU, bypassing the host CPU, reducing latency and enabling higher throughput for massive traffic loads.
• Zero-trust segmentation and isolation: BlueField offloads networking and security functions in an isolated trust domain, purpose-built for isolating the security plane from compute workloads.
• Simplified private-cloud integration: The validated guide covers configuration using standard Open vSwitch bridges (OVS switches for WAN and VXLAN LAN tunnels) and deployment of FortiGate VM images on BlueField-enabled servers.
• Scalable multitenant architectures: The solution is ideal for cloud service providers, Telco edge, and enterprise private clouds needing hardware-accelerated inspection, secure isolation, and service chaining at scale.

Bringing High-Speed Security to High-Speed AI Infrastructure
Traditional host-based firewall architectures struggle to keep pace with the demands of AI workloads, edge services, agentic AI–era traffic, and multitenant isolation. With FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField, organizations get:

• Security inspection with zero host-impact: Security is implemented at the hardware level, yet software defined.
• Infrastructure-embedded zero-trust: BlueField anchors firewall and segmentation at the network-fabric level.
• Operational efficiency and scale: Converged networking and security offloads reduce infrastructure complexity and total cost of ownership.
  

Availability and Support
The FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField solution is supported starting with FortiOS 7.6.3. Customers and service providers should contact their Fortinet sales representative for access to the validated hardware configurations and deployment guide.

Additional resources: 

• Read the technical deployment guide.
• Learn about Fortinet cloud firewalls.
• Read more about the Fortinet Security Fabric. 
• Visit fortinet.com/trust to learn about Fortinet innovation, collaboration partners, product security processes, and enterprise-grade products.  
• Read about how Fortinet customers are securing their organizations. 
• Learn about Fortinet's commitment to product security and integrity, including its responsible product development and vulnerability disclosure approach and policies.  
• Follow Fortinet on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Subscribe to Fortinet on our blog or YouTube. 
  

About Fortinet 

Fortinet (Nasdaq: FTNT) is a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. Our mission is to secure people, devices, and data everywhere, and today we deliver cybersecurity everywhere our customers need it with the largest integrated portfolio of over 50 enterprise-grade products. Well over half a million customers trust Fortinet's solutions, which are among the most deployed, most patented, and most validated in the industry. The Fortinet Training Institute, one of the largest and broadest training programs in the industry, is dedicated to making cybersecurity training and new career opportunities available to everyone. Collaboration with esteemed organizations from both the public and private sectors, including Computer Emergency Response Teams (“CERTS”), government entities, and academia, is a fundamental aspect of Fortinet’s commitment to enhance cyber resilience globally. FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet’s elite threat intelligence and research organization, develops and utilizes leading-edge machine learning and AI technologies to provide customers with timely and consistently top-rated protection and actionable threat intelligence. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, and FortiGuard Labs.

Copyright © 2025 Fortinet, Inc. All rights reserved. The symbols ® and ™ denote respectively federally registered trademarks and common law trademarks of Fortinet, Inc., its subsidiaries and affiliates. Fortinet’s trademarks include, but are not limited to, the following: Fortinet, the Fortinet logo, FortiGate, FortiOS, FortiGuard, FortiCare, FortiAnalyzer, FortiManager, FortiASIC, FortiClient, FortiCloud, FortiMail, FortiSandbox, FortiADC, FortiAI, FortiAIOps, FortiAgent, FortiAntenna, FortiAP, FortiAPCam, FortiAuthenticator, FortiCache, FortiCall, FortiCam, FortiCamera, FortiCarrier, FortiCASB, FortiCentral, FortiCNP, FortiConnect, FortiController, FortiConverter, FortiCSPM, FortiCWP, FortiDAST, FortiDB, FortiDDoS, FortiDeceptor, FortiDeploy, FortiDevSec, FortiDLP, FortiEdge, FortiEDR, FortiExplorer, FortiExtender, FortiFirewall, FortiFlex FortiFone, FortiGSLB, FortiGuest, FortiHypervisor, FortiInsight, FortiIsolator, FortiLAN, FortiLink, FortiMonitor, FortiNAC, FortiNDR, FortiPAM, FortiPenTest, FortiPhish, FortiPoint, FortiPolicy, FortiPortal, FortiPresence, FortiProxy, FortiRecon, FortiRecorder, FortiSASE, FortiScanner, FortiSDNConnector, FortiSIEM, FortiSMS, FortiSOAR, FortiSRA, FortiStack, FortiSwitch, FortiTester, FortiToken, FortiTrust, FortiVoice, FortiWAN, FortiWeb, FortiWiFi, FortiWLC, FortiWLM, FortiXDR and Lacework FortiCNAPP. Other trademarks belong to their respective owners. Fortinet has not independently verified statements or certifications herein attributed to third parties and Fortinet does not independently endorse such statements. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, nothing herein constitutes a warranty, guarantee, contract, binding specification or other binding commitment by Fortinet or any indication of intent related to a binding commitment, and performance and other specification information herein may be unique to certain environments.

Media Contact:
Travis Anderson
Fortinet, Inc.
408-235-7700
pr@fortinet.com

Investor Contact:
Anthony Luscri
Fortinet, Inc.
408-235-7700
investors@fortinet.com

Analyst Contact:
Brian Greenberg
Fortinet, Inc.
408-235-7700
analystrelations@fortinet.com

FAQ

What did Fortinet announce about AI infrastructure on Dec. 16, 2025 for FTNT?

Fortinet announced that FortiGate VM can run directly on NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPU to embed firewalling and segmentation into the data center fabric.

How does the FortiGate VM on BlueField-3 affect FTNT customers' host CPUs and GPU workloads?

By offloading security to the BlueField DPU, the solution bypasses the host CPU, reducing latency and avoiding impact on GPU workloads.

Which FortiOS release supports FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField for FTNT?

Support for FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField begins with FortiOS 7.6.3.

What deployment standards does Fortinet recommend for BlueField-based FortiGate VM (FTNT)?

The validated guide covers configuration using Open vSwitch bridges and VXLAN LAN tunnels and deployment of FortiGate VM images on BlueField-enabled servers.

Who should consider FortiGate VM on BlueField according to FTNT?

Cloud service providers, telco edge operators, and enterprise private clouds needing hardware-accelerated inspection and multitenant isolation.