HPE launches ProLiant Gen13 servers with AMD EPYC processors, targeting enterprise AI inference and agentic workloads with CPU-GPU balance.

HPE announced its first ProLiant Gen13 server lineup on October 7, featuring AMD's sixth-generation Epyc 9006 SP7-series processors, code-named "Venice." The four new systems are designed to enable enterprises to run AI inference, agentic AI, and traditional enterprise workloads including analytics and virtualization, all with new automated security and expanded management capabilities.

The flagship ProLiant DL585a Gen13 server features up to eight GPUs and two Venice processors, targeting demanding enterprise workloads such as AI inference, agentic AI, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) model fine-tuning, and analytics. Available in March 2027, it will support GPUs from Nvidia, AMD, and Intel. "These are not the big Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 or AMD Helios scale-up type systems. This is for your enterprise-grade customer," said John Carter, HPE's vice president of server product management, quality, and technical pursuit. "This is the first time we've done this kind of enterprise-grade AI system with an AMD head node. There is a lot of great performance improvements there, utilizing the larger memory bandwidth, higher-performance CPU."

HPE also introduced three CPU-focused servers. The ProLiant DL525, available in November 2026, is a compact 1U, single-socket system featuring one Venice processor with up to 256 cores, designed for AI inference and traditional enterprise workloads such as virtualization, fraud detection, market data processing, modeling, and simulations. Two additional CPU-based rack-scale systems launching in 2027 target very large enterprises and specialist cloud providers with data-intensive AI or HPC workloads: the ProLiant XD245, a four-node liquid-cooled system, and the ProLiant XD285, a two-node air-cooled system.

According to analyst Matt Kimball of Moor Insights & Strategy, HPE's announcement reflects the company's aggressive positioning to meet emerging enterprise AI needs. AMD's Epyc processor offers strong AI capabilities through its high core count, memory capacity, and bandwidth. IDC research vice president Kuba Stolarski noted that the four new servers provide a good mix of hardware for diverse workload needs. "Every enterprise is going to have a variety of different AI use cases. So you can't have a one-size-fits-all from an infrastructure perspective. You can't just put up the largest, most expensive GPU cluster and expect that's going to be the best solution for every enterprise."

The new CPU-focused ProLiant Gen13 servers can work alongside GPU systems for agentic AI workflows, with CPU-focused servers handling orchestration, tool calls, and retrieval while GPUs manage inference. "You need a whole lot more CPUs to drive orchestration because these agents are making calls, and subagents are making calls. It's just an ongoing traffic frenzy, and that's what makes AMD's Venice so interesting," Kimball said. "That high core count and high single-threaded performance do a very good job of supporting orchestration for agentic AI."

The Gen13 systems feature new automated security capabilities through HPE Integrated Lights-Out 8, including support for self-encrypting drives and expanded post-quantum cryptography readiness, according to Chris Bradley, director of mainstream compute customer advocacy and technical enablement at HPE. HPE Compute Ops Management software includes low-touch onboarding and near-real-time power capacity insights.