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DDN

DDN (formally DataDirect Networks, Inc.) is a storage company that competes in the HPC and AI space. It has two primary products as of 2026:

Its CEO is Alex Bouzari, who owns a 40% share of the company. Paul Bloch is the other cofounder and owns another 40%.1

Corporate history

DateEvent
1988-05-25MegaDrive Systems, Inc. incorporated in California. The same legal entity is today DataDirect Networks, Inc.23
1998-01MegaDrive merges with ImpactData, a developer of SAN management software, and is renamed DataDirect Networks.4
2001-10-01$9.9M Series A from ClearLight Partners (a private equity and VC fund), Digital Coast Ventures, and PART’COM.5
2002VC relationship apparently ends, though the earliest corroboration appears in 2007.6
2018-06-25Acquires Intel’s Lustre business, terms undisclosed.7 The team becomes an autonomous division under the revived Whamcloud name.8
2018-09Wins Tintri’s bankruptcy auction. Court documents (via Law360) put DDN’s final bid at $53.8M; DDN announced the price as $60M.910
2019-05Acquires Nexenta, amount undisclosed.11
2019-09-19Acquires IntelliFlash from Western Digital. WD becomes a preferred HDD and SSD supplier to DDN.11
2020-04-15$10M loan via the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program to protect 500 jobs.12 $9.9M of this loan was forgiven (i.e., the government granted DDN this money).13
2025-01-09Blackstone Tactical Opportunities invests $300M at a $5B valuation.14 Bank of America Securities advised DDN.15
2026-07-06Equity investor in the extension of Turing’s Series A at an undisclosed amount.16

DDN has changed its company history in recent years. A few examples:

Founding date moved by ten years

The company was “Founded in 1988 as MegaDrive Systems,” in 20015 which matches the California registry.2 However, by 2007, DDN described its founding as 1998,6 and this has been consistently stated since (e.g., Forbes’ framed DDN as a 28-year-old company).1 However, Forbes misdated MegaDrive itself to 1998 which is not true.17

First outside investment

In 2025, DDN claimed that Blackstone prompted them “to accept outside investment for the first time.”18 Blackstone’s statement called itself “the first institutional investor in DDN.”15

However, DDN raised a $9.9M Series A from three investors in 2001, making ClearLight (a private equity firm) the company’s first institutional investor.5

DDN also accepted a $10M PPP loan (of which $9.9M was forgiven) in 2020-2021, but this was a grant rather than investment.13

Finances

DDN is a privately held company, so it is not required to publicly disclose audited financial statements. As such, the claims of its revenue, profitability, and overall financial strength have changed over time. A few examples:

YearContemporaneous figureLater retelling
2006-2008$86M, then about $100M expected6About $100M by 20081
2011$226M19”Sales doubled to $220 million by 2018”1 (conflicts)
2016Close to $300M20About $300M, then growth slowed; no year given1
2020$400M, a record21none
2024noneAbout $400M1

Broadly, DDN appears to have lowered pre-AI revenue retroactively, which makes DDN’s AI growth appear much steeper than it really was:

Pre-AI (2011–2018): Forbes places DDN at $220M in 2018.1 Contemporaneous company figures had it at $226M in 201119 and near $300M in 2016.20

AI-era (2020–2024): Forbes’ $400M for 20241 equals the record DDN announced for 2020.21 Either the 2020 numbers were restated using different definitions of revenue, or DDN revenue stayed flat for the four intervening years.

Footnotes

  1. AI’s Latest Rocket Ship Is An Old School, 28-Year-Old Data Company (2026-08-06) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  2. DATADIRECT NETWORKS, INC. :: California (US) :: OpenCorporates ↩ ↩2

  3. DATADIRECT NETWORKS, INC. overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK ↩

  4. Alex Bouzari - Datadirect Networks - The Wall Street Transcript (2000-10-25) ↩

  5. DATADIRECT NETWORKS CLOSES SERIES A FUNDING ROUND OF US Dollars 9.9 MILLION - Free Online Library (2001-10-01) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. DataDirect Networks Finds Room at the Top (2007-07-06) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. DDN Acquires Lustre File System Capability from Intel (2018-06-25) ↩

  8. DDN Breathes New Life Into Lustre File System (2018-06-27) ↩

  9. Tintri bankruptcy deal gives DataDirect an enterprise path (2018-09) ↩

  10. DDN scoops up Tintri biz remains (2018-09-05) ↩

  11. Western Digital exits data centre systems – sells IntelliFlash to DDN, puts ActiveScale on the block (2019-09-19) ↩ ↩2

  12. COVID Stimulus Watch: DataDirect Networks, Inc. ↩

  13. Tracking PPP: DataDirect Networks, Inc. ↩ ↩2

  14. Blackstone Invests $300 Million at a $5 billion Valuation in DDN, AI and Data Intelligence Solutions Leader, to Fuel Further Rapid Growth (2025-01-09) ↩

  15. DDN: AI And Data Intelligence Solutions Company Raises $300 Million At $5 Billion Valuation (2025-01-09) ↩ ↩2

  16. Turing Completes Series A Funding Round, Raising Approximately ¥27.9 Billion for Fully Autonomous Driving System Development (2026-07-07) ↩

  17. Alex Bouzari - Forbes profile ↩

  18. DDN Poised for Historic Growth in Enterprise AI with a $300 Million investment from Blackstone at $5 Billion Valuation (2025-01-09) ↩

  19. DataDirect Networks (DDN) is Named America’s Fastest Growing $200M+ Privately Held Computer Company by Inc. Magazine (2012-09-06) ↩ ↩2

  20. Exclusive Interview With Paul Bloch, President and Co-Founder of DDN Storage (2016-07-08) ↩ ↩2

  21. DDN erzielt 2020 als weltweit führendes Unternehmen für intelligente Infrastrukturen und Technologien Rekordumsatz von 400 Millionen US-Dollar ↩ ↩2

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