VMware Explore 2026: 5 Biggest AI, VCF And Security Launches

From VMware AI Factory and new AI models for VMware Cloud Foundation to Broadcom’s new AgentMinder, here are the five biggest launches at VMware Explore 2026 that you need to know about.

Thousands of VMware partners and customers are flocking to Las Vegas this week for VMware Explore 2026 to learn about new products, strategy and VMware’s AI future.

VMware by Broadcom is expected to launch its new VMware AI Factory alongside VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and is adding new AI model validations from Google, Nvidia and others for VCF.

Additionally, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based private cloud and software star is unleashing three new VMware Private AI services to help make AI operational, governable and cost-effective.

VMware Explore 2026; ‘Innovate Forward’

In an interview with CRN, Broadcom’s VCF leader Krish Prasad said AI Factory and other VMware Explore launches are “going to be huge” for partners and customers.

“At Explore, we’re talking about innovating forward, meaning if you go back and think about some of the innovations that we brought to market—like memory tiering, like GPU enablement as part of our platform—we did that before the big need was there in the market and before the [supply] crisis came about,” Prasad, senior vice president and general manager of VCF, told CRN.

“So customers had ready solutions from us before they hit the crisis. So that’s our mantra, which is innovate forward,” he added.

Prasad said VMware Explore 2026 launches provide clients solutions to what’s “coming down the road” so partners can have the “innovations ready” when businesses realize they need it.

CRN breaks down the five biggest launches at VMware Explore in Las Vegas today that you need to know about.

VMware AI Factory

VMware’s new AI Factory combines VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) with customers’ preferred AI software and accelerator architectures and certified VCF AI ReadyNodes from Cisco, Dell, HPE, Lenovo, Supermicro and others.

“VMware AI Factory is a validated solution built on VCF, bringing OEM/ODM servers, private AI services and model-as-a-service all together into a tested and validated solution,” said Prashanth Shenoy, CMO and vice president of marketing, cloud platform, infrastructure and solutions, in a VMware Explore pre-briefing.

VMware’s new AI Factory gives customers a software-defined foundation that automates infrastructure deployment, unifies lifecycle management, and lets them choose their preferred hardware and vetted models.

“The result is faster time to first model, predictable private cloud costs, and better control over AI tokenomics,” said Shenoy.

VMware AI Factory streamlines AI infrastructure management by fully automating hardware provisioning, software stack enablement, and end-to-end lifecycle management.

Three New Private AI Services

As part of the VMware AI Factory, VMware unleashed three new private AI services to help make AI operational, governable and cost-effective.

VMware launched new multi-tenant model sharing AI services that enable VMware’s Model Runtime to now support secure sharing of AI models between tenants or lines of business through isolated namespaces. This helps maintain data privacy while eliminating redundant model deployments that waste GPU allocation and infrastructure resources.

The second new AI service, called AI Gateway, provides a unified model governance between on-premises and cloud environments through a single consumption interface. The new service enables access to cloud-hosted and locally-hosted models with enhancements like intelligent prompt routing, token and usage rate-limiting, and application authorization.

VMware’s third new AI service enables secure virtualized container spaces to isolate dynamic agent-generated code execution, with a control layer defining how agents are invoked, what tools they access, and how their outputs are validated before being acted upon.

Five New AI Models On VCF

VMware has validated leading AI models from Google, Nvidia, NEC, Alibaba Cloud and Z.ai on VCF for the first time.

The five new AI models that have been tested and validated to run on VCF include Google DeepMind’s latest open source, open-weight Gemma 4 model.

The other new models are Nvidia’s Nemotron 3 family of multimodal models, NEC’s cotomi AI model, Alibaba’s Qwen 3.7-Max multimodal model, and Z.ai’s GLM 5.2 open source general language model.

“Broadcom is committed to giving enterprises the broadest set of AI models for their on-premises infrastructure, all validated on VCF,” said Chris Wolf, global head of AI and advanced services, VCF division, in a statement.

“Working with the world’s leading AI model providers, we’re giving organizations a clear path to data sovereignty and cost-effective AI at scale, with leading models available securely and delivered as a service to their user community through VMware Cloud Foundation’s built-in services,” Wolf said.

VMware said VCF provides the AI- and Kubernetes-native platform that gives clients a production-ready path to deploying a wide variety of AI models with the ability to deliver model-as-a-service for customers.

Broadcom’s New Security AgentMinder

On the security front, one of the biggest launches is VMware by Broadcom’s new AgentMinder that serves as the central control plane for autonomous AI agents.

As AI agents move from generating content to accessing data, invoking tools, and completing business processes, clients need more than model guardrails or static permissions. AgentMinder independently verifies agent identity and authorizes each action against its declared mission, intent, context, and current risk before the action reaches an enterprise resource.

Clayton Donley, vice president and general manager for Broadcom’s Identity Management Security Division, said existing security models were designed for human users, not for autonomous digital employees that can make decisions and take actions on their own.

“AgentMinder acts as a traffic controller, verifying exactly what these AI agents are doing, providing guardrails, and tracking their work. It helps businesses stop worrying about AI running unchecked, and start running their operations with confidence,” Donley said.

VMware said by establishing policy-based controls, continuous authorization and telemetry, AgentMinder helps enterprises scale agentic AI while maintaining security, compliance and operational trust.

TrueSource By Broadcom

At VMware Explore, the company unveiled TrueSource by Broadcom, a portfolio of commercially supported open source software for the enterprise.

TrueSource brings together several existing and new innovations including Spring Enterprise, the company’s flagship offering for the open source Spring ecosystem, also known as VMware Tanzu Spring. Broadcom designed these enterprise offerings to help enterprises manage mission-critical Java applications, meet compliance standards, and defend against advanced AI-enabled cyber threats.

TrueSource also includes new TrueSource Trusted Artifacts, which provides secure clean-room builds of the broader Java ecosystem, Python, and Node.js and incorporates a secure catalog of hardened container images.

Lastly, the solution includes TrueSource Data Services, a new offering that provides trusted artifacts, support, and deployment expertise for PostgreSQL, RabbitMQ, MySQL, and Valkey data engines. Data Services also includes deployment automation for these engines as well as visibility into the security and operational posture.

Spring Enterprise, TrueSource Trusted Artifacts, and TrueSource Data Services are available with tiered site licensing options.