VMware Explore · VCF 9.1 · Private AI · Event Recap

VMware Explore 2026 ran in Las Vegas from 31 August to 3 September. This recap covers what Broadcom announced across VCF, Private AI, security and Tanzu, which parts you can install today, what is still on the roadmap, and what it means for VCF customers in India. Details come from Broadcom’s press releases that week, the VCF 9.1.1 release notes published on day four, and keynote coverage.

VCF 9.1 had already shipped in May, so there was no new platform release on stage. Broadcom instead added new layers on top of it: an AI assistant inside VCF Operations, a packaged AI Factory, governance for AI agents, and agent tooling in Tanzu. Running AI on your own infrastructure was the theme that tied all of it together.

Section 1 · EventExplore 2026 at a glance

Two things in that table tell you where Explore is heading. Attendance is a fraction of what VMworld used to draw, and Broadcom is clearly fine with that, because the event now targets people who run VCF rather than a wide partner and prospect crowd. And moving to May puts Explore closer to the spring release cycle. VCF 9.0 and 9.1 both arrived in May, so a May Explore will probably launch the next platform release on stage rather than recap it three months later.

Section 2 · OverviewEverything announced, by product area

Before going product by product, here is the full list on one screen. Some of these were announced a few weeks before Explore and then shown on stage, and that is noted where it applies.

Section 3 · PlatformWhat VCF 9.1 and 9.1.1 bring to your clusters

VCF 9.1 was the product on almost every slide, even though it was four months old. That looks deliberate: Broadcom wants existing customers to move off 5.x and 9.0, and Explore was the push. Here are the features that matter for day-to-day operations.

NVMe memory tiering, now without a reboot

What Broadcom and Lenovo claim

Vendor figures, not independent test results. Your own ratio of cold to hot memory decides what you actually get.

Hardware, storage and patching

Three quieter changes that matter more in daily operations than they did on stage.

AI Assistant for VCF (arrived in 9.1.1)

Figure 1. How a troubleshooting request moves through AI Assistant for VCF in 9.1.1.

Known limits

• It is available only in full VCF deployments, not in VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF).
• Chat history is not kept. Move to another page and your conversation is gone.
• If you pick Gemini, VCF management components need internet access to reach it, and your operational data leaves your data centre. For banks and government customers that alone decides it: PAIS or nothing.
• When SSO is enabled, administrators need the “Extensions” permission to use it.

Other items in 9.1.1

VCF 9.0 versus 9.1 for these features

For step-by-step upgrade guidance, see the VCF 9.1 Upgrade Series. If you are still learning how 9.x fits together, start with the VCF 9 Complete Guide.

Section 4 · Private AIVMware AI Factory and Private AI Cloud

Broadcom announced VMware AI Factory on 31 August and described it as the software-defined foundation of VMware Private AI Cloud. In simple terms, Private AI Cloud is what you buy, and AI Factory is what runs inside it. Paul Turner framed it around “tokenomics”: knowing and controlling what each generated token costs you, in the same way you already track cost per VM.

Here is how its layers fit together, from hardware at the bottom to agents at the top.

Figure 2. VMware Private AI Cloud as a stack. Each layer runs on the one below it.

What is inside AI Factory

Models and hardware partners

Having AMD as a real option matters. It gives buyers something to negotiate with when NVIDIA supply is tight or priced high.

MetalSoft: bare metal inside VCF

MetalSoft opened the keynote. Their integration lets you provision or repave physical servers from several vendors directly from the VCF management console, bringing firmware and hardware lifecycle into the same place as the software lifecycle. Broadcom says provisioning drops from weeks to minutes. If you have ever waited on a hardware team, a firmware baseline and a PXE server before VCF could even see a new host, you know where those weeks go. Ask your account team which server models are supported on day one and whether it needs a separate licence.

Section 5 · SecurityvDefend, Avi and TrueSource

vDefend and Avi Load Balancer

These updates were announced on 6 August, before Explore, and demoed in Las Vegas. Both vDefend Distributed Firewall (DFW) and Avi Load Balancer now include an AI Assistant for real-time insight, troubleshooting and faster rollouts. More practical is vACT 3.0 (vDefend and Avi Conversion Tool), which automates migration from legacy agent-based firewalls to DFW. Rule migration is where most micro-segmentation projects stall, so any tooling there saves real project weeks.

Versions to look for (all compatible with VCF 9.1)

TrueSource

TrueSource is Broadcom’s answer to compromised open-source dependencies. It groups three offerings:

SLSA (Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts) is an industry framework for proving how a piece of software was built. Level 3 means the build ran on a hardened platform and produced signed records that cannot easily be faked. If your developers pull packages straight from public registries today, this closes a real gap. Pricing is by tiered site licence, so compare it with what you already pay for Bitnami or Spring support before signing anything new.

Section 6 · Apps and agentsTanzu 10.4, MCP gateway and AgentMinder

Much of Explore’s Innovation track was about AI agents: software that takes a goal, plans steps and calls tools on its own. Broadcom’s view is that agents will need the same controls already used around VMs and containers: an identity, network policy, an audit trail and a gate on what they can touch.

Tanzu Platform 10.4 agent foundations

AgentMinder

AgentMinder was announced on 31 August as generally available, which is unusual for a first release in a new category. Here is how it controls an agent, step by step:

It plugs into existing authorisation systems through the AuthZEN standard and runs on VKS, Google Cloud or any standards-based Kubernetes platform.

Customer stories from the keynote

Section 7 · CommunityVMUG home-lab licences and certification

This was the most discussed change among practitioners, and it was not really a product announcement at all.

For years, a VMUG Advantage subscription gave you evaluation licences for most of the VMware portfolio. That ended in 2025, when Broadcom tied home-lab keys to certification. Here is where it stands today:

For people preparing for their first VCP, VMware Hands-on Labs remain the free way to practise, although they do not replace building and breaking your own environment.

Section 8 · Status checkWhat you can use today and what is still roadmap

Statuses are based on release notes and press releases as of late September 2026. Please verify against your own build before planning around any of them.

Section 9 · IndiaWhat this means for VCF customers in India

A few points apply to VCF customers in India more than the US coverage suggests.

Upgrade planning. Many Indian enterprises are still on VCF 5.x, often because of change freezes around financial year end and festive season traffic. If that is you, plan to land on 9.1.1 rather than 9.0. It carries a year of fixes on top of 9.0 and has features you will want anyway. If you are on 9.0 already, there is no rush unless memory cost or the AI Assistant is a real driver for you.

Figure 3. A simple decision path for moving to VCF 9.1.

Sources: Broadcom press releases of 6 and 31 August 2026 (VMware AI Factory, AgentMinder, vDefend and Avi, TrueSource), VMware Explore blog day 1 and day 4 recaps, VCF blog posts on VCF 9.1 (5 May 2026) and VCF 9.1.1 GA (3 September 2026), William Lam’s AI Assistant for VCF setup guide, Virtualization Review and SiliconANGLE coverage of the keynote and the Lenovo memory tiering session. Keynote figures are Broadcom and partner claims, not independent test results.