By Timothy Green
Publication Date: 2025-11-14 12:15:00
Cisco’s AI business is finally booming.
Better late than never for networking giant Cisco Systems (CSCO +0.98%). The market leader in Ethernet switches and routers has been losing out to Arista Networks and Nvidia in the battle to supply hyperscalers with the networking gear necessary to power their enormous AI data centers. While the company still dominates the overall market, the artificial intelligence boom has disrupted that dominance.
Things started to look up for Cisco in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 as the company’s AI-centric portfolio racked up sales with hyperscale customers. Cisco booked $1.3 billion in AI infrastructure orders from hyperscaler customers in the first quarter, a “significant acceleration.” The company also received more than $200 million in orders from neocloud, sovereign, and enterprise customers.
Image source: Getty Images.
AI contributed to a strong quarter
While AI-related revenue is still small, it’s starting to meaningfully contribute to…
