Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO, ETR:CIS) projected first-quarter revenue above market expectations as surging demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure fuels orders from cloud providers.
After hours, the networking group forecast sales of $14.65 billion to $14.85 billion, topping analysts’ $14.62 billion estimate, after reporting $14.67 billion for the fourth quarter to 26 July.
AI-related infrastructure orders exceeded $800 million in the final quarter, taking the fiscal 2025 total to more than $2 billion, over double Cisco’s original target, chief executive Chuck Robbins said.
Growth was driven by webscale infrastructure, switching, enterprise routing, industrial IoT and servers.
Major Silicon Valley tech players are expanding capacity to meet AI demand, creating a favourable backdrop for Cisco.
The company expects sovereign AI projects to gain pace in the second half of fiscal 2026 and has recently partnered with Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Bahrain’s government.
It reported no evidence of demand pull-forward, though tariffs had a small impact.