Cisco projects strong sales for AI data center gear, surpassing forecasts

Cisco just told Wall Street its next quarter will be bigger than anyone expected, and the reason is three letters long: A-I. The networking giant issued fiscal Q4 2026 revenue guidance of $16.7 billion to $16.9 billion, comfortably above analyst estimates that ranged from $15.82 billion to $16.85 billion. Non-GAAP earnings per share are projected at $1.16 to $1.18, also topping the consensus range of $1.07 to $1.17. The AI order book that keeps growing The story behind the numbers is a dramatic ramp in orders from hyperscale cloud providers, the Amazons, Microsofts, and Googles of the world that are pouring hundreds of billions into AI data centers. By the end of Cisco’s fiscal third quarter, cumulative AI-related orders from hyperscalers had reached approximately $5.3 billion. That figure prompted the company to raise its full-year AI infrastructure order target to $9 billion, up from a previous estimate of $5 billion. AI-related revenues for the current fiscal year are expected to land around $4 billion. For context, Cisco had originally set an annual order target of $1 billion for AI hyperscaler products. The company blew past that number in Q3 of fiscal year 2025, well ahead of...