Cisco

$15.84B in Q3 FY2026 revenue, up 12% year over year, put Cisco’s AI-networking demand and security expansion at the center of its latest coverage.

Who they are

Cisco appears in the coverage as a major networking and enterprise-technology supplier whose infrastructure, software and security businesses connect it to AI data-center buildouts, corporate cyber defenses and large technology buyers. CEO Chuck Robbins is a recurring voice, while Nvidia, Microsoft, IBM, Intel and Amazon form the broader enterprise and AI ecosystem around the company.

The recent arc

Coverage accelerated in 2026Q2, its strongest recent quarter, around evidence that AI demand was reaching Cisco’s results. CNBC reported May 14 that Q3 revenue rose 12% year over year to $15.84B, above estimates, and that Cisco lifted its FY2026 AI-orders forecast; the company also forecast Q4 revenue above Wall Street expectations. The market reaction was sharp, with reports describing shares rising more than 15% to 17% after the release and guidance.

The same period depicts a company trying to turn AI infrastructure demand into a broader security position while managing its cost base. Cisco agreed to acquire Astrix Security, which monitors permissions granted to AI agents, and joined Chainguard, Cloudflare and JPMorgan Chase in Athena, a coalition using AI to secure open-source software. Those moves came alongside plans to cut nearly 4,000 jobs, while recent reporting also covered an actively exploited SD-WAN zero-day and the Supreme Court’s ending of litigation over allegations tied to Falun Gong persecution in China.

The tension

The central tension is whether Cisco can defend and extend its networking position as AI changes the architecture and economics of data centers. Its Nexus HyperFabric AI clusters were introduced with Nvidia and its AI-orders forecast rose, but Upscale has raised new funding explicitly to build AI networking infrastructure that rivals Cisco. Cisco is also pursuing AI-agent and open-source security as both a growth adjacency and a response to the expanding attack surface highlighted by its SD-WAN vulnerability coverage.

Why it matters

If AI infrastructure spending continues to translate into orders, Cisco could increasingly be evaluated not simply as an established networking vendor but as a supplier of the connective and security layers around AI deployments. That outcome is not assured: newer challengers such as Upscale, the need to integrate security ambitions, workforce reductions and recurring product-security incidents all leave execution and competitive durability as the key issues to watch.

Related: Nvidia · Chuck Robbins · Cisco reports Q3 revenue up 12% YoY to $15.84B, above $15.56B est., ra · Cisco plans to acquire cybersecurity company Splunk in cash for $157 p · Microsoft