Arista vs Cisco: The Growth-Earnings Valuation Gap Widens

Arista Networks and Cisco Systems are both benefiting from AI clusters turning networking into a larger part of data-center bills.

Arista is growing much faster, but investors are paying about 43.8 times forward earnings for that growth versus roughly 20.7 times for Cisco, creating a valuation gap that makes the pair more interesting than a simple old-guard vs disruptor story.

Cisco's AI revenue has started to matter, with fiscal fourth-quarter revenue growing 18%, networking product orders rising 40%, and hyperscaler AI infrastructure orders reaching $4 billion in the quarter and $9.3 billion for the year.