Cisco Falls Short on AI Sales Projections

Cisco Systems Inc has projected US$7.5 billion in sales tied to the artificial intelligence (AI) data centre boom this fiscal year, a figure that disappointed investors who had been expecting more.

The company's AI-related orders totalled US$9.3 billion over the past year, but Cisco's forecast of 10% of its projected total revenue is seen as conservative by analysts.

David Vogt, an analyst at UBS, described the figure as 'very, very conservative' during a conference call with Cisco executives to discuss the company's quarterly results.

Cisco is facing high expectations that it will profit from the worldwide build-out of data centres powering AI systems, and has been restructuring in an attempt to score more contracts tied to the AI boom.