Cisco Prepares to Ride the Networking Supercycle

Cisco is poised to ride the networking supercycle, driven by global demand for infrastructure upgrades and AI adoption. The company's product orders increased by 35% year-over-year in its most recent financial year (FY26), with a cross-industry installed base opportunity of $100bn to upgrade over several years.

Cisco's SVP of Investor Relations & Strategic Finance, Sami Badri, stated that the networking supercycle is an open market opportunity, but Cisco is uniquely positioned to benefit due to its vertically integrated stack. The company expects 15% revenue growth in FY27, with higher expected growth from telco operators.

Cisco's customers are now prioritizing network security and AI adoption, with a focus on upgrading infrastructure to withstand malicious attacks. The majority of customers 'sweat' their assets until end-of-life, but this is changing as frontier models detect network vulnerabilities at machine speed and scale.