Cisco Sees AI Agents Consume 60% of Global Inference Capacity
Cisco Systems' latest quarterly earnings report revealed that AI agents are now consuming roughly 60% of global inference capacity, according to the company's management. This surge in demand is reflected in the significant increase in token usage, which has risen fourteenfold since February.
The networking and cybersecurity infrastructure leader delivered $17.3 billion in fiscal fourth-quarter revenue, a notable 18% jump from the previous quarter driven by a 28% rise in networking sales. A major contributor to this growth is AI-infrastructure orders from hyperscalers, which reached $4 billion for the quarter and $9.3 billion for the full year.
The company's management highlighted that AI agents require about 450% more network bandwidth than people completing similar tasks, underscoring the massive demand for infrastructure to support these applications. The annual AI orders represent nearly 14.7% of Cisco's $63.3 billion in fiscal-year revenue.