Cisco's AI Order Book Surges to $9 Billion
Cisco Systems has quietly become one of this year's biggest artificial intelligence (AI) trades. The networking giant's shares closed at $121.74 on Tuesday, up 5% on the day and about 60% higher in 2026 so far.
The key figure driving Cisco's AI growth is a new target of $9 billion in AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers (giant cloud companies building AI data centers) in fiscal 2026. This is up from a previous forecast of $5 billion on the company's fiscal third-quarter earnings call in May.
Cisco took $1.9 billion of AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers in its fiscal third quarter, more than triple the $600 million it took a year earlier. The year-to-date total was already at $5.3 billion, exceeding the company's full-year expectation of $5 billion with a quarter still to go.
The order growth is broad, and Cisco's Acacia optics business had its strongest quarter to date, taking over $1 billion of orders in the fiscal third quarter. Management said this business was on track to grow more than 200% year over year in fiscal 2026.