Cisco Surges 17% on AI Order Boom and Raised Guidance

CNBC reported Wednesday that Cisco shares rocketed 17% in after-hours trading. The networking giant posted results and guidance that both cleared Wall Street’s expectations by a wide margin. The company simultaneously disclosed plans to reduce its headcount by nearly 4,000 workers this quarter.

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Cisco delivered adjusted earnings of $1.06 per share on $15.84 billion in revenue for its fiscal third quarter. Analysts polled by LSEG had projected $1.04 per share on $15.56 billion. Net income climbed to $3.37 billion from $2.49 billion in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 12% year-over-year. Networking hardware sales led the way, jumping 25% to $8.82 billion, topping analyst estimates. Security revenue held roughly flat near $2 billion.

AI Orders Force a Major Forecast Revision

The headline figure that moved markets was Cisco’s AI tally. The company said it had received $5.3 billion in AI infrastructure and hyperscaler orders through the first nine months of the fiscal year. That drove management to lift its full-year AI order target to $9 billion from a prior forecast of $5 billion. Expected AI-related revenue for the fiscal year was also raised, from $3 billion to $4 billion. Those revisions signal that Cisco’s pitch to the builders of large-scale AI data centers is gaining real traction.

Background: A Long Road Back to Relevance

For much of the current AI investment cycle, Cisco sat in the shadow of chip and server suppliers more directly tied to model training. The stock only recently recaptured its dot-com-era peak, hitting a record late in 2025. Since the start of 2026, shares have climbed roughly 33%, well ahead of the Nasdaq’s 14% advance over the same stretch. Wednesday’s after-hours move, if sustained, would represent the stock’s sharpest single-session gain since 2002.

Job Cuts Tied to AI Restructuring

CEO Chuck Robbins addressed the workforce reduction in a blog post Wednesday, noting the cuts would begin May 14. Cisco said severance and related charges would total roughly $1 billion, with about $450 million of that hitting the fiscal fourth quarter. Robbins framed the reductions as a necessary realignment toward high-demand areas. Companies that allocate capital with discipline toward the strongest opportunities will be the ones to prevail in the AI era, he wrote. Cisco also unveiled new networking switches and routers during the quarter and launched a leaderboard ranking AI models on their resistance to cyberattacks.

For the fiscal fourth quarter, Cisco guided to $1.16 to $1.18 in adjusted earnings per share on revenue of $16.7 billion to $16.9 billion, versus analyst expectations of $1.07 per share on $15.82 billion.

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