Cisco is cashing in on companies’ AI investments

It’s no secret companies are boosting their artificial intelligence budgets; some are spending so much that it has investors a tad worried, in fact.

The AI investment spree showed up in technology equipment company Cisco Systems’ most recent quarterly earnings report. On the company’s quarterly earnings call Wednesday, CEO Chuck Robbins said AI infrastructure orders are “on track to exceed $1 billion” in its fiscal year 2025. Orders exceeded $350 million in the most recent quarter alone.

More broadly, product orders increased 29% year-over-year, according to an earnings release. Robbins also noted a 27% increase in enterprise orders and a 75% uptick in service provider and cloud product orders. He said three of Cisco’s top six “webscalers” (large-scale internet companies with massive digital infrastructure networks, per a spokesperson) grew orders in the “triple digits.”

“This shows our increasing relevance to this high growth customer market as they scale their infrastructure for AI,” Robbins said.

It should be no surprise that companies’ AI investments are revealing themselves in Cisco’s product sales. Consulting firm Gartner last year found that 90% of CFOs expected AI budgets to increase. According to a 2024 KPMG survey, literally every financial reporting leader said their organizations would “either be piloting or implementing AI in the financial reporting process within the next three years,” as CFO Brew previously reported.