“Q3 was a great quarter for Cisco with our momentum accelerating and revenue and earnings per share both growing double digits and coming in above the high end of our guidance ranges.” — CEO
“We delivered record revenue of $15.8 billion in Q3, up 12% year-over-year. Product revenue was up 17%, once again driven by robust demand for our AI infrastructure and campus networking solutions.” — CEO
“Total product orders grew 35% year-over-year. Excluding hyperscaler orders, which grew triple digits, product orders were up 19% year-over-year.” — CEO
“We now expect to take AI infrastructure orders of approximately $9 billion from hyperscalers in FY ’26, 4.5x our FY ’25 total.” — CEO
“Total non-GAAP gross margin came in at 66%, down 260 basis points year-over-year... primarily driven by negative impacts from mix and higher memory costs, partially offset by productivity improvements.” — CFO
Q&A Batch (1-3 of 3)
Q1 — Amit
Topic: AI revenue durability in FY27 and Silicon One P200 design wins
Key points:
AI hyperscale revenue in FY27 expected to be at least $6 billion (formal guide in 90 days).
Rest of portfolio expected to grow in line with long-term model (which originally included AI hyperscale).
P200 design wins: Q3 won two hyperscalers; first week of Q4 won a third hyperscaler (all scale-across applications).
Roughly half of revenue is systems (Silicon One), a key differentiator for supply chain control.
Mgmt stance: Bullish — strong design win momentum and confidence in AI revenue durability; Silicon One provides competitive advantage and supply chain control.
Q2 — Tal Liani
Topic: Non-AI order growth sustainability and AI order drivers
Key points:
Non-AI (ex-webscale) orders grew 19% in Q3 vs. 10% in Q2; about 4–5 points of acceleration attributed to price increases.
Pull-ahead thought to be “very modest”; Q3 pipeline pull-forwards from future quarters normal.
Enterprise data center switching orders up >40% driven by AI inferencing/agentic prep and cybersecurity modernization.
Q4 AI orders expected to accelerate (nonlinear business); P200 scale-across orders begin in Q4 but not at scale until FY27.
Mgmt stance: Bullish — growth driven by secular trends (enterprise AI, security) and pricing actions; pull-ahead minimal; no decommits seen.
Q3 — Ben Bollin
Topic: Internal AI inference tool (Circuit) and enterprise inferencing trends; also pricing strategy follow-up
Key points:
Circuit (internal AI front-end) allows Cisco guardrails, combines public and proprietary data; used for sales presentations and building independent agents for employees.
Enterprises preparing for inferencing/agentic applications driving private data center business.
Pricing: tightened quote validity from 30+ days to 15 days notice + 15 days honor; price increases only on hardware (not software), targeting areas with highest memory utilization.
Price increase impact on Q3 ex-webscale orders: 4–5 points of acceleration from price, not units.
Mgmt stance: Bullish — Circuit driving internal efficiency; pricing actions successful and sustainable; enterprise inferencing is a key growth catalyst.