--- title: "Cisco’s revenue rose 24% to US$18.5bn, its fastest growth in more than 15 years" summary: "Cisco’s results for the quarter to 24 October: networking up 43%, a lower gross margin, US$9bn of hyperscaler AI revenue expected this year, and a guide below this quarter." url: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/cisco-revenue-24-percent-fastest-15-years format: Note desk: "Markets & the AI economy" region: Global published: 2026-11-13 facts_checked: 2026-11-13 author: TechBag (The TechBag Journal) tags: ["Cisco results","Cisco earnings","Cisco revenue growth","Cisco AI infrastructure hyperscalers","Cisco guidance","Cisco stock","Cisco networking revenue","Cisco gross margin","Cisco","Chuck Robbins","AI networking","hyperscalers","networking supercycle","fiscal 2027"] cover: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/covers/cisco-revenue-24-percent-fastest-15-years.png --- # Cisco’s revenue rose 24% to US$18.5bn, its fastest growth in more than 15 years *Cisco’s results for the quarter to 24 October: networking up 43%, a lower gross margin, US$9bn of hyperscaler AI revenue expected this year, and a guide below this quarter.* Note · Markets & the AI economy · By TechBag · Published 2026-11-13 · Facts checked 2026-11-13 · Canonical: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/cisco-revenue-24-percent-fastest-15-years Cisco’s revenue rose 24%, to US$18.5bn, in the quarter to 24 October, which Cisco calls its strongest revenue growth in more than 15 years. Networking, its largest product group, grew 43%, to US$11.1bn, and made up 60% of the total.[1] Cisco now expects US$9bn of revenue in the year to July 2027 from AI infrastructure sold to hyperscalers, the largest cloud and internet companies, more than double the total of the year just ended. In August it expected US$7.5bn, after delivering about US$4bn in fiscal 2026.[1][2] US$18.5bn revenue in the quarter to 24 October, up 24% Cisco +43% networking revenue, to US$11.1bn Cisco US$9bn hyperscaler AI infrastructure revenue expected this fiscal year, from US$7.5bn in August Cisco 65.6% non-GAAP gross margin, from 68.1% a year earlier Cisco ## Where the growth came from Product revenue rose 32% and services revenue 1%. Outside networking, security grew 7%, to US$2.12bn, collaboration 8% and observability 2%. Every region grew by double digits: the Americas 28%, Europe, the Middle East and Africa 18%, and Asia-Pacific, Japan and China 21%.[1] The hyperscaler business began as orders: in August Cisco said it had taken US$9.3bn of AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers in fiscal 2026, US$4bn of them in its last quarter.[2] **Figure: Networking grew 43%; no other Cisco line grew more than 8%** *Cisco revenue growth by product group and services, quarter to 24 October 2026 against a year earlier, %* Networking US$11.13bn 43% Collaboration US$1.14bn 8% Security US$2.12bn 7% Observability US$0.28bn 2% Services US$3.85bn 1% | | Value (%) | | --- | --- | | Networking | 43 | | Collaboration | 8 | | Security | 7 | | Observability | 2 | | Services | 1 | Source: Cisco, Q1 fiscal 2027 results (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K) · as of 12 November 2026 ## A lower margin, and a guide below this quarter The growth came at a lower gross margin: 65.6% on Cisco’s non-GAAP measure, down from 68.1%, and 63.7% on products, down from 67.2%. The release does not break the change down. Operating costs rose 2% on the same measure, so the non-GAAP operating margin reached a record 37.8%.[1] For the quarter to late January Cisco guides revenue to US$18.0–18.2bn, below the quarter just reported. It gave the same range in August for the quarter just reported, which came in at US$18.5bn.[1][2] Against US$15.35bn a year earlier, the new range means growth of 17–19%.[3] The full-year guide rose to US$74.8–75.8bn, from US$72.2–73.4bn, against US$63.3bn in fiscal 2026.[1][2] Cisco’s shares closed at US$102.01 on 12 November, before the results reached the SEC at 4:06pm New York time. In after-hours trading they touched US$110.63, 8.5% higher, at 4:06pm, and stood at US$101.70 at 8pm. At 9:28am New York time on 13 November (7:58pm IST), before the open, they were at US$100.09, down 1.9%.[4] What to watch: the non-GAAP gross margin, guided to 65–66% for this quarter, and hyperscaler AI revenue against the US$9bn. How other hardware sellers trade growth against margin is in [our Trend on Arista, AMD and Supermicro](https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/ai-hardware-suppliers-revenue-who-keeps-margin). How we did this Figures as of 13 November 2026, 8:30pm IST Revenue, product-group and regional growth, margins and guidance are from Cisco’s release of 12 November for its first quarter of fiscal 2027, the three months to 24 October 2026; “strongest revenue ... growth rates ... in over 15 years” is Cisco’s wording. The earlier guide, the US$7.5bn expectation, about US$4bn delivered and US$9.3bn of orders in fiscal 2026 are from its release of 12 August. Our arithmetic: networking’s share (US$11,132m of US$18,517m); the guide’s implied growth against US$15,349m in the quarter to January 2026, from Cisco’s release of 11 February. Share prices are Nasdaq’s consolidated after-hours and pre-market data, not a company source; percentages are against the US$102.01 close. The filing time is EDGAR’s acceptance stamp. Spotted an error? Write to us; corrections are published at the foot of the piece. Sources 1. [Cisco: Cisco reports first quarter earnings, fiscal 2027 (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/858877/000085887726000170/exhibit991pressrelease-q1f.htm) — 12 November 2026 2. [Cisco: Cisco reports fourth quarter and fiscal year 2026 earnings (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/858877/000085887726000106/exhibit991pressrelease-q4f.htm) — 12 August 2026 3. [Cisco: Cisco reports second quarter earnings, fiscal 2026 (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/858877/000085887726000006/exhibit991pressrelease-q2f.htm) — 11 February 2026 4. [Nasdaq: Cisco Systems (CSCO) after-hours and pre-market trading](https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/csco/after-hours) — 13 November 2026 **Disclosure.** TechBag is a software reseller: it earns when companies buy through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view. **Read this next:** [Supermicro’s sales grew 298% at a 13% margin; Arista’s grew 58% at 64%](https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/ai-hardware-suppliers-revenue-who-keeps-margin) — Growth against margin at other AI hardware sellers: Supermicro’s sales grew 298% at a 13% margin, Arista’s 58% at 64%. Go deeper on TechBag - [The Cisco hub](https://www.thetechbag.com/cisco) — Cisco’s security products, compared with dated claims - [Cisco Secure Firewall](https://www.thetechbag.com/cisco/cisco-secure-firewall) — part of the security group that grew 7% this quarter - [Big Tech's quarterly capex hit US$202bn](https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/big-tech-ai-capex-quarterly-line) — the hyperscalers’ spending behind Cisco’s US$9bn expectation