Cisco plans to cut about 4,000 jobs this quarter as the Silicon Valley networking giant redirects investment toward artificial intelligence, security and related growth businesses.
The reductions amount to less than 5% of Cisco’s workforce, CEO Chuck Robbins told employees Wednesday in a message posted on the company’s blog.
Most notifications are expected to begin Thursday and continue globally, he said.
The company did not say how many jobs would be eliminated in San Jose, the Bay Area or California.
Cisco announced the cuts the same day it reported its highest-ever quarterly revenue: $15.8 billion, up 12% from a year earlier.
The company said demand is growing from large cloud and internet companies that are spending heavily on AI data centers. Cisco has received $5.3 billion in AI-related infrastructure orders so far and now expects that total to reach about $9 billion by the end of the fiscal year, far above its earlier forecast of $5 billion.
Cisco said the layoffs are part of a plan to move more money and workers into faster-growing parts of the business, including AI, cybersecurity and the chips and high-speed networking equipment used in data centers.
In a securities filing, Cisco said the plan could cost up to $1 billion before taxes, mostly for severance and other payments to departing employees. About $450 million of those costs are expected this quarter, with the rest coming in fiscal 2027.
“The companies that will win in the AI era will be those with focus, urgency, and the discipline to continuously shift investment toward the areas where demand and long-term value creation are strongest,” Robbins wrote in the message to employees.
Cisco had about 86,200 employees as of July 26, 2025, according to its most recent annual report.
The restructuring follows several rounds of tech layoffs in the Bay Area and across the industry as companies shift spending toward AI infrastructure and automation.
Cisco’s own results show why investors are focused on that transition: networking product orders rose more than 50% year over year in the quarter, and data center switching orders grew more than 40%, according to the company.