'We are making clear, strategic investments': Cisco cuts 4,000 jobs, even as AI orders surge

Date:
Thu, 14 May 2026 11:40:00 +0000

Description:
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins announces plans to lay off 4,000 workers as the company shifts its focus to high-growth areas.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Cisco will be making 4,000 workers redundant very soon Last quarter the company posted a "record" 12% growth in revenue Investors seem happy with revenue growth and the future outlook Cisco has confirmed it will be laying off around 4,000 workers, representing 5% of its global headcount, as part of an ongoing restructuring effort to focus on AI, silicon, optics and security.

Company CEO Chuck Robbins announced the plans in a post praising the firm's "record" revenue growth of 12%, declaring that "Our Path Forward" must
include some job losses along the way. Rather than being purely a
cost-cutting exercise, or a response to AI-enhanced productivity rendering some human workers irrelevant, Robbins stressed the job cuts would fuel a company restructure, giving it the "focus, urgency, and the discipline" to tackle high-growth areas. Latest Videos From You may like Zuckerberg blames Meta layoffs on AI costs - with more job cuts possibly to come Freshworks and Coinbase announces major layoffs - AI blamed Nearly 80,000 tech workers have already lost their jobs in 2026 and AI impact means more could be to come Cisco cuts 4,000 jobs The company added that it will continue hiring in high-growth areas like AI infrastructure, silicon development, optics and fiber networking, cybersecurity and the internal deployment of AI and automation, even though 5% of its workers would be affected in this series of layoffs.

Cisco confirmed $15.84 billion in revenue, up 12% year-over-year in its results - but most notably, networking orders grew by more than 50% and data center switching orders rose over 40%. To date this fiscal year, Cisco has also secured $5.3 billion in AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers.

"We will provide support in finding new opportunities, whether internal or external, through Ciscos placement services," Robbins added, boasting that
the program has seen a 75% success rate in next role discovery.

Despite the considerable loss, investors seemed pleased with Cisco's reaction to market trends and its restructuring effort to focus on high-growth areas, with shares rising over 20% since yesterday's announcement. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get
all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

It's also a trend we're seeing across the entire industry, with companies
like Meta, IBM and Salesforce also blaming redundancies on shifting priorities. While this is a shift from previously blamed pre-pandemic overhiring and AI-induced efficiency gains, it's still disappointing news for the 108,000 tech workers affected this calendar year alone (via layoffs.fyi
). Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get
our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/we-are-making-clear-strategic-investments-cisco- cuts-4-000-jobs-even-as-ai-orders-surge


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)