Cisco Grew Fastest in 15 Years and Still Fell

Revenue rose 24% to $18.5 billion and AI infrastructure guidance doubled to $9 billion, but gross margin fell 250 basis points and orders slowed.

Cisco reported fiscal first-quarter 2027 results on 12 November 2026: revenue of $18.5 billion, up 24% and its fastest growth in more than 15 years, non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.40, up 40%, and a record non-GAAP operating margin of 37.8%. It raised full-year revenue guidance to $74.8 to $75.8 billion and lifted its hyperscaler AI infrastructure revenue outlook to $9 billion from $7.5 billion, more than double fiscal 2026. The stock still fell: non-GAAP gross margin dropped 250 basis points to 65.6%, product gross margin fell 350 basis points to 63.7% on a richer mix of lower-margin AI hardware and costlier memory, product orders slowed to 21% growth from 35%, and orders excluding hyperscalers grew just 14%. Cisco is also shifting away from disclosing hyperscaler AI orders separately, which will make near-term demand harder to read. The commercial read is that AI demand has moved from GPUs into switching and optics, but enterprise demand has not yet taken the baton.