Cisco Systems shares jumped 1.5 percent to $88.05 on February 10, 2026, following the company's Silicon One G300 chip announcement, with the strategic timing positioning Cisco ahead of its Q2 FY2026 earnings call scheduled for 4:30 PM EST today. Analysts expect 8 percent year-over-year revenue growth as the networking giant captures share in the projected $600 billion AI infrastructure market.
The stock opened at $84.56 with a previous close of $84.82, reaching an intraday high of $88.05 as investors reacted to the G300 unveiling at Cisco Live EMEA in Amsterdam. Trading volume reached significant levels as the announcement signals Cisco's commitment to competing directly with Nvidia and Broadcom for AI data center networking revenue. The timing ahead of earnings demonstrates management confidence in the company's AI networking strategy and its ability to deliver financial results supporting elevated valuations.
The G300 announcement addresses investor concerns about Cisco's positioning in AI infrastructure, a market experiencing explosive growth as enterprises, neoclouds, and sovereign clouds build private AI clusters. Networking has become a critical competitive battleground, with Nvidia incorporating its own networking chips into systems unveiled in January. Cisco's competitive response with the G300 positions the company to capture wallet share from customers requiring alternatives to Nvidia's integrated networking solutions.
Martin Lund, Executive Vice President of Cisco's Common Hardware Group, emphasized networking's elevation from infrastructure plumbing to core performance layer determining competitive outcomes. "It's not just about faster GPUs—the network must deliver scalable bandwidth and reliable, congestion-free data movement," Lund stated. This positioning acknowledges that GPU utilization depends entirely on efficient data movement, making networking investments critical to maximizing returns on expensive AI compute infrastructure.
The liquid-cooling capabilities in new N9000 and 8000 systems align with GPU server platform evolution, as future GPU generations will predominantly use liquid cooling for thermal management. Cisco's development of liquid-cooled switching enables integrated cooling architectures that simplify data center design and improve energy efficiency. Kevin Wolterweber, Senior Vice President and General Manager, noted that building liquid cooling into switching devices positions Cisco for the infrastructure requirements of next-generation AI workloads.
The G300's programmability protects customer infrastructure investments by enabling post-deployment upgrades for new network functionality. This future-proofing capability addresses customer concerns about rapid AI technology evolution rendering hardware obsolete. Organizations can deploy G300-based systems confident that software updates will support emerging use cases and new network roles, reducing total cost of ownership across multi-year deployment cycles.
Cisco's earnings call today will provide management commentary on AI networking demand, customer pipeline metrics, and competitive positioning against Nvidia and Broadcom. Investors will scrutinize Azure cloud revenue commentary given Microsoft's influence as a major customer, alongside enterprise AI adoption trends and sovereign cloud buildout trajectories. Guidance for fiscal Q3 and full-year 2026 will signal management confidence in sustaining growth momentum as AI infrastructure spending continues accelerating.
The stock's positive reaction and strategic positioning ahead of earnings reflects market confidence that Cisco can capture meaningful share in AI networking. Success depends on execution converting G300 design wins into revenue starting in the second half of 2026 when the chip reaches commercial availability.
