In the first quarter of 2026, the worldwide Ethernet switch market reached $15.4 billion, growing 39.8% year over year, according to IDC’s Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker. The datacenter segment, which covers high-speed switching infrastructure inside hyperscale and enterprise data centers, surged 61.0% YoY to $10.0 billion, fueled by AI infrastructure investments for AI inferencing and training workloads at scale. In a landmark shift, NVIDIA became the #1 vendor by revenue in datacenter Ethernet switching for the first time. Campus and branch switching grew 12.3% YoY, supported by a hardware refresh cycle and rising component prices.
The datacenter portion of the Ethernet switch market grew 61.0% YoY in 1Q26 to reach $10.0 billion, according to IDC. This growth reflects the continued build-out of AI infrastructure by hyperscalers, cloud providers, and large enterprises. High-speed ports dominate spending: 800G switches accounted for 35.8% of datacenter segment revenues, while 200Gb/400Gb speeds represented 34.1% combined, together making up nearly 70% of datacenter Ethernet switch spending.
Enterprise campus and branch Ethernet switch revenue grew 12.3% YoY in 1Q26 to $5.4 billion, per IDC. Two forces are at work: a broad hardware refresh cycle as organizations upgrade aging infrastructure to support newer Wi-Fi standards, AI-powered applications, and modern digital workloads; and average selling price increases driven by component shortages, particularly memory, which amplified revenue growth above underlying unit shipment trends.
Total Ethernet switch revenues grew across all regions in 1Q26, according to IDC. The Americas led with 49.7% YoY growth, reflecting strong hyperscaler and enterprise AI investment in North America. EMEA posted 32.2% growth, while Asia Pacific grew 25.9% YoY.
The total router market reached $3.8 billion in 1Q26, growing 11.3% year over year, driven by continued investment in both service provider and enterprise network infrastructure, according to IDC’s Quarterly Router Tracker.
The service provider segment, including communications service providers and cloud SPs, made up 77.2% of total router market revenues in 1Q26, reaching $2.9 billion with 12.9% YoY growth. Cloud and telecom infrastructure upgrades remain the primary driver.
The enterprise router market contributed $867 million, growing 6.1% YoY in 1Q26, reflecting ongoing investment in enterprise WAN connectivity and SD-WAN-enabled infrastructure modernization.
In 1Q26, the Americas router market rose 19.6% YoY, leading all regions. EMEA grew 9.8% YoY, while Asia Pacific posted 2.8% growth.
$4.5B revenue, 29.3% market share, +24.0% YoY. Cisco’s total Ethernet switch revenues increased 24.0% YoY in 1Q26, capturing 29.3% market share, per IDC. Non-datacenter revenues, representing 60.5% of Cisco’s total, grew 14.1% YoY, reflecting the campus refresh tailwind, while datacenter revenues rose 43.0% YoY on strong AI infrastructure demand. Cisco’s total router revenue grew 24.4% YoY, giving the company a 35.1% market share in 1Q26.
$2.1B revenue, 21.5% datacenter segment share, +192.7% YoY. NVIDIA’s Ethernet switch revenues, entirely from the datacenter segment, surged 192.7% YoY to $2.1 billion in 1Q26, giving it a 21.5% share of the datacenter segment, according to IDC. This result marks a significant milestone: NVIDIA is now the #1 vendor by revenue in datacenter Ethernet switching. NVIDIA’s Spectrum-X platform, an end-to-end AI networking solution that integrates Spectrum Ethernet switches with BlueField DPUs and NVIDIA LinkX cables, purpose-built for large-scale GPU clusters, has emerged as the preferred network interconnect for large-scale AI training, winning significant traction with hyperscalers and AI-native cloud providers building AI factories.
$2.2B revenue, 14.6% market share, +37.3% YoY. With 92% of its Ethernet switch revenues in the datacenter segment, Arista’s revenues grew 37.3% YoY in 1Q26 to $2.2 billion, per IDC. Arista holds a 14.6% share of the total Ethernet switch market and 20.7% in the datacenter segment, maintaining strong positioning in 400G and 800G deployments with hyperscale customers.
$895M revenue, 5.8% market share, +27.2% YoY. Huawei’s total Ethernet switch revenue increased 27.2% YoY in 1Q26 to $895 million, giving the company a 5.8% market share, per IDC. Huawei’s router revenue grew 0.8% YoY in 1Q26, with a 25.4% market share, underscoring continued strength in the service provider networking segment, particularly in China and select emerging markets.
$985M revenue, 6.4% market share, +15.4% YoY. HPE’s total Ethernet switch revenue (70.5% from the non-datacenter segment) grew 15.4% YoY in 1Q26, reaching a 6.4% market share, per IDC. HPE revenues now include Juniper Networks, following the July 2025 acquisition. The company’s deepened campus and branch portfolio is converting the current refresh wave into revenue.
The main takeaway for 1Q26 is NVIDIA’s position at the top of the datacenter Ethernet switch market. IDC data shows that with 192.7% YoY growth and $2.1 billion in quarterly revenue, NVIDIA’s Spectrum-X platform has captured hyperscaler and enterprise demand for AI factory network infrastructure through integrated co-design across GPUs and networking. This structural shift is redrawing vendor standing across the datacenter networking industry.
AI deployments are accelerating across both hyperscalers and large organizations, applied to enhance customer experience, reduce operational risk, and empower key business areas, including IT infrastructure and operations, software development, and sales. According to IDC, this broad adoption of AI workloads, from large-scale training clusters to inferencing at the enterprise edge, is driving sustained demand for high-speed, low-latency datacenter networking.
Non-datacenter switching is benefiting from a convergence of a broad enterprise hardware refresh cycle and rising average selling prices driven by memory component shortages, according to IDC. Organizations are replacing switching infrastructure to support modern wireless standards and digital workloads, while supply constraints are inflating revenue growth above underlying unit volumes, a dynamic IDC expects to persist in the near term.
“NVIDIA’s rise to #1 in datacenter Ethernet switching in a single year is one of the most significant vendor landscape shifts IDC has tracked in enterprise networking. Spectrum-X’s integrated GPU-plus-networking design is winning AI factory deals that incumbent networking vendors cannot match with standalone hardware alone. The campus side tells a different but equally important story: the refresh wave is real, but IT teams should plan for ASP normalization once memory supply constraints ease. Budget for the transition now, not after prices move.” — Paul Nicholson, Research Vice President, Cloud and Datacenter Networks, IDC
“Enterprise campus and branch ethernet switching growth is driven by a variety of factors: First, organizations are upgrading both their wired and wireless networks as part of a multi-year refresh cycle to support Wi-Fi 7, and enhanced speeds across the access, distribution, and core layers of the network. AI, security and IoT are other key drivers. Meanwhile, memory-driven supply chain concerns are a headwind worth watching in the coming quarters.” — Brandon Butler, Senior Research Manager, Network Infrastructure and Services, IDC
CIOs, network architects, IT procurement teams, and technology vendors should pay close attention. According to IDC, NVIDIA’s position as the #1 datacenter Ethernet switching vendor in 1Q26 signals a shift in datacenter networking, reflecting the growing influence of AI infrastructure on purchasing decisions. Campus-focused buyers should factor in the impact of sustained ASP increases when planning budget refreshes.
Organizations building AI infrastructure now face a more complex vendor landscape for datacenter networking, with compute and network decisions increasingly intertwined. On the campus side, the convergence of a refresh wave and price inflation is creating both urgency and budget pressure for IT teams.
The composition of the datacenter Ethernet switching market is being redrawn. Vendors that meet AI factory requirements with highly integrated functionality, including high-bandwidth, low-latency, lossless fabrics, are gaining share at scale. This is reshaping the competitive outlook for all incumbent networking vendors.
IDC expects the Ethernet switch market to sustain strong momentum through 2026, underpinned by continued AI infrastructure investment from hyperscalers and enterprises. As inferencing deployments scale alongside training workloads, demand for high-speed datacenter switching, particularly at 800G and beyond, should remain robust. NVIDIA’s position will face increasing competitive responses from Cisco, Arista, and Broadcom ecosystem vendors, making the datacenter segment one of the most actively contested in networking.
In campus and branch, the refresh cycle is expected to continue, though revenue growth could moderate if memory supply constraints ease and reduce the ASP tailwind. Macro uncertainty, including tariff risks and regional economic volatility, remains a watch item that could temper investment decisions in some geographies.
Paul Nicholson is IDC’s Research Vice President within IDC’s enterprise infrastructure global research domain. He focuses on Cloud and Datacenter Networks as part of the Network Infrastructure and Services subdomain. His research spans datacenter Fibre Channel, Ethernet and InfiniBand switching,…
Brandon Butler is a Senior Research Manager within IDC’s enterprise infrastructure global research domain. He focuses on Enterprise Networking as part of the Network Infrastructure and Services subdomain. Brandon’s research covers market and technology trends, forecasts and competitive analysis in…
Petr Jirovsky is a Senior Research Director within IDC's Enterprise Infrastructure global research domain. He provides quantitative insights on network infrastructure for the datacenter, cloud, and campus/branch environments as part of the Network Infrastructure and Services subdomain. Petr serves as…
Diego Anesini serves as Vice-President, Data & Analytics, Networking. Prior to this position, Diego held various roles in the company. The most recent was VP, Data & Analytics for Latin America. He has extensive experience in the Networking, Telecom and…
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