Switching Trends: 1Q26 Switching Trends: AI switching drives strength; Campus steadily improving

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Switching Trends: 1Q26 Switching Trends: AI switching drives strength; Campus steadily improving

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Switching Trends

1Q26 Switching Trends: AI switching

drives strength; Campus steadily improving

Industry Overview

DC leading overall switch growth; Strong Campus growth 14 July 2026

The switching market is showing no signs of slowdown. The overall market grew 36.1% Equity

YoY, with data center (DC) switching up 50% YoY, broken out by AI back-end switching United States

up 121% YoY and front-end switching growing 26% YoY. Growth continues to be driven Telecom Equipment

by Tier-1 and Tier-2 Cloud providers driving elevated investments in both AI and non-AI Tal Liani

infrastructure, with Capex across the top five hyperscalers expected to grow 85% YoY in Research Analyst

2026, above 2025’s 72% growth. In 1Q, the top 4 hyperscalers accounted for 41% of the BofAS+1 646 855 5107

DC switching market and grew 90.4% YoY. Just to put this in perspective, the very same tal.liani@bofa.com

segment grew only 1.6% in 1Q24. Campus switching also shows strong momentum, up Tomer Zilberman

Research Analyst

15.1% YoY, an important distinction for Cisco who holds 53.5% share of this segment. BofAS

+1 646 855 3203

Both back-end and front-end switching leading DC growth tomer.zilberman@bofa.com

Data Center switching is the largest segment, accounting for 66% of the total switching Kevin Niederpruem Research Analyst

market. This segment was up 50% in 1Q, driven by 90% growth from hyperscalers, 51% BofAS

growth in Tier-2 and NeoClouds, and 16% growth in the Enterprise segment. We divide +1kevin.niederpruem@bofa.com646 855-1540

the market into two main segments: AI back-end accounts for ~38% of the DC switching Eden Vacnich