Cisco redirects 4,000 salaries into its AI bet

Cisco cut about 4,000 roles in May 2026, around 5% of its workforce, in the same quarter that it reported record revenue of $15.8 billion, up 12% on a year earlier. Chief executive Chuck Robbins did not present the cut as AI replacing staff. In a blog post he described "a rapidly changing market, with intensifying competition, and a global shortage of components critical to support our portfolio and the AI buildout from our customers." He said that alongside the layoffs Cisco is prioritising investment in "silicon, optics, security and in our employees' use of AI across the company." InformationWeek, which keeps a running list of 2026 technology layoffs, places Cisco among the companies pointing to factors besides AI: the wider economy, competition and supply shortages, including a memory-chip shortage expected to last at least through 2027 as production runs up against AI-driven demand. The pattern here is money and people moving toward AI products and infrastructure, which is a different thing from AI doing the work of the people who left.