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UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549  
_____________________________________
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended July 26 , 2025
or

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the transition period from ____ to ____

Commission file number 001-39940  
_____________________________________

CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Delaware 77-0059951
(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization) (IRS Employer
Identification No.)
170 West Tasman Drive 95134-1706
San Jose, California
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: ( 408 )  526-4000
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class: Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share CSCO The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
_____________________________________ 
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.      ☒    Yes      ☐   No
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.      ☐    Yes      ☒    No
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days .     ☒    Yes     ☐   No
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).      ☒    Yes      ☐   No
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer   ☒    Accelerated filer   ☐

Non-accelerated filer ☐    Smaller reporting company   ☐

Emerging growth company ☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).      ☐   Yes      ☒   No
Aggregate market value of registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based upon the closing price of a share of the registrant’s common stock on January 24, 2025 as reported by the Nasdaq Global Select Market on that date: $ 247.5 billion
Number of shares of the registrant’s common stock outstanding as of August 28, 2025: 3,953,196,953
____________________________________ 
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement relating to the 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, to be held on December 16, 2025, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K where indicated.

Table of Contents

PART I
Item 1. Business
1

Item 1A. Risk Factors
11

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
25

Item 1C. Cybersecurity
26

Item 2. Properties
27

Item 3. Legal Proceedings
27

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
27

PART II
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters, and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
28

Item 6. [Reserved]
29

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
30

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
50

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
52

Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure
102

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures
102

Item 9B. Other Information
102

Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections
102

PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
103

Item 11. Executive Compensation
103

Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters
103

Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence
103

Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services
103

PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules
103

Item 16. Form 10-K Summary
106

Signatures
107

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This Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and our future results that are subject to the safe harbors created under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). All statements other than statements of historical facts are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about the industries in which we operate and the beliefs and assumptions of our management. Words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “targets,” “goals,” “projects,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “momentum,” “seeks,” “estimates,” “continues,” “endeavors,” “strives,” “may,” variations of such words, and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to projections of our future financial performance, our anticipated growth and trends in our businesses, and other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict, including those identified below, under “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” and elsewhere herein. Therefore, actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements for any reason.

PART I

Item 1. Business

General
Cisco designs and sells a broad range of technologies that help to power, secure, and draw insights from the Internet. We are incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into our product portfolios across networking, security, collaboration and observability as well as integrating our products more tightly together. We are simplifying how our technology is delivered, managed and optimized and helping customers maximize the business value of their technology investments.
We conduct our business globally and manage our business by geography. Our business is organized into the following three geographic segments: Americas; Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); and Asia Pacific, Japan, and China (APJC).
Our products and technologies are grouped into the following categories: Networking, Security, Collaboration and Observability. In addition to our product offerings, we provide a broad range of services over the lifecycle of our products, including technical support services and advanced services. Our customers include businesses of all sizes, public institutions, governments, and service providers, including large webscale providers. These customers often look to us as a strategic partner to help them use information technology (IT) to differentiate themselves and drive positive business outcomes.
We were incorporated in California in 1984 and reincorporated in Delaware in 2021. Our headquarters are in San Jose, California. The mailing address of our headquarters is 170 West Tasman Drive, San Jose, California 95134-1706, and our telephone number at that location is (408) 526-4000. Our website is www.cisco.com. Through a link on the Investor Relations section of our website, we make available the following filings as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at sec.gov: our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act. All such filings are available free of charge. The information published on our website, or any other website referenced herein, is not incorporated into this report.
Strategy and Priorities
In today's digital-first world, businesses and organizations globally are deploying technology to pursue their strategic objectives, from accelerating growth to enhancing operational efficiency and fostering innovation. Our strategy is to securely connect everything to make those desired outcomes possible.
Our customers have three key priorities in this dynamic environment: i) to build modern infrastructure; ii) to protect against the cyber threats of today and tomorrow; and iii) to harness the power of AI and data. Cisco is at the forefront of this evolution, developing innovative solutions that leverage advanced AI to deliver more valuable outcomes for our customers.
Modern Infrastructure
In an increasingly digital and connected world, where each new connection to the Internet puts more demand on the network, our customers are investing in resilient, adaptable infrastructure to quickly respond to market changes and the demands of their own customers. Now more than ever it is crucial for businesses to remain competitive while managing resource constraints. Our customers continue to focus on modernizing their infrastructure with a focus on speed, agility, productivity, innovation and energy efficien cy.

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Cybersecurity
With the rapid growth in AI, modern applications, hyper-distributed architecture and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, customers see cybersecurity as a top priority. Our differentiated security strategy is based on three pillars: moving from point solutions to a platform comprehensively integrated with the infrastructure; infusing security into the fabric of the network; and harnessing the depth and breadth of telemetry data from Cisco and with our acquisition of Splunk Inc. (“Splunk”) to prevent, detect, and respond to sophisticated attacks.
AI and Data
AI represents a generational shift in technology and the advent of AI agents is driving an order of magnitude higher requirement for network connectivity. We provide network infrastructure to power AI training and inference workloads for both webscale providers and enterprises. We help to scale our customers’ network infrastructure with high-density routers and switches, improved network management, and high-performance optics. We are reinventing data center operations for our customers by simplifying the configuration, monitoring, and maintenance of fabrics, compute, networking and storage.
We can help give customers visibility across the network, security solutions, applications and their own business data. With this breadth and scale of data, we can help deliver differentiated insights and context to customers, leading them to more informed proactive decisions and better business results.
These three customer priorities drive our innovation and technology, making them our priorities as well. To help deliver on them, we are bringing together the power of our portfolio, which we refer to as One Cisco, which provides three key outcomes to our customers: i) AI-ready data centers, ii) future-proofed workplaces, and iii) digital resilience.
AI-Ready Data Centers
We are transforming data centers to power AI workloads anywhere. Whether customers need to modernize parts of their existing infrastructure or power new, massive AI workloads, Cisco brings together a wide array of infrastructure (across networking, compute, storage, and silicon) with unified management across traditional and AI workloads, and security from on-premise to cloud to power AI-ready data centers.
Future-Proofed Workplaces
Cisco helps deliver "future-proofed" workplaces, modernizing how people and technology work and serve their customers. This includes environments ranging from factory floors with plant workers and robots to hospitals with healthcare workers, as well as to social workers and salespeople on the move. For secure campus and branch networking, we offer a flexible range of solutions that help ensure secure, reliable connections for users and devices. Our smart building technology turns network devices into sensors for enhanced intelligence and control of physical spaces. To support productivity, we provide collaboration devices and software to enable collaboration no matter where people work.
Digital Resilience
We help to keep the data center, workplace, and entire IT environment securely up and running in the face of any disruption. Our network assurance capabilities, powered by ThousandEyes, are integrated throughout our portfolio. This technology helps ensure seamless connectivity and optimal digital experiences across cloud, Internet, and enterprise networks, for the delivery of applications and services. Our observability solution monitors the entire enterprise to help prevent downtime and improve experiences across networks, infrastructures, and applications. Additionally, Cisco provides robust security measures for threat prevention, detection, investigation, and response for organizations of any size and security maturity.
Cisco enables enterprises and service providers to deliver highly secure connectivity from workplaces to data centers worldwide. Our strength lies in our ability to deliver unified architecture with integrated, end-to-end solutions to help simplify complex challenges. These capabilities are accelerated with Cisco AI, enhancing outcomes for customers globally.
For a discussion of the risks associated with our Strategy and Priorities, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factor entitled “We depend upon the development of new products and services, and enhancements to existing products and services, and if we fail to predict and respond to emerging technological trends and customers’ changing needs, our operating results and market share may suffer.” For information regarding sales of our major products and services, see Note 19 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
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Products and Services
Our products and services are grouped into the following categories:
Networking
Our networking business is built on a foundation of industry-leading technologies, including switching, routing, wireless, and servers, offered through a comprehensive suite of both hardware and software solutions. This portfolio, which features software licenses and software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings, empowers customers to build, automate, modernize, and transform their network infrastructure to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving digital landscape. A central pillar of our networking strategy is the seamless convergence of our on-premise solutions with our cloud-managed offerings. By integrating these capabilities across our networking portfolio, we aim to deliver continuous value to our customers through enhanced flexibility, scalability, and operational efficiency. This unified approach positions us to address the diverse needs of businesses as they transition to hybrid and cloud-first environments.
Our switching portfolio encompasses campus switching as well as data center switching offerings. Our campus switching offerings provide the foundation for converged data, voice, video, and Internet of Things (IoT) services. These switches offer enhanced security and reliability and are designed to scale efficiently as our customers grow. Within campus switching, our Catalyst 9000 family of switches includes hardware with embedded software, along with a software subscription referred to as Cisco DNA. Cisco DNA provides automation, analytics and security features which can be centrally monitored, managed, and configured. Also, within campus switching we have a range of Meraki cloud-managed switches for customers who prefer ease of management in lean-IT environments. Our switching portfolio now also includes the newly launched Cisco Smart Switches — Cisco 9350 and Cisco 9610— which represent the next generation of enterprise networking. These switches are AI-ready with advanced telemetry and assurance capabilities. They are built on Cisco Silicon One (which is our single, unified, and scalable networking silicon architecture) and are equipped with quantum-resistant security and post-quantum cryptography to protect against future threats. They also offer flexibility for one hardware to be managed via either the Cisco Catalyst Center or Meraki Dashboard user interface.
Our data center switching offerings, led by the Nexus 9000 series, provide the foundation for mission critical data centers with high availability, scalability, and security across traditional data centers and private and public cloud data centers. We continue to add greater visibility and analytics across our networks and applications, enabling us to deliver better experiences for our customers. During fiscal 2025, we introduced the Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switches with a new class of intelligent networking silicon alongside embedded Data Processing Units (DPUs), representing our new vision for AI data center designs. Complex data processing tasks can be offloaded to the DPUs on the switch to improve both network architecture and the security posture. Cisco Hypershield, our cloud-native and AI-powered approach to highly distributed security for AI-scale data centers that is built into the fabric of the network, is the first service offering available embedded on these new switches. This helps to narrow the gap between security and networking layers by converging them into a single solution.
The Internet Infrastructure portion of this portfolio includes AI Infrastructure solutions for service provider customers, including our webscale customers. We are focused on transforming connectivity to the Internet and the cloud environment by efficiently meeting the growing demand for low-latency and higher speeds. Our routed optical networking systems and our pluggable optic solutions allow us to transform the economics of building and operating networks for our service provider customers. Our Cisco 8000 series routers, which are based on Cisco Silicon One, provide broad capacity in high-density designs, allowing our customers to reduce operational footprints, lower carbon emissions, and transition to more efficient network architectures.
We also have enterprise routing solutions which interconnect public and private wireline and mobile networks, delivering highly secure and reliable connectivity to campus, data center and branch networks. These offerings are designed to meet the scale, reliability, and security needs of customers of any size.
Our wireless solutions deliver robust indoor and outdoor coverage, supporting seamless roaming for voice, video, and data applications. With a product portfolio that includes both on-premises and cloud-managed wireless access points and controllers, we provide customers with a powerful and intuitive converged access solution when paired with our switching portfolio.
Security
Security is at the core of our business strategy, reflecting our commitment to addressing the evolving needs of organizations of every size across industries. Our security portfolio spans Network Security, Identity and Access Management, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), and Threat Intelligence, Detection, and Response (TIDR) solutions. We are dedicated to continuous innovation, with significant investments in cloud-based security, AI-driven threat detection, and end-to-end security architectures designed to help customers proactively safeguard their most critical assets. In the third quarter of fiscal 2024, we acquired Splunk, a recognized leader in security analytics and observability. The Splunk platform and security offerings significantly strengthen our TIDR capabilities. We have been integrating Cisco Extended Detection and Response (XDR) with
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Splunk Enterprise Security, to create a unified and highly effective solution to help prevent, detect, and respond to sophisticated cyber threats. We are also accelerating the expansion of our SASE architecture, delivering a seamless combination of network and security functionality through a single, cloud-native platform. Our security offerings also include Cisco Hypershield, our cloud-native, AI-powered approach to highly distributed security for AI-scale data centers that is built into the fabric of the network. Our security strategy positions us well to capture growing market demand for comprehensive, scalable, and integrated security solutions.
Collaboration
Our Collaboration portfolio consists of our Webex suite, collaboration devices, Contact Center and Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) offerings. These offerings consist of software, including perpetual licenses and subscription arrangements, as well as hardware. Our objective is to create more inclusive and engaging employee and customer experiences by providing technology that enables distributed teams to collaborate effortlessly. We offer end-to-end collaboration solutions that can be delivered on-premises, from the cloud, or within hybrid cloud environments. AI and machine learning capabilities are embedded across the Webex portfolio to help improve productivity. Our CPaaS is a cloud communications platform that integrates communication channels and existing back-end business systems to help enable the orchestration and automation of all customer and employee interactions.
Observability
Observability consists of our network assurance, monitoring and analytics and observability suite offerings. These offerings are designed to bring together and provide end-to-end visibility of our customers' owned and unowned environments—including applications, networks, multi-cloud infrastructures and the Internet. With AI-driven insights at their core, our observability solutions help organizations see, understand and improve every digital experience, and help to ensure seamless connectivity and proactive issue resolution across complex, modern environments. ThousandEyes, our network assurance offering, deliver deep visibility and intelligence across network organizations, spanning both their internal infrastructure and external dependencies. Our Observability Suite—including Splunk Observability and AppDynamics—provides full-stack insights from infrastructure to application performance to digital experience, helping teams take decisive action to maintain service health and performance.
Services
In addition to our product offerings, we provide a broad range of technical support and professional services for our customers. We are incorporating AI into our services offerings, to enable customers to derive greater business value from their technology investments.
Cisco Technical Support provides customers with comprehensive assistance, including issue resolution, software support and hardware replacement, to help ensure Cisco products and networks operate efficiently and remain highly available. These services help customers protect their network investments, manage risk, and minimize downtime for systems running mission-critical applications.
We also offer a portfolio of professional services which includes planning, design, and implementation services, as well as high-value consulting services focused on aligning technology investments with business outcomes. We continually invest in our support and professional services by integrating AI and automation, and expanding beyond core networking to cover the areas of security and analytics in line with our strategy.
Customers and Markets
Many factors influence the IT, collaboration, and networking requirements of our customers. These include the size of the organization, number and types of technology systems, geographic location, and business applications deployed throughout the customer’s network. Our customer base is not limited to any specific industry, geography, or market segment. Our customers primarily operate in the following markets: enterprise, public sector and service provider and cloud.
Enterprise
Enterprise includes businesses that are large regional, national, or global organizations with multiple locations or branch offices, or mid-market and small businesses. Many enterprise businesses have unique IT, collaboration, and networking needs within a multi-vendor environment. Our mid-market and small business customers typically require the latest advanced technologies, but with less complexity. We offer service and support packages, financing, and managed network services, primarily through our service provider partners. We sell these products through a network of third-party application and technology vendors and channel partners, as well as selling directly to these customers.
Public Sector
Public Sector includes federal, state and local governments, as well as educational institution customers. Many public sector customers have unique IT, collaboration, and networking needs within a multi-vendor environment. We sell to public sector
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customers through a network of third-party application and technology vendors and channel partners, as well as through direct sales.
Service Provider and Cloud
Service Provider and Cloud includes regional, national, and international wireline carriers and webscale providers, as well as Internet, cable, and wireless providers. We also include media, broadcast, and content providers within this customer market, as the lines in the telecommunications industry continue to blur between traditional network-based, content-based and application-based services. This customer market offers data, voice, video, and mobile/wireless services to businesses, governments, utilities, and consumers worldwide. Service provider and cloud businesses use a variety of our products and services for their own networks. In addition, many service providers use Cisco data center, virtualization, and collaboration technologies to offer managed or Internet-based services to their business customers. Compared with other customers, service providers are more likely to require network design, deployment, and support services because of the greater scale and higher complexity of their networks, whose requirements are addressed, we believe, by our architectural approach.
Sales Overview
As of the end of fiscal 2025, our worldwide sales and marketing functions consisted of approximately 25,600 employees, including managers, sales representatives, and technical support personnel. We sell our products and services both directly and indirectly through a variety of channels with support from our sales workforce. A substantial portion of our products and services is sold indirectly through channel partners, and the remainder is sold through direct sales. Channel partners include systems integrators, service providers, other third-party resellers, and distributors.
Systems integrators and service providers typically sell directly to end users and often provide system installation, technical support, professional services, and other support services in addition to network equipment sales. Systems integrators also typically integrate our products into an overall solution. Some service providers are also systems integrators.
Distributors may hold inventory and sell to systems integrators, service providers, and other third-party resellers. We refer to sales through distributors as our two-tier system of sales to the end customer. Revenue from two-tier distributors is recognized based on a sell-in method. These distributors may be given business terms that allow them to return a limited portion of inventory, receive credits for changes in selling prices, receive certain rebates, and participate in various cooperative marketing programs.
Our service offerings complement our products through a range of consulting, technical, project, quality, and software maintenance services, including 24-hour online and telephone support through technical assistance centers.
For information regarding risks related to our sales channels, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factors entitled “Disruption of or changes in our distribution model could harm our sales and margins” and “Inventory management relating to our sales to our two-tier distribution channel is complex, and excess inventory may harm our gross margins.”
For information regarding risks relating to our international operations, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factors entitled “Our operating results may be negatively impacted by unfavorable economic and market conditions and the uncertain geopolitical environment;” “Entrance into new or developing markets exposes us to additional competition and will likely increase demands on our service and support operations;” “Due to the global nature of our operations, political or economic changes or other factors in a specific country or region could harm our operating results and financial condition;” “We are exposed to fluctuations in currency exchange rates that could negatively impact our financial results and cash flows;” and “Cyber attacks, data breaches or other incidents impacting our solutions and IT environment may disrupt our operations, harm our operating results and financial condition, and damage our reputation or otherwise materially harm our business; and cyber attacks, data breaches or other incidents on our customers’ or third-party providers’ networks, or in third-party products we use, could result in claims of liability against us, give rise to legal and/or regulatory action, damage our reputation or otherwise materially harm our business,” among others.
Financing Arrangements
We provide financing arrangements for certain qualified customers to build, maintain, and upgrade their networks. We believe customer financing is a competitive advantage in obtaining business, particularly for those customers involved in significant infrastructure projects. Our financing arrangements include loans, leases (sales-type, direct financing and operating) and channel financing arrangements.
Acquisitions, Investments, and Alliances
The markets in which we compete require a wide variety of technologies, products, and capabilities. We continue to evaluate opportunities to acquire and invest in businesses and technologies that complement and enable further investment in our key priority areas.
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Acquisitions
We acquire companies in order to gain access to talent, technology, products and features, operational capabilities or new markets. The risks associated with acquisitions are more fully discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factor entitled “We have made and expect to continue to make acquisitions that could disrupt our operations and harm our operating results.”
Investments in Privately Held Companies
We make investments in privately held companies that develop technology or provide services that are complementary to our products or that provide insights into emerging technologies that may become relevant to our businesses. The risks associated with these investments are more fully discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factor entitled “We are exposed to fluctuations in the market values of our portfolio investments and in interest rates; impairment of our investments could harm our earnings.”
Strategic Alliances
We pursue strategic alliances with other companies in areas where collaboration can produce industry advancement and accelerate new markets. The objectives and goals of a strategic alliance can include one or more of the following: technology exchange, product development, joint sales and marketing, or new market creation.
The risks associated with our strategic alliances are more fully discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factor entitled “If we do not successfully manage our strategic alliances, we may not realize the expected benefits from such alliances and we may experience increased competition or delays in product development.”
Competition
We compete in the networking and communications equipment markets, providing products and services designed to transport, and help secure data, voice, and video traffic across cloud, private and public networks and the Internet. We compete with numerous vendors in each product category. The overall number of our competitors providing niche product solutions may increase. Also, the identity and composition of competitors may change as we increase our activity in newer product areas, and in key priority areas. As we continue to expand globally, we may see new competition in different geographic regions. In particular, we have experienced price-focused competition from competitors in Asia, especially from China, and we anticipate this will continue.
Our competitors (in each case relative to only some of our products or services) include: Amazon Web Services LLC; Arista Networks, Inc.; Broadcom Inc.; Ciena Corporation; CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc.; Datadog Inc.; Dell Technologies Inc.; Dynatrace Inc.; Fortinet, Inc.; Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company; Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.; Microsoft Corporation; New Relic, Inc.; Nokia Corporation; Nvidia Corporation; Palo Alto Networks, Inc.; RingCentral, Inc.; Zoom Video Communications, Inc.; and Zscaler, Inc.; among others.
Some of our competitors compete across many of our product lines, while others are primarily focused in a specific product area. Barriers to entry are relatively low, and new ventures to create products that do or could compete with our products are regularly formed. In addition, some of our competitors may have greater resources, including technical and engineering resources, than we do. As we expand into new markets, we will face competition not only from our existing competitors but also from other competitors, including existing companies with strong technological, marketing, and sales positions in those markets. We also sometimes face competition from resellers and distributors of our products. Companies with which we have strategic alliances in some areas may be competitors in other areas, and this trend may increase. For example, the enterprise data center is undergoing a fundamental transformation arising from the convergence of technologies, including computing, networking, storage, and software, that previously were segregated. Additionally, companies that are strategic alliance partners in some areas of our business may acquire or form alliances with our competitors, thereby reducing their business with us.
The principal competitive factors in the markets in which we presently compete and may compete in the future include the ability to sell successful business outcomes; the ability to provide a broad range of networking and communications products and services; product performance; price; the ability to introduce new products, including providing continuous new customer value and products with price-performance advantages; the ability to reduce production costs; the ability to provide value-added features such as security, reliability, and investment protection; conformance to standards; market presence; the ability to provide financing; and disruptive technology shifts and new business models.
We also face competition from customers to which we license or supply technology and suppliers from which we transfer technology. The inherent nature of networking requires interoperability. As such, we must cooperate and, at the same time, compete with many companies. Any inability to effectively manage these complicated relationships with customers, suppliers, and strategic alliance partners could materially harm our business, operating results, and financial condition and accordingly affect our chances of success.
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Research and Development
We regularly introduce new products and features to address the requirements of our markets. We allocate our research and development budget among our product categories, which consist of Networking, Security, Collaboration, and Observability technologies. Our research and development expenditures are applied generally to all product areas, with specific areas of focus being identified from time to time. Our expenditures for research and development costs were expensed as incurred.
The industry in which we compete is subject to rapid technological developments, evolving standards, changes in customer requirements, and new product introductions and enhancements. As a result, our success depends, in part, on our ability, on a cost-effective and timely basis, to continue to enhance our existing products and to develop and introduce new products that improve performance and reduce total cost of ownership. To achieve these objectives, our management and engineering personnel work with customers to identify and respond to customer needs, as well as with other innovators of Internet networking products, including universities, laboratories, and corporations. We also expect to continue to make acquisitions and strategic investments, where appropriate, to provide us with access to new technologies. Nonetheless, there can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully develop products to address new customer requirements and technological changes or that those products will achieve market acceptance.
Manufacturing
We rely on contract manufacturers for our manufacturing needs. We presently use a variety of independent third-party companies to provide services related to printed-circuit board assembly, in-circuit test, product repair, and product assembly. Proprietary software in electronically programmable memory chips is used to configure products that meet customer requirements and to maintain quality control and security. The manufacturing process enables us to configure the hardware and software in unique combinations to meet a wide variety of individual customer requirements. The manufacturing process also uses automated testing equipment and burn-in procedures, as well as comprehensive inspection, testing, and statistical process controls, which are designed to help ensure the quality and reliability of our products. The manufacturing processes and procedures are generally certified to International Organization for Standardization 9001 standards.
Our arrangements with contract manufacturers generally provide for quality, cost, and delivery requirements, as well as manufacturing process terms, such as inventory management; flexibility regarding capacity, quality, and cost management; oversight of manufacturing; and conditions for use of our intellectual property. We have not entered into any significant long-term contracts with any contract manufacturers. We generally have the option to renew arrangements on an as-needed basis. These arrangements with contract manufacturers generally do not commit us to purchase any particular amount or any quantities beyond amounts covered by orders or forecasts that we submit covering discrete periods of time.
Patents, Intellectual Property, and Licensing
We seek to establish and maintain our proprietary rights in our technology and products through the use of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secret laws. We have a program to file applications for and obtain patents, copyrights, and trademarks in the United States and in selected foreign countries where we believe filing for such protection is appropriate. We also seek to maintain our trade secrets and confidential information by nondisclosure policies and through the use of appropriate confidentiality agreements. We have obtained a substantial number of patents and trademarks in the United States and in other countries. There can be no assurance, however, that the rights obtained can be successfully enforced against infringing products in every jurisdiction. Although we believe the protection afforded by our patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets has value, the rapidly changing technology in the networking industry and uncertainties in the legal process make our future success dependent primarily on the innovative skills, technological expertise, and management abilities of our employees rather than on the protection afforded by patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws.
Many of our products are designed to include software or other intellectual property licensed from third parties. While it may be necessary in the future to seek or renew licenses relating to various aspects of our products, we believe, based upon past experience and standard industry practice, that such licenses generally could be obtained on commercially reasonable terms. Nonetheless, there can be no assurance that the necessary licenses would be available on acceptable terms, if at all. Our inability to obtain certain licenses or other rights or to obtain such licenses or rights on favorable terms, or the need to engage in litigation regarding these matters, could materially harm our business, operating results, and financial condition. Moreover, inclusion in our products of software or other intellectual property licensed from third parties on a nonexclusive basis can limit our ability to protect our proprietary rights in our products.
The industry in which we compete is characterized by rapidly changing technology, a large number of patents, and frequent claims and related litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. There can be no assurance that our patents and other proprietary rights will not be challenged, invalidated, or circumvented; that others will not assert intellectual property rights to technologies that are relevant to us; or that our rights will give us a competitive advantage. Further, some U.S. governmental entities and courts have expressed a position that U.S. copyright and patent protection should be limited to
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protecting inventions and works of authorship created by humans. Therefore, U.S. copyright or patent protection for inventions or works developed in part or wholly by generative AI tools may be limited, or not available at all. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries may not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States.
The risks associated with patents and intellectual property are more fully discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factors entitled “Our proprietary rights may prove difficult to enforce,” “We may be found to infringe on intellectual property rights of others,” and “We rely on the availability of third-party licenses.”
Government Regulation
We are subject to numerous regulations and laws in the United States and abroad that involve matters central to our business. Many of these regulations and laws are evolving and their applicability and scope, as interpreted by courts and regulators, remain uncertain. These regulations and laws involve a variety of matters including privacy, data protection and personal information, cybersecurity, operational resilience, AI, tax, trade, encryption technology, environmental sustainability (including climate change), human rights, product certification, and national security.
A failure, or alleged failure, by us to comply with regulations or laws could materially harm our business, operating results, or financial condition. For additional information about government regulation and laws applicable to our business, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factor entitled “Our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially harmed by evolving regulatory uncertainty or obligations applicable to our products and services” and Note 14 to the Consolidated Financial Statements, subsection (f) “Legal Proceedings.”
Talent and Culture
At Cisco, we value our people and our technology, and we leverage our broader ecosystems to positively impact the world and pursue our Purpose to Power an Inclusive Future for All. Our goal is to attract, retain, and develop talent in order to help our customers connect and secure their infrastructure and accelerate their digital agility. Our relationship with our employees is one of mutual benefit. Our employees bring talent and ingenuity to everything we do, and in turn, we provide employees with meaningful careers and development opportunities.
Cisco is currently ranked #3 on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® 2025 in the United States. Fortune and Great Place to Work have published their United States rankings since 1998, and Cisco has been recognized on every annual list. In fiscal 2025, Cisco was recognized as a top three workplace in 14 countries by Great Place to Work, including #1 wins in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Ireland, Peru, and Singapore.
As of July 26, 2025, we had approximately 86,200 employees and they are categorized as follows:

Compensation and Benefits
Our total compensation philosophy is designed to attract, reward, and retain talent. It provides market competitive, performance-based compensation aligned with each employee’s contribution and impact to the value we drive to our customers, partners, and stockholders. We reward and recognize our employees for effecting innovation, collaboration, profitability, and growth within our geographies, product lines, and functions.
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Health & Well-being
We have an ongoing commitment to focus on the health, safety, and well-being of our employees. We seek to provide our employees and their families with high-quality, flexible, and convenient benefits and resources for their physical, mental, and financial well-being. We strive to support our employees as they balance careers and personal lives, as well as their own physical, emotional, and financial health. We continue to emphasize a focus on both physical and mental health, recognizing the need to create an environment where employees can speak openly about mental health and other matters.
We offer mindfulness courses, employee assistance program offerings, and out-of-network provider benefits for substance abuse and mental health treatment, and more. In fiscal 2025, we continued to offer employees “A Day for Me,” which were paid days off that allowed for each individual to recharge and rest. We employ a hybrid work model in certain countries, giving our employees the flexibility to work offsite or at onsite Cisco locations.
Employee Development
Cisco is advancing new approaches to leading, learning, and working in the age of AI. We invest in developing strategic capabilities that drive business growth, while enabling employees’ personal and professional development. By aligning skilling with our Guiding Principles and business priorities, we put learning at the center of innovation.
Recognizing that each career is unique, we provide personalized learning opportunities in multiple formats that fit into employees’ daily work. We are also unifying our leadership development approach to offer a full range of programs for employees at all levels, reflecting our belief that you lead from every seat. The principle of “one company, many careers” guides us, and we are using data insights from skills intelligence to match people and opportunities. Learning and development are reinforced in our performance processes. Success at Cisco depends on both what is achieved and how it is achieved, with leaders supporting ongoing development through regular feedback and check-ins.
Employee Engagement
We believe that strong communication is key in our Conscious Culture. These communications include the Cisco Beat, which are regular all-hands meetings, and Cisco Check-Ins, which are ad-hoc meetings for important conversations, and weekly team leader check-ins, which we refer to as a “Team Space Check-In.” In fiscal 2025, we have seen a high level of employee engagement. As an example, there were approximately 2 million Team Space Check-Ins by our employees in fiscal 2025, reflecting approximately 65,700 employees (excludes certain of the employees who joined Cisco during fiscal 2024 through the Splunk acquisition) submitting Team Space Check-Ins. Employees also participate in our global Engagement Pulse Survey and the Real Deal Survey. These surveys allow our employees to provide confidential feedback on our culture, company strategy and trust in their direct leaders.

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Information about our Executive Officers
The following table shows the name, age, and position as of August 31, 2025 of each of our executive officers:

Name Age  Position with the Company
Charles H. Robbins 59 Chair and Chief Executive Officer
Mark Patterson 55 Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Jeetendra Patel 54 President, Chief Product Officer
Deborah L. Stahlkopf 55 Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
Thimaya Subaiya 47 Executive Vice President, Operations
Oliver Tuszik 57 Executive Vice President, Global Sales

Mr. Robbins serves as our Chief Executive Officer since July 2015, as a member of the Board of Directors since May 2015, and as Chair of the Board since December 2017. Mr. Robbins joined Cisco in December 1997, from which time until March 2002 he held a number of managerial positions within Cisco’s sales organization. Mr. Robbins was promoted to Vice President in March 2002, assuming leadership of Cisco’s U.S. channel sales organization. Additionally, in July 2005, Mr. Robbins assumed leadership of Cisco’s Canada channel sales organization. In December 2007, Mr. Robbins was promoted to Senior Vice President, U.S. Commercial, and, in August 2009 he was appointed Senior Vice President, U.S. Enterprise, Commercial and Canada. In July 2011, Mr. Robbins was named Senior Vice President, Americas. In October 2012, Mr. Robbins was promoted to Senior Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations, in which position he served until assuming the role of Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Robbins is also a member of the board of directors of BlackRock, Inc. (since 2017).
Mr. Patterson joined Cisco in September 2000 and serves as our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since July 2025. Previously, Mr. Patterson served as Cisco’s Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer from March 2024 to July 2025, as Senior Vice President, Chief of Staff to the Chair and CEO from October 2018 to March 2024, as Senior Vice President, Strategy, Planning, and Operations for Worldwide Sales and Marketing from July 2015 to October 2018, and in various other leadership and finance roles at Cisco since 2000.
Mr. Patel joined Cisco in July 2020 and serves as our President and Chief Product Officer since May 2025. Previously, Mr. Patel served as Cisco’s Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer from August 2024 to May 2025, as Executive Vice President and General Manager, Security and Collaboration from June 2021 to August 2024, and as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Security and Collaboration from July 2020 to June 2021. Prior to joining Cisco, Mr. Patel served as the Chief Product Officer and Chief Strategy Officer at Box, Inc. (“Box”) from September 2017 to July 2020, and as Senior Vice President of Platform and Chief Strategy Officer from August 2015 to September 2017. Prior to joining Box, Mr. Patel served as General Manager and Chief Executive of the Syncplicity business unit of EMC Corporation (now part of Dell Technologies Inc.). Mr. Patel is a member of the board of directors of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (since 2019).
Ms. Stahlkopf joined Cisco in August 2021 and serves as our Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer. Prior to joining Cisco, Ms. Stahlkopf spent 14 years at Microsoft, where she served most recently as Corporate Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Corporate, External and Legal Affairs from April 2018 to July 2021. Ms. Stahlkopf also served in other leadership roles at Microsoft, including as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel from December 2015 to April 2018 and as Associate General Counsel from December 2010 to December 2015. Prior to joining Microsoft, Ms. Stahlkopf practiced law at Perkins Coie LLP and Cooley Godward LLP. Ms. Stahlkopf is a member of the board of directors of NextEra Energy, Inc. (since 2023).
Mr. Subaiya joined Cisco in July 2018 and serves as our Executive Vice President of Operations since March 2024. Previously, Mr. Subaiya served as Cisco’s Senior Vice President, Chief Transformation Officer from March 2023 to March 2024, as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Customer Experience from November 2021 to March 2023, and as Senior Vice President, Customer Experience Operations and Renewals from July 2018 to November 2021. Prior to joining Cisco, Mr. Subaiya spent 8 years at Salesforce, Inc. (“Salesforce”) where he served in a variety of leadership roles, including most recently as its Chief Operating Officer of Customer Success. Before joining Salesforce, Mr. Subaiya held various leadership roles in business development and global planning and strategy at Oracle Corporation. Mr. Subaiya is a member of the board of directors of Genpact Limited (since 2025).
Mr. Tuszik joined Cisco in July 2013 and serves as our Executive Vice President of Global Sales since April 2025. Previously, Mr. Tuszik served as Cisco’s Senior Vice President, EMEA Sales from August 2023 to April 2025, as Senior Vice President, Global Partner and GM Routes to Market Sales from December 2020 to August 2023, as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Partner Organization from July 2018 to December 2020, and as Vice President, Country Leader Germany from July 2013 to July 2018. Prior to joining Cisco, Mr. Tuszik spent over 10 years at Computacenter AG & Co. oHG, most recently serving as Chief Executive Officer Germany.
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Item 1A. Risk Factors

Set forth below and elsewhere in this report and in other documents we file with the SEC are descriptions of the risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the results contemplated by the forward-looking statements contained in this report.
Risks Related to our Business and Industry
Our operations can be difficult to predict because our operating results may fluctuate in future periods.
Our operating results have been in the past, and will continue to be, subject to quarterly and annual fluctuations as a result of numerous factors, some of which may contribute to more pronounced fluctuations in an uncertain global economic environment. These factors include:
• Fluctuations in demand for our products and services, especially with respect to service providers and Internet businesses, in part due to changes in the global economic environment
• Changes in sales and implementation cycles for our products and reduced visibility into our customers’ spending plans and associated revenue
• Our ability to maintain appropriate inventory levels and purchase commitments
• Price and product competition in the communications and networking industries, which can change rapidly due to technological innovation and different business models from various geographic regions
• The overall movement toward industry consolidation among both our competitors and our customers
• The introduction and market acceptance of new technologies and products, and our success in new and evolving markets, and in emerging technologies, including AI, as well as the adoption of new standards
• Variations in sales channels, product costs, mix of products sold, or mix of direct sales and indirect sales
• The timing, size, and mix of orders from customers
• Manufacturing and customer lead times
• Fluctuations in our gross margins, and the factors that contribute to such fluctuations
• The ability of our direct sale customers, channel partners, contract manufacturers and suppliers to obtain financing or to fund capital expenditures, especially in the event of direct sale customers, channel partner, contract manufacturer or supplier financial problems
• Actual events, circumstances, outcomes, and amounts differing from judgments, assumptions, and estimates used in determining the values of certain assets (including the amounts of related valuation allowances), liabilities, and other items reflected in our Consolidated Financial Statements
• How well we execute on our strategy and operating plans and the impact of changes in our business model that could result in significant restructuring charges
• Our ability to achieve targeted cost reductions
• Benefits anticipated from our investments
• Changes in tax laws or accounting rules, or interpretations thereof
As a consequence, operating results for a particular future period are difficult to predict, and, therefore, prior results are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected in future periods. Any of the foregoing factors, or any other factors discussed elsewhere herein, could materially harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our operating results may be negatively impacted by unfavorable economic and market conditions and the uncertain geopolitical environment.
Challenging global economic conditions, including tariffs or other trade barriers, rising inflation, or other changes, have from time to time contributed, and may continue to contribute, to slowdowns in the communications and networking industries at large, as well as in specific segments and markets in which we operate, resulting in: reduced demand for our products as a result of continued constraints on IT-related capital spending by our customers, particularly service provider and cloud as well as enterprise and other customer markets; increased price competition for our products, not only from our competitors but also as a consequence of customers disposing of unutilized products; risk of excess and obsolete inventories; risk of supply constraints; risk of excess facilities and manufacturing capacity; and higher overhead costs as a percentage of revenue and higher interest expense.
The global macroeconomic environment can be challenging and uncertain. For example, the impact of uncertainty regarding global central bank monetary policy, the instability in the geopolitical environment in many parts of the world (including as a
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result of the on-going Russia and Ukraine war, Middle East conflicts and wars, and China-Taiwan relations), and other disruptions may continue to put pressure on global economic conditions. If global economic and market conditions were to deteriorate, we may experience material harm to our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Our operating results in one or more segments may also be affected by uncertain or changing economic conditions particularly germane to that segment or to particular customer markets within that segment. In addition, previous reports of certain intelligence gathering methods of the U.S. government could affect customers’ perception of the products of IT companies which design and manufacture products in the United States.
Our revenue for a particular period is difficult to predict, and a shortfall in revenue may harm our operating results.
As a result of a variety of factors discussed in this report, our revenue for a particular quarter is difficult to predict, which can be exacerbated during periods when the global macroenvironment is challenging and can result in market uncertainty. Our revenue may grow at a slower rate than in past peri ods, or decline as it did in certain prior periods on a year-over-year basis. Our ability to meet financial expectations could also be negatively impacted if the nonlinear sales pattern seen in some of our past quarters recurs in future periods. We have also experienced periods of time during which shipments have exceeded net bookings or manufacturing issues have delayed shipments, leading to nonlinearity in shipping patterns. In addition to making it difficult to predict revenue for a particular period, nonlinearity in shipping can increase costs, because irregular shipment patterns result in periods of underutilized capacity and periods in which overtime expenses may be incurred, as well as in potential additional inventory management-related costs. In addition, to the extent that manufacturing issues and any related component shortages result in delayed shipments in the future, and particularly in periods in which our contract manufacturers are operating at higher levels of capacity, it is possible that revenue for a quarter could be negatively impacted if such matters occur and are not remediated within the same quarter.
The timing of large orders can also have a significant impact on our business and operating results from quarter to quarter. From time to time, we receive large orders that have a significant effect on our operating results in the period in which the order is recognized as revenue. The timing of such orders is difficult to predict, and the timing of revenue recognition from such orders may affect period to period changes in revenue. As a result, our operating results could vary materially from quarter to quarter based on the receipt of such orders and their ultimate recognition as revenue. Longer than normal manufacturing lead times in the past have caused, and in the future could cause, some customers to place the same or a similar order multiple times within our various sales channels and to cancel the duplicative orders upon shipment or receipt of the product, or to also place orders with other vendors with shorter manufacturing lead times. Such multiple ordering (along with other factors) or risk of order cancellation may cause difficulty in predicting our revenue. Further, our efforts to improve manufacturing lead-time performance may result in more variability and less predictability in our revenue and operating results. In addition, when facing component supply-related challenges, we have in the past and may in the future increase our efforts in procuring components in order to meet customer expectations, which in turn contributes to an increase in inventory and purchase commitments. These increases in our inventory and purchase commitments to shorten lead times could also lead to potential material excess and obsolete inventory charges or other negative impacts to our product gross margin in future periods if product demand significantly decreases for a sustained duration, we are unable to generate demand for certain products planned for development, or we are unable to continue to mitigate the remaining supply chain exposures. Product demand conditions for future periods can be difficult to predict or may persist longer than anticipated. We plan our operating expense levels based primarily on forecasted revenue levels. These expenses and the impact of long-term commitments are relatively fixed in the short term. A shortfall in revenue could lead to operating results being below expectations because we may not be able to quickly reduce these fixed expenses in response to short-term business changes. Any of the above factors could materially harm our operations and financial results. For additional information and a further discussion of impacts and risks related to our inventory commitments and our purchase commitments with contract manufacturers and suppliers, see “Results of Operations—Product Gross Margin—Supply Chain Impacts and Risks”, “Liquidity and Capital Resources—Inventory Supply Chain” under Item 7 and Note 14 to the Consolidated Financial Statements of this report.
Supply chain issues, including financial problems of contract manufacturers or component suppliers, or a shortage of adequate component supply or manufacturing capacity that increase our costs or cause a delay in our ability to fulfill orders, could have an adverse impact on our business and operating results, and our failure to estimate customer demand properly may result in excess or obsolete component supply, which could negatively impact our gross margins.
The fact that we do not own or operate the bulk of our manufacturing facilities and that we are reliant on our extended supply chain could have an adverse impact on the supply of our products and on our business and operating results. Financial problems of either contract manufacturers or component suppliers, reservation of manufacturing capacity at our contract manufacturers by other companies, and industry consolidation occurring within one or more component supplier markets, such as the semiconductor market, in each case, could either limit supply or increase costs.
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A reduction or interruption in supply, including disruptions on our global supply chain, caused in part by public health emergencies, geopolitical tensions (including as a result of China-Taiwan relations, increasing tariffs or any other trade tensions) or a significant natural disaster (including as a result of climate change); a significant increase in the price of one or more components (including as a result of inflation); a failure to adequately authorize procurement of inventory by our contract manufacturers; a failure by suppliers to deliver on our contracts; a failure to appropriately cancel, reschedule, or adjust our requirements based on our business needs; or a decrease in demand for our products could materially harm our business, operating results, and financial condition and could materially damage customer relationships. Furthermore, as a result of binding price or purchase commitments with suppliers, we may be obligated to purchase components at prices that are higher than those available in the current market. In the event that we become committed to purchase components at prices in excess of the current market price when the components are actually used, our gross margins could decrease. In addition, vendors may be under pressure to allocate product to certain customers for business, regulatory or political reasons, and/or demand changes in agreed pricing as a condition of supply. Although we have generally secured additional supply or taken other mitigation actions when significant disruptions have occurred, if similar situations occur in the future, they could materially harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our growth and ability to meet customer demands depend in part on our ability to obtain timely deliveries of parts from our suppliers and contract manufacturers. We have experienced component shortages in the past, including shortages caused by manufacturing process issues, that have affected our operations, including longer than normal lead times. Additionally, we may in the future experience a shortage of certain component parts as a result of our own manufacturing issues, manufacturing issues at our suppliers or contract manufacturers, capacity problems experienced by our suppliers or contract manufacturers including capacity or cost problems resulting from industry consolidation, or strong demand for those parts. Growth in the economy is likely to create greater pressures on us and our suppliers to accurately project component demand and to establish optimal component levels and manufacturing capacity, especially for labor-intensive components, components for which we purchase a substantial portion of the supply, or the re-ramping of manufacturing capacity for highly complex products. During periods of shortages or delays the price of components may increase, or the components may not be available at all, and we may also encounter shortages if we do not accurately anticipate our needs. We may not be able to secure enough components at reasonable prices or of acceptable quality to build new products in a timely manner in the quantities or configurations needed. Accordingly, our revenue and gross margins could suffer until other sources can be developed.
Although in many cases we use standard parts and components for our products, certain components are presently available only from a single source or limited sources, and a global economic downturn and related market uncertainty could negatively impact the availability of components from one or more of these sources, especially during times when there are supplier constraints based on labor and other actions taken during economic downturns. We may not be able to diversify sources in a timely manner, which could harm our ability to deliver products to customers and seriously impact present and future sales.
We believe that we may be faced with the following challenges in the future: new markets in which we participate may grow quickly, which may make it difficult to quickly obtain significant component capacity; as we acquire companies and new technologies, we may be dependent on unfamiliar supply chains or relatively small supply partners; and we face competition for certain components that are supply-constrained from existing competitors and companies in other markets.
Manufacturing capacity and component supply constraints could be significant issues for us as they have been in certain prior periods. We purchase components from a variety of suppliers and use several contract manufacturers to provide manufacturing services for our products. During the normal course of business, in order to improve manufacturing lead-time performance and to help ensure adequate component supply, we enter into agreements with contract manufacturers and suppliers that either allow them to procure inventory based upon criteria as defined by us or that establish the parameters defining our requirements. In certain instances, these agreements allow us the option to cancel, reschedule, and adjust our requirements based on our business needs prior to firm orders being placed. When facing component supply-related challenges, we have increased our efforts in procuring components in order to meet customer expectations, such as we have done in past periods due to supply constraints, which in turn contributes to an increase in inventory and purchase commitments. In fiscal 2025, we entered into additional purchase commitments with contract manufacturers and suppliers related to manufacturing Cisco Silicon One and other products to meet demand from webscale and other customers. We expect to continue entering into these additional purchase commitments in fiscal 2026. These past efforts and additional purchase commitments significantly increased our supply chain exposure, which resulted in negative impacts to our product gross margin in recent periods and may result in further negative impacts in future periods. On August 26, 2025, we settled a legal dispute with a supplier relating to purchase obligations arising under long-term supply arrangements, which resulted in a charge to product cost of sales, which is described in Note 21 to the Consolidated Financial Statements. The remaining and new supply chain exposures include potential material excess and obsolete or other charges if product demand significantly decreases for a sustained duration, we are unable to generate demand for certain products planned for development, or we are otherwise unable to mitigate these supply chain exposures. Product demand conditions for future periods can be difficult to predict or may persist longer than anticipated.
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We expect gross margin to vary over time, and our level of product gross margin may not be sustainable.
Although our product gross margin increased in fiscal 2025, our level of product gross margins has declined in certain prior periods, and could decline in future periods due to adverse impacts from various factors, including:
• Changes in customer, geographic, or product mix, including the mix of hardware and software
• Introduction of new products, including products with price-performance advantages, and new business models (including continuing to increase the use of business models where revenue is recognized over multiple periods)
• Our ability to reduce production costs
• Entry into new markets or growth in lower margin markets, including markets with different pricing and cost structures, through acquisitions or internal development
• Sales discounts
• Increases in material, labor or other manufacturing-related costs (i.e. component costs, broker fees, expedited freight and overtime) or higher supply chain logistics costs, any of which could be significant, especially during periods of supply constraints for certain costs, such as those that have impacted the market for components, including semiconductors and memory in past periods, and which costs have in the past and may continue to be exacerbated by inflation
• Excess inventory, inventory holding charges, and obsolescence charges
• Changes in shipment volume
• The timing of revenue recognition and revenue deferrals
• Increased costs (including those caused by tariffs or economic conditions, including inflation), loss of cost savings or dilution of savings due to changes in component pricing or charges incurred due to inventory holding periods if parts ordering does not correctly anticipate product demand or if the financial health of either contract manufacturers or suppliers deteriorates
• Lower than expected benefits from value engineering
• Increased price competition, including competitors from Asia, especially from China
• Changes in distribution channels
• Increased warranty or royalty costs
• Increased amortization of purchased intangible assets, especially from acquisitions
• How well we execute on our strategy and operating plans
Changes in service gross margin may result from various factors such as changes in the mix between technical support services and advanced services, as well as the timing of technical support service contract initiations and renewals, the addition of personnel and other related costs, and other resources to support higher levels of service business in future periods.
Sales to the service provider and cloud market are especially volatile, and weakness in orders from this industry may harm our operating results and financial condition.
Sales to the service provider and cloud market have been characterized by large and sporadic purchases, especially relating to our router sales and sales of certain other Networking and Collaboration products, in addition to longer sales cycles. Although service provider and cloud product orders increased during fiscal 2025, service provider and cloud market product orders decreased in fiscal 2024, and at various times in the past we have experienced significant weakness in product orders from the service provider and cloud market. Product orders from the service provider and cloud market could decline in the future and, as has been the case in the past, such weakness could persist over extended periods of time given fluctuating market conditions. Products in the service provider and cloud market could also face a high degree of customer concentration, with bespoke product designs and features that would be difficult to sell to alternate customers should the primary customer reduce its product orders with Cisco. Sales activity in this industry depends upon the stage of completion of expanding network infrastructures; the availability of funding; and the extent to which service provider and cloud customers are affected by regulatory, economic, and business conditions in the country of operations. Weakness in orders from this industry, including as a result of any slowdown in capital expenditures by service providers (which may be more prevalent during a global economic downturn, or periods of economic, political or regulatory uncertainty), could materially harm our business, operating results, and financial condition. Such slowdowns may continue or recur in future periods. Orders from this industry could decline for many reasons other than the competitiveness of our products and services within their respective markets. For example, in the past, many of our service provider and cloud customers have been negatively impacted by slowdowns in the general economy, by overcapacity, by changes in the service provider and cloud market, by regulatory developments, and by constraints on capital availability, resulting in business failures and substantial reductions in spending and expansion plans. These conditions have negatively impacted our business and operating results in the past, and could materially harm our business and operating
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results in any future period. Finally, service provider and cloud customers typically have longer implementation cycles; require a broader range of services, including design services; demand that vendors take on a larger share of risks; often require acceptance provisions, which can lead to a delay in revenue recognition; and expect financing from vendors. All these factors can add further risk to business conducted with service providers.
Disruption of or changes in our distribution model could harm our sales and margins.
If we fail to manage distribution of our products and services properly, or if our distributors’ financial condition or operations weaken, our revenue and gross margins could be negatively impacted. A substantial portion of our products and services is sold through our channel partners, and the remainder is sold through direct sales. Our channel partners include systems integrators, service providers, other third-party resellers, and distributors. Systems integrators and service providers typically sell directly to end users and often provide system installation, technical support, professional services, and other support services in addition to network equipment sales. Systems integrators also typically integrate our products into an overall solution, and a number of service providers are also systems integrators. Distributors stock inventory and typically sell to systems integrators, service providers, and other third-party resellers. We refer to sales through distributors as our two-tier system of sales to the end user. If sales through indirect channels increase, this may lead to greater difficulty in forecasting the mix of our products and, to a degree, the timing of orders from our customers.
Historically, we have seen fluctuations in our gross margins based on changes in the balance of our distribution channels. There can be no assurance that changes in the balance of our distribution model in future periods would not have an adverse effect on our gross margins and profitability. Some factors could result in disruption of or changes in our distribution model, which could harm our sales and margins, including the following: competition with some of our channel partners, including through our direct sales, which may lead these channel partners to use other suppliers that do not directly sell their own products or otherwise compete with them; some of our channel partners may demand that we absorb a greater share of the risks that their customers may ask them to bear; some of our channel partners may have insufficient financial resources and may not be able to withstand changes and challenges in business conditions; and revenue from indirect sales could suffer if our distributors’ financial condition or operations weaken. In addition, we depend on our channel partners globally to comply with applicable regulatory requirements. To the extent that they fail to do so, that could materially harm our business, operating results, and financial condition. Further, sales of our products outside of agreed territories can result in disruption to our distribution channels.
The markets in which we compete are intensely competitive, which could negatively impact our achievement of revenue growth.
The markets in which we compete are characterized by rapid change, converging technologies, and a migration to networking and communications solutions that offer relative advantages. These market factors represent a competitive threat to us. We compete with numerous vendors in each product category. The overall number of our competitors providing niche product solutions may increase. Also, the identity and composition of competitors may change as we increase our activity in newer product areas, and in key priority areas. For example, as products related to network programmability, such as software defined networking (SDN) products, have become more prevalent, we have faced increased competition from companies that develop networking products based on commoditized hardware, referred to as “white box” hardware, to the extent customers decide to purchase those product offerings instead of ours. In addition, the growth in demand for technology delivered as a service enables new competitors to enter the market. As we continue to expand globally, we may see new competition in different geographic regions. In particular, we have experienced price-focused competition from competitors in Asia, especially from China, and we anticipate this will continue. For information regarding our competitors, see the section entitled “Competition” contained in “Item 1. Business” of this report.
Some of our competitors compete across many of our product lines, while others are primarily focused in a specific product area. Barriers to entry are relatively low, and new ventures to create products that do or could compete with our products are regularly formed. In addition, some of our competitors may have greater resources, including technical and engineering resources, than we do. As we expand into new markets, we will face competition not only from our existing competitors but also from other competitors, including existing companies with strong technological, marketing, and sales positions in those markets. We also sometimes face competition from resellers and distributors of our products. Companies with which we have strategic alliances in some areas may be competitors in other areas, and this trend may increase. For example, the enterprise data center is undergoing a fundamental transformation arising from the convergence of technologies, including computing, networking, storage, and software, that previously were segregated. Due to several factors, including the availability of highly scalable and general purpose microprocessors, application specific integrated circuits offering advanced services, standards based protocols, cloud computing and virtualization, the convergence of technologies within the enterprise data center is spanning multiple, previously independent, technology segments. Also, some of our current and potential competitors for enterprise data center business have made acquisitions, or announced new strategic alliances, designed to position them to provide end-to-end technology solutions for the enterprise data center. As a result of all of these developments, we face greater
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competition in the development and sale of enterprise data center technologies, including competition from entities that are among our long-term strategic alliance partners. Companies that are strategic alliance partners in some areas of our business may acquire or form alliances with our competitors, thereby reducing their business with us.
We also face competition from customers to which we license or supply technology and suppliers from which we transfer technology. The inherent nature of networking requires interoperability. As such, we must cooperate and at the same time compete with many companies. Any inability to effectively manage these complicated relationships with customers, suppliers, and strategic alliance partners could materially harm our business, operating results, and financial condition and accordingly affect our chances of success.
Inventory management relating to our sales to our two-tier distribution channel is complex, and excess inventory may harm our gross margins.
We must manage inventory relating to sales to our distributors effectively, because inventory held by them could affect our results of operations. Our distributors may increase orders during periods of product shortages, cancel orders if their inventory is too high, or delay orders in anticipation of new products. They also may adjust their orders in response to the supply of our products and the products of our competitors that are available to them, and in response to seasonal fluctuations in end-user demand. Our distributors are generally given business terms that allow them to return a portion of inventory, receive credits for changes in selling price, and participate in various cooperative marketing programs. Inventory management remains an area of focus as we balance the need to maintain strategic inventory levels to ensure competitive lead times against the risk of inventory obsolescence because of rapidly changing technology and customer requirements. When facing component supply-related challenges, we have in the past and may in the future increase our efforts in procuring components or enter additional purchase commitments with contract manufacturers and suppliers in order to meet customer expectations. If we ultimately determine that we have excess inventory, we may have to reduce our prices and write down inventory, which in turn could result in lower gross margins.
Issues related to the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) could give rise to legal and/or regulatory action, damage our reputation or otherwise materially harm our business.
We currently incorporate AI technology in certain of our commercial offerings and in our business operations. Our research and development of AI technology remains ongoing. AI presents risks and challenges and may result in unintended consequences, including inadvertent disclosure or misuse of intellectual property, confidential, personal, and/or competitive information, that could affect our reputation, our further AI development or our and our customers’ adoption and use of this technology. AI algorithms and training methodologies may be flawed. Additionally, AI technologies are complex and rapidly evolving, and we face significant competition in the market and from other companies regarding such technologies. Leveraging AI capabilities to potentially improve our internal functions and operations also presents risks, costs, and challenges. While we aim to develop and use AI responsibly and attempt to identify and mitigate ethical and legal issues and risks presented by its use, we may be unsuccessful in identifying or resolving issues and risks before they arise. The AI-related legal and regulatory landscape is constantly evolving and therefore remains uncertain and may be inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Our obligations to comply with the evolving legal and regulatory landscape could entail significant costs or limit our ability to incorporate certain AI capabilities into our offerings. AI-related issues, deficiencies and/or failures could also give rise to legal and/or regulatory action (including with respect to proposed legislation regulating AI in jurisdictions such as the European Union and others, and as a result of new and different applications of existing and new data protection, privacy, intellectual property, and other laws); damage our reputation; or otherwise materially harm our business.
Our financial performance may be negatively impacted by demand for, and costs to deliver, our software subscription offerings; and interruptions or performance problems associated with these offerings, including interruptions or performance problems caused by third-party providers on which we rely, may negatively impact our business and financial results.
In recent years, we have shifted our business model to deliver more recurring software and subscription offerings. This shift in our business model was accelerated by recent acquisitions, including our acquisition of Splunk in the third quarter of fiscal 2024. Mark et acceptance of our software subscription offerings, which includes our as-a-service solutions, can be affected by a variety of factors, including: security, reliability, performance, terms of service, support terms, customer preference, community engagement, concerns regarding data privacy or data protection, and the enactment of laws or regulations in jurisdictions in which we operate. To generate sales growth for our software subscription offerings, we need to convince potential customers to purchase new licenses or subscriptions and generate timely renewals and additional purchases from existing customers. Any failure to do so could result in decreased revenue, reduced sales, increased churn or otherwise negatively impact our results of operations and financial condition. Further, growth of our software subscription offerings depends, in part, on the ability of customers to use and access these solutions. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, interruptions in service, storage failures, and other performance-related problems due to a variety of factors, such as infrastructure and software
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changes, human or software errors, capacity constraints, unauthorized access, denial of service or other cyber attacks. In some instances, we may not be able to timely identify the cause or causes of these performance problems and, even if timely identified, we may be unable to timely remediate the underlying cause. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve our performance for our software subscription offerings, especially during peak usage times and as our solutions become more complex and our user traffic increases. Performance-related issues of our software subscription offerings may result in increased operational costs, delays in new feature rollouts, customer loss, reputational damage, and legal or regulatory liability, including liability under customer contracts or for losses suffered by our customers.
To deliver our software subscription offerings, we have incurred and will continue to incur substantial costs to implement and maintain this business. We make significant investments to increase or maintain capacity and to develop and implement new technologies in our infrastructure and operations, including those provided by third-party providers on which we rely. We may not be successful in developing or implementing these technologies. To the extent that we do not effectively scale our operations to meet the needs of our customers and to maintain performance as our customers expand their use of our solutions, we may not be able to grow this business as quickly as we anticipate, our customers may reduce or cancel use of our solutions, and we may be unable to compete as effectively and our business and results of operations may be harmed. Additionally, if our costs associated with our software subscription offerings were to significantly increase, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be negatively impacted. We are also subject to the risk of performance-related problems or interruption of the services provided by third-party providers on which we rely, which could cause revenues for software subscription offerings to decline, damage to our reputation, legal liability exposure, and/or increased expenses, all of which could negatively impact our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We depend upon the development of new products and services, and enhancements to existing products and services, and if we fail to predict and respond to emerging technological trends and customers’ changing needs, our operating results and market share may suffer.
The markets for our products and services are characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards, new product and service introductions, and evolving methods of building and operating networks. Our operating results depend on our ability to develop and introduce new products and services into existing and emerging markets and to reduce the production costs of existing products. If customers do not purchase and/or renew our offerings our business could be harmed.
The process of developing new technology, including more programmable, flexible and virtual networks, and technology related to other market transitions— such as AI, security, observability, and cloud— is complex and uncertain, and if we fail to accurately predict customers’ changing needs and emerging technological trends our business could be harmed. We must commit significant resources, including the investments we have been making in our strategic priorities to developing new products and services before knowing whether our investments will result in products and services the market will accept. In particular, if our model of the evolution of networking, security, or observability does not emerge as we believe it will, or these industries do not evolve as we believe they will, or if our strategy for addressing this evolution is not successful, many of our strategic initiatives and investments may be of no or limited value. For example, if we do not timely introduce products related to these markets, or if such products or offerings that ultimately succeed in these markets are based on technology, or an approach to technology, that differs from ours, our business could be harmed. In addition, our business could be negatively impacted in periods surrounding our new product introductions if customers delay purchasing decisions to qualify or otherwise evaluate the new product offerings. We have also been seeking to meet the evolving needs of customers which include offering our products and solutions in the manner in which customers wish to consume them. As a part of these efforts, we continue to make changes to how we are organized and how we build and deliver our technology, including changes in our business models with customers. If our strategy for addressing our customer needs, or the architectures and solutions we develop do not meet those needs, or the changes we are making in how we are organized and how we build and deliver or technology is incorrect or ineffective, our business could be harmed.
Furthermore, we may not execute successfully on our vision or strategy because of challenges with regard to product planning and timing, technical hurdles that we fail to overcome in a timely fashion, or a lack of appropriate resources. This could result in competitors, some of which may also be our strategic alliance partners, providing those solutions before we do and loss of market share, revenue, and earnings. In addition, the growth in demand for technology delivered as a service enables new competitors to enter the market. The success of new products and services depends on several factors, including proper new product and service definition, component costs, timely completion and introduction of these products and services, differentiation of new products and services from those of our competitors, and market acceptance of these products and services. There can be no assurance that we will successfully identify new product and services opportunities, develop and bring new products and services to market in a timely manner, or achieve market acceptance of our products and services or that products, services and technologies developed by others will not render our products, services or technologies obsolete or noncompetitive. The products and technologies in our other product categories and key priority areas may not prove to have the market success we anticipate, and we may not successfully identify and invest in other emerging or new products and services.
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Changes in industry structure and market conditions could lead to charges related to discontinuances of certain of our products or businesses, asset impairments and workforce reductions or restructurings.
In response to changes in industry and market conditions, we may be required to strategically realign our resources and to consider restructuring, disposing of, or otherwise exiting businesses. Any resource realignment, or decision to limit investment in or dispose of or otherwise exit businesses, may result in the recording of special charges, such as inventory and technology-related write-offs, workforce reduction or restructuring costs, charges relating to consolidation of excess facilities, or claims from third parties who were resellers or users of discontinued products. Our estimates with respect to the useful life or ultimate recoverability of our carrying basis of assets, including purchased intangible assets, could change as a result of such assessments and decisions. Although in certain instances our supply agreements allow us the option to cancel, reschedule, and adjust our requirements based on our business needs prior to firm orders being placed, our loss contingencies may include liabilities for contracts that we cannot cancel with contract manufacturers and suppliers. Further, our estimates relating to the liabilities for excess facilities are affected by changes in real estate market conditions. Additionally, we are required to perform goodwill impairment tests on an annual basis and between annual tests in certain circumstances, and future goodwill impairment tests may result in a charge to earnings. From time to time we initiate restructuring plans. Our business may not be more efficient or effective than prior to implementation of such plans. Our restructuring activities, including any related charges and the impact of the related headcount restructurings, could materially harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Over the long term we intend to invest in engineering, sales, service and marketing activities, and in key priority areas, and these investments may achieve delayed, or lower than expected, benefits which could harm our operating results.
While we intend to focus on managing our costs and expenses, over the long term, we also intend to invest in personnel and other resources related to our engineering, sales, service and marketing functions as we realign and dedicate resources on key priority areas, such as AI, cloud, and cybersecurity. We also intend to focus on maintaining leadership in core networking and services. We are likely to recognize the costs associated with these investments earlier than some of the anticipated benefits, and the return on these investments may be lower, or may develop more slowly, than we expect. If we do not achieve the benefits anticipated from these investments (including if our selection of areas for investment does not play out as we expect), or if the achievement of these benefits is delayed, our operating results may be negatively impacted.
We have made and expect to continue to make acquisitions that could disrupt our operations and harm our operating results.
Our growth depends upon market growth, our ability to enhance our existing products, and our ability to introduce new products on a timely basis. We intend to continue to address the need to develop new products and enhance existing products through acquisitions of other companies, product lines, technologies, and personnel. Acquisitions involve numerous risks, including the following:
• Difficulties or delays in integrating the operations (including IT security), systems, technologies, products, and personnel of the acquired companies, particularly with companies that have large and widespread operations and/or complex products (such as Splunk)
• Diversion of management’s attention from normal daily operations of the business and the challenges of managing larger and more widespread operations resulting from acquisitions
• Potential difficulties in completing projects associated with in-process research and development intangibles
• Difficulties in entering markets in which we have no or limited direct prior experience and where competitors in such markets have stronger market positions
• Initial dependence on unfamiliar supply chains or relatively small supply partners
• Insufficient revenue to offset increased expenses associated with acquisitions
• The potential loss of key employees, customers, distributors, vendors and other business partners of the companies we acquire following and continuing after announcement of acquisition plans
Acquisitions have in the past and may in the future also cause us to:
• Issue common stock that would dilute our current stockholders’ percentage ownership
• Use a substantial portion of our cash resources, or incur debt
• Significantly increase our interest expense, leverage and debt service requirements if we incur additional debt to pay for an acquisition
• Assume liabilities
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• Record goodwill and intangible assets that are subject to impairment testing on a regular basis and potential periodic impairment charges
• Incur amortization expenses related to certain intangible assets
• Incur tax expenses related to the effect of acquisitions on our legal structure
• Incur large write-offs and restructuring and other related expenses
• Become subject to intellectual property or other litigation
Mergers and acquisitions of high-technology companies are inherently risky and subject to many factors outside of our control, and no assurance can be given that our previous or future acquisitions will be successful and will not materially harm our business, operating results, or financial condition. Failure to manage and successfully integrate acquisitions could materially harm our business and operating results. Prior acquisitions have resulted in a wide range of outcomes, from successful introduction of new products and technologies to a failure to do so. Even when an acquired company has already developed and marketed products, there can be no assurance that product enhancements will be made in a timely fashion or that pre-acquisition due diligence will have identified all possible issues that might arise with respect to such products. In addition, our effective tax rate for future periods is uncertain and could be impacted by mergers and acquisitions. Risks described with respect to new product development also apply to acquisitions.
Entrance into new or developing markets exposes us to additional competition and will likely increase demands on our service and support operations.
As we focus on new market opportunities and key priority areas, such as AI, cloud, and cybersecurity, we compete with companies of all sizes. Several of our competitors may have greater resources, including technical and engineering resources, than we do. Additionally, as customers complete infrastructure deployments, they may require greater levels of service, support, and financing than we have provided in the past, especially in emerging countries. Demand for these types of service, support, or financing contracts may increase in the future. There can be no assurance that we can provide products, service, support, and financing to effectively compete for these market opportunities. Further, entry into other markets has subjected and will subject us to additional risks, particularly to those markets, including the effects of general market conditions and reduced consumer confidence. For example, as we add direct selling capabilities globally to meet changing customer demands, we will face increased legal and regulatory requirements.
If we do not successfully manage our strategic alliances, we may not realize the expected benefits from such alliances, and we may experience increased competition or delays in product development.
We have several strategic alliances with large and complex organizations and other companies with which we work to offer complementary products and services. These arrangements are generally limited to specific projects, the goal of which is generally to facilitate product compatibility and adoption of industry standards. There can be no assurance we will realize the expected benefits from these strategic alliances or from joint ventures. If successful, these relationships may be mutually beneficial and result in industry growth. However, alliances carry an element of risk because, in most cases, we must compete in some business areas with a company with which we have a strategic alliance and, at the same time, cooperate with that company in other business areas. Also, if these companies fail to perform or if these relationships fail to materialize as expected, we could suffer delays in product development or other operational difficulties. Joint ventures can be difficult to manage, given the potentially different interests of joint venture partners.
Product quality problems could lead to reduced revenue, gross margins, and net income.
We produce highly complex products that incorporate leading-edge technology, including both hardware and software. Software typically contains bugs or other quality or reliability problems that can unexpectedly interfere with its intended operations or the intended operation of the systems in which our software is installed. There can be no assurance that our pre-shipment or pre-release testing programs will be adequate to detect all defects, either ones in individual products or ones that could affect numerous shipments, which might interfere with customer satisfaction, reduce sales opportunities, or affect gross margins. From time to time, we have had to replace certain components and provide remediation in response to the discovery of defects or bugs in products that we had shipped. There can be no assurance that such remediation, depending on the product involved, would not have a material impact. An inability to cure a product defect or bug could result in the failure of a product line, temporary or permanent withdrawal from a product or market, damage to our reputation, inventory costs, product reengineering expenses or legal liability, any of which could materially harm our revenue, margins, and net income.
Due to the global nature of our operations, political or economic changes or other factors in a specific country or region could harm our operating results and financial condition.
We conduct significant sales and customer support operations in countries around the world. As such, our growth depends in part on our increasing sales into emerging countries. We also depend on non-U.S. operations of our contract manufacturers,
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component suppliers and distribution partners. Our business in emerging countries in the aggregate experienced a decline in orders in certain prior periods. We continue to assess the sustainability of any improvements in our business in these countries and there can be no assurance that our investments in these countries will be successful. Our future results could be negatively impacted by a variety of political, economic or other factors relating to our operations inside and outside the United States, any or all of which could materially harm our operating results and financial condition, including the following: impacts from global central bank monetary policy; issues related to the political relationship between the United States and other countries that can affect regulatory matters, affect the willingness of customers in those countries to purchase products from companies headquartered in the United States or affect our ability to procure components if a government body were to deny us access to those components; government-related disruptions or shutdowns; the challenging and inconsistent global macroeconomic environment; foreign currency exchange rates; geopolitical tensions (including China-Taiwan relations); political or social unrest; economic instability or weakness or natural disasters in a specific country or region, including economic challenges in China and global economic ramifications of Chinese economic difficulties; environmental protection regulations (including new laws and regulations related to climate change); trade protection measures, such as tariffs; other legal and regulatory requirements, some of which may affect our ability to import our products to, export our products from, or sell our products in various countries or affect our ability to procure components; political considerations that affect service provider and government spending patterns; health or similar issues, including pandemics or epidemics; difficulties in staffing and managing international operations; and adverse tax consequences, including imposition of withholding or other taxes on our global operations.
We are exposed to the credit risk of some of our customers and to credit exposures in weakened markets, which could result in material losses.
Most of our sales are on an open credit basis, with typical payment terms of 30 days in the United States, and, because of local customs or conditions, longer in some markets outside the United States. Beyond our open credit arrangements, we have also experienced demands for customer financing and facilitation of leasing arrangements. Our loan financing arrangements may include not only financing the acquisition of our products and services but also providing additional funds for other costs associated with network installation and integration of our products and services. Our exposure to the credit risks relating to our financing activities may increase if our customers are negatively impacted by a global economic downturn or periods of economic uncertainty. There can be no assurance that programs we have in place to monitor and mitigate credit risks will be effective. In the past, there have been significant bankruptcies among customers both on open credit and with loan or lease financing arrangements, particularly among Internet businesses and service providers, causing us to incur economic or financial losses. There can be no assurance that additional losses will not be incurred. Although these losses have not been material to date, future losses, if incurred, could materially harm our business, operating results, or financial condition. Additionally, to the degree that turmoil in the credit markets makes it more difficult for some customers to obtain financing, those customers’ ability to pay could be adversely impacted, which in turn could materially harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.
We are exposed to fluctuations in the market values of our portfolio investments and in interest rates; impairment of our investments could harm our earnings.
We maintain an investment portfolio of various holdings, types, and maturities. Our portfolio includes available-for-sale debt investments and equity investments, the values of which are subject to market price volatility. If such investments suffer market price declines, as we experienced with some of our investments in the past, we may recognize in earnings the decline in the fair value of our investments below their cost basis. Our privately held investments are subject to risk of loss of investment capital. These investments are inherently risky because the markets for the technologies or products they have under development are typically in the early stages and may never materialize. We could lose our entire investment in these companies. For information regarding the market risks associated with the fair value of portfolio investments and interest rates, refer to the section titled “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.”
We are exposed to fluctuations in currency exchange rates that could negatively impact our financial results and cash flows.
Because a significant portion of our business is conducted outside the United States, we face exposure to adverse movements in foreign currency exchange rates, including emerging market currencies which can have extreme currency volatility. An increase in the value of the dollar could increase the real cost to our customers of our products in those markets outside the United States where we sell in dollars and a weakened dollar could increase the cost of local operating expenses and procurement of raw materials to the extent that we must purchase components in foreign currencies. These exposures may change over time as business practices evolve, and they could materially harm our financial results and cash flows.
Failure to retain and recruit key personnel would harm our ability to meet key objectives.
Our success has always depended in large part on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled technical, managerial, sales, and marketing personnel. Competition for such personnel is intense, especially in the Silicon Valley area of Northern California and
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other major United States locations. Stock incentive plans are designed to reward employees for their long-term contributions and provide incentives for them to remain with us. Volatility or lack of positive performance in our stock price or equity incentive awards, or changes to our overall compensation program, including our stock incentive program, resulting from the management of share dilution and share-based compensation expense or otherwise, may also negatively impact our ability to retain key employees. As a result of one or more of these factors, we may increase our hiring in geographic areas outside the United States, which could subject us to additional geopolitical and exchange rate risk. The loss of services of any of our key personnel; the inability to retain and attract qualified personnel in the future; or delays in hiring required personnel, particularly in engineering and sales fields, could make it difficult to meet key objectives, such as timely and effective product introductions. In addition, companies in our industry whose employees accept positions with competitors frequently claim that competitors have engaged in improper hiring practices. We have received these claims in the past and may receive additional claims in the future.
Adverse resolution of claims, litigation or governmental investigations may harm our operating results or financial condition.
We are a party to a variety of claims, litigation and governmental investigations in the normal course of our business. Claims, litigation and governmental investigations may arise from a wide variety of business practices and initiatives, including major new product releases, significant business transactions, warranty or product claims, employment practices, and regulation. Any claim, litigation or governmental investigation can be costly, lengthy, and disruptive to normal business operations. For example, on August 26, 2025, we settled a legal dispute with a supplier relating to purchase obligations arising under long-term supply arrangements, which resulted in a charge to product cost of sales, which is described in Note 21 to the Consolidated Financial Statements. Moreover, the results of complex legal proceedings are difficult to predict, and management's view of these matters may change in the future. An unfavorable resolution of claims, litigation or governmental investigations could materially harm our business, operating results, or financial condition. For additional information regarding certain of the matters in which we are involved, see Note 14 to the Consolidated Financial Statements, subsection (f) “Legal Proceedings.”
Our operating results may be negatively impacted and damage to our reputation may occur due to the production and sale of counterfeit versions of our products.
As is the case with leading products around the world, our products are subject to efforts by third parties to produce counterfeit versions of our products. While we work diligently with law enforcement authorities in various countries to block the manufacture of counterfeit goods and to interdict their sale, and to detect counterfeit products in customer networks, and have succeeded in prosecuting counterfeiters and their distributors, resulting in fines, imprisonment and restitution to us, there can be no guarantee that such efforts will succeed. While counterfeiters often aim their sales at customers who might not have otherwise purchased our products due to lack of verifiability of origin and service, such counterfeit sales, to the extent they replace otherwise legitimate sales, could negatively impact our operating results.
Changes in our provision for income taxes or adverse outcomes resulting from examination of our income tax returns could negatively impact our results.
Our provision for income taxes is subject to volatility and could be negatively impacted by earnings being lower than anticipated in countries that have lower tax rates and higher than anticipated in countries that have higher tax rates; by changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities; by changes to foreign-derived intangible income, global intangible low-tax income and base erosion and anti-abuse tax, research and development capitalization and amortization, and corporate alternative minimum tax laws, regulations, or interpretations thereof; by expiration of or lapses in tax incentives; by transfer pricing adjustments, including the effect of acquisitions on our legal structure; by tax effects of nondeductible compensation; by tax costs related to intercompany realignments; by changes in accounting principles; or by changes in tax laws and regulations, treaties, or interpretations thereof, including changes to the taxation of earnings of our foreign subsidiaries, the deductibility of expenses attributable to foreign income, and the foreign tax credit rules. Significant judgment is required to determine the recognition and measurement attribute prescribed in the accounting guidance for uncertainty in income taxes. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international association comprised of 38 countries, including the United States, has made changes, including a Pillar Two framework that imposes a minimum tax rate of 15% in each taxing jurisdiction, and is contemplating additional changes to numerous long-standing tax principles. There can be no assurance that these changes and any contemplated changes if finalized, once adopted by countries, will not have an adverse impact on our provision for income taxes. Further, as a result of certain of our ongoing employment and capital investment actions and commitments, our income in certain countries was subject to reduced tax rates. Our failure to meet these commitments could adversely impact our provision for income taxes. In addition, we are subject to the continuous examination of our income tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes. There can be no assurance that the outcomes from these continuous examinations will not have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.
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Our business and operations are especially subject to the risks of earthquakes, floods, and other natural catastrophic events (including as a result of global climate change).
Our corporate headquarters, including certain of our research and development operations are located in the Silicon Valley area of Northern California, a region known for seismic activity. Additionally, a certain number of our facilities are located near rivers that have experienced flooding in the past. Also certain of our customers, suppliers and logistics centers are located in regions that have been or may be affected by earthquake, tsunami and flooding or other weather-related activity which in the past has disrupted, and in the future could disrupt, the flow of supply chain components and delivery of products. In addition, global climate change may result in significant natural disasters occurring more frequently and/or with greater intensity, such as drought, wildfires, storms, sea-level rise, changing precipitation, and flooding. We have not to date experienced a material event as a result of these kinds of natural disasters; however, the occurrence of any such event in the future could materially harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Terrorism, war, and other events may harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
The continued threat of terrorism and heightened security and military action in response thereto, or any other current or future acts of terrorism, war (such as the on-going Russia-Ukraine war and Middle East conflicts and wars), and other events (such as economic sanctions, trade restrictions and reactions of the governments, markets and the general public, including the sanctions and restrictions related to the on-going Russia-Ukraine war) may cause further disruptions to the economies of the United States and other countries and create further uncertainties or could otherwise negatively impact our business, operating results, and financial condition. Likewise, events such as loss of infrastructure and utilities services such as energy, transportation, or telecommunications could have similar negative impacts. To the extent that such disruptions or uncertainties result in delays or cancellations of customer orders or the manufacture or shipment of our products, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be materially harmed.
There can be no assurance that our operating results and financial condition will not be negatively impacted by our incurrence of debt.
As of the end of fiscal 2025, we have senior unsecured notes outstanding in an aggregate principal amount of $24.8 billion that mature at specific dates from calendar year 2026 through 2064. We have also established a commercial paper program under which we may issue short-term, unsecured commercial paper notes on a private placement basis up to a maximum aggregate amount outstanding at any time of $15.0 billion, and we had $3.5 billion in commercial paper notes outstanding under this program as of July 26, 2025. There can be no assurance that our incurrence of this debt or any future debt, including any additional debt to refinance maturing debt, will be a better means of providing liquidity to us than would our use of our existing cash resources. Further, we cannot be assured that our maintenance of this indebtedness or incurrence of future indebtedness will not negatively impact our operating results or financial condition. In addition, changes by any rating agency to our credit rating can negatively impact the value and liquidity of both our debt and equity securities, as well as the terms upon which we may borrow under our commercial paper program or future debt issuances.
Our reputation and/or business could be negatively impacted by matters relating to environmental, social, and governance and/or our reporting of such matters.
We are subject to evolving and sometimes conflicting, laws, regulations, policies, and investor and other stakeholder expectations concerning environmental, social, and governance matters, such as environmental sustainability and climate change, both in the United States and internationally. Any initiatives, goals, or commitments we disclose in this regard involve risks and uncertainties and could be difficult to achieve and costly to implement. For example, in September 2021, we announced our goal to achieve net zero across all scopes of greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, the achievement of which relies, in large part, on the accuracy of our estimates and assumptions around the enhanced power efficiency of our products, the adoption of renewable energy at customer and supplier sites, and the adoption of certain of our products and services by our customers. We could fail to achieve, or be perceived to fail to achieve, our 2040 net zero goal or other initiatives, goals, or commitments. In addition, in a climate where there are changing and increasingly divergent views on where our focus should be on these matters, our initiatives, goals, or commitments, or any revisions to them, are often criticized and the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of such disclosures challenged. Our actual or perceived failure to achieve our initiatives, goals, or commitments, or otherwise successfully manage investor or other stakeholder expectations on these matters, could negatively impact our reputation or otherwise harm our business.
Risks Related to Intellectual Property
Our proprietary rights may prove difficult to enforce.
We generally rely on patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secret laws to establish and maintain proprietary rights in our technology and products. Although we have been issued numerous patents and other patent applications are currently pending, there can be no assurance that any of these patents or other proprietary rights will not be challenged, invalidated, or
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circumvented or that our rights will, in fact, provide competitive advantages to us. Furthermore, many key aspects of our technology are governed by industry-wide standards, which are usable by all market entrants. In addition, there can be no assurance that patents will be issued from pending applications or that claims allowed on any patents will be sufficiently broad to protect our technology. Additionally, some U.S. governmental entities and courts have expressed a position that U.S. copyright and patent protection should be limited to protecting inventions and works of authorship created by humans. Therefore, U.S. copyright or patent protection for inventions or works developed in part or wholly by generative AI tools may be limited, or not available at all. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries may not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. The outcome of any actions taken in these foreign countries may be different than if such actions were determined under the laws of the United States. Although we are not dependent on any individual patents or group of patents for particular segments of the business in which we compete, if we are unable to protect our proprietary rights to the totality of the features (including aspects of products protected other than by patent rights) in a market, we may find ourselves at a competitive disadvantage to others who need not incur the substantial expense, time, and effort required to create innovative products that have enabled us to be successful.
We may be found to infringe on intellectual property rights of others.
Third parties, including customers, have in the past and may in the future assert claims or initiate litigation related to exclusive patent, copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property rights to technologies and related standards that are relevant to us. These assertions have increased over time as a result of our growth and the general increase in the pace of patent claims assertions, particularly in the United States. Because of the existence of a large number of patents in the information technology field, the secrecy of some pending patents, and the rapid rate of issuance of new patents, it is not economically practical or even possible to determine in advance whether a product or any of its components infringes or will infringe on the patent rights of others. The asserted claims and/or initiated litigation can include claims against us or our manufacturers, suppliers, or customers, alleging infringement of their proprietary rights with respect to our existing or future products or components of those products. Regardless of the merit of these claims, they can be time-consuming, result in costly litigation and diversion of technical and management personnel, or require us to develop a non-infringing technology or enter into license agreements. Where claims are made by customers, resistance even to unmeritorious claims could damage customer relationships. There can be no assurance that licenses will be available on acceptable terms and conditions, if at all, or that our indemnification by our suppliers will be adequate to cover our costs if a claim were brought directly against us or our customers. Furthermore, because of the potential for high court awards, including injunctive relief, that are not necessarily predictable, it is not unusual to find even arguably unmeritorious claims settled for significant amounts. If any infringement or other intellectual property claim made against us by any third party is successful, if we are required to indemnify a customer with respect to a claim against the customer, or if we fail to develop non-infringing technology or license the proprietary rights on commercially reasonable terms and conditions, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be materially harmed. For additional information regarding our indemnification obligations, see Note 14(e) to the Consolidated Financial Statements contained in this report. Our exposure to risks associated with the use of intellectual property may be increased as a result of acquisitions, as we have a lower level of visibility into the development process with respect to such technology or the care taken to safeguard against infringement risks. Further, in the past, third parties have made infringement and similar claims after we have acquired technology that had not been asserted prior to our acquisition.
We rely on the availability of third-party licenses.
Many of our commercial offerings are designed to include software or other intellectual property licensed from third parties. It may be necessary in the future to seek or renew licenses relating to various aspects of these products. There can be no assurance that the necessary licenses would be available on acceptable terms, if at all. The inability to obtain certain licenses or other rights or to obtain such licenses or rights on favorable terms, or the need to engage in litigation regarding these matters, could materially harm our business, operating results, and financial condition. Moreover, the inclusion in our commercial offerings of software or other intellectual property licensed from third parties on a nonexclusive basis could limit our ability to protect our proprietary rights in our products.
Risks Related to Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Regulatory Requirements
Cyber attacks, data breaches or other incidents impacting our solutions and IT environment may disrupt our operations, harm our operating results and financial condition, and damage our reputation or otherwise materially harm our business; and cyber attacks, data breaches or other incidents on our customers’ or third-party providers’ networks, or in third-party products we use, could result in claims of liability against us, give rise to legal and/or regulatory action, damage our reputation or otherwise materially harm our business.
We experience cyber attacks and other attempts to gain unauthorized access on a regular basis to (i) our products and services (together, our “solutions”) and (ii) the servers, data centers, networks, systems, and cloud-based services operated or enabled by us, or by third parties upon which we rely, on or through which our and third-party data are stored, processed, or can be
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