Cisco's AI Infrastructure Push Reaches $9.3B in Orders, Says Chief Product Officer

Cisco President and Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel sat down with Y Combinator's Jared Friedman to discuss the company's shift toward AI infrastructure. Cisco's hyperscaler AI business has generated $9.3 billion in orders over two years, driven by demand for networking, GPU clusters, and agent security.

Patel emphasized that Cisco is bringing startup-style speed and innovation to its 32,000-person engineering organization. Rather than using AI primarily to cut costs, he argued the technology should unlock new ideas and capabilities. On infrastructure, Patel expressed confidence that data center buildout is justified by genuine demand, not overbuilding.

The conversation also covered how Cisco is adapting its hardware and silicon strategy for AI workloads, the infrastructure AI agents require, and building trust in autonomous systems. Patel shared career advice on prioritizing learning over ego.