Cisco is cutting nearly 4,000 people today. Not because the company is struggling — it just posted $15.84 billion in quarterly revenue, beating Wall Street expectations, and projected as much as $16.9 billion for next quarter. Not because demand is softening — Cisco now expects $9 billion in orders from data center customers this fiscal year, nearly double the $5 billion it projected just months ago. CEO Chuck Robbins called it a “networking supercycle.” The stock surged toward its strongest single day in over a decade.
And still — 4,000 people got a notice today.
The restructuring will cost Cisco up to $1 billion, with $450 million hitting the books this quarter alone. The company says it’s redirecting investment into silicon, optics, security, and AI capabilities. Employees receiving notices today will get pro-rated bonuses, severance, and access to job placement services.
What makes this moment worth paying attention to isn’t Cisco specifically. It’s the pattern. Oracle cut 30,000 people on record revenue. LinkedIn cut 875 on record revenue. Now Cisco cuts 4,000 on record revenue. The message from Big Tech in 2026 is consistent: the numbers have never been better, and that’s exactly why we can afford to do this. The AI buildout doesn’t pause for the people who built what got us here.
By some counts, the tech sector has now shed more than 100,000 jobs this year — roughly 880 every single day. Tomorrow we go deeper on Oracle. But today, it’s worth sitting with the fact that Cisco’s best quarter in years and its largest layoff of the year are the same announcement.