Cisco Cuts 7% Of Workforce As It Shifts Focus To AI, Cybersecurity

Cisco Systems is planning to lay off 7% of its employees, its second round of job cuts this year, as the company shifts its focus to more rapidly growing areas in technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity, Barbara Ortutay reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Cisco’s layoffs come just two weeks after chipmaker Intel Corp. announced it would cut about 15,000 jobs. I Photo: Diesmer Ponstein Flickr

The company, based in San Jose, California, did not specify the exact number of jobs it is cutting. Cisco had 84,900 employees as of July 2023, so the number of jobs cut would be about 5,900.

In February, Cisco announced it would cut about 4,000 jobs.

The networking equipment maker said in June that it would invest $1 billion in tech startups like Cohere, Mistral, and Scale to develop reliable AI products. It also recently announced a partnership with Nvidia to develop infrastructure for AI systems.

Cisco’s layoffs come just two weeks after chipmaker Intel Corp. announced it would cut about 15,000 jobs as it tries to turn its business around to compete with more successful rivals like Nvidia and AMD.

Intel’s quarterly earnings report disappointed investors, and its stock took a nosedive following the announcement.

In contrast, Cisco’s shares were up about 6% after-hours at one point last week. In a foray into cybersecurity, Cisco launched a cybersecurity readiness index back in March to help businesses measure their resilience against attacks.