The worldwide Ethernet switch market recorded $11,7-billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2025 (1Q25) – a 32,3% YoY increase – fueled by strong growth in the datacentre portion of the market as hyperscalers and cloud service providers build out infrastructure capacity for the AI era.
The total worldwide enterprise and service provider (SP) router market increased 5,9% YoY to $3,4-billion in 1Q25. These findings are detailed in the latest editions of the International Data Corporation (IDC) Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and IDC Quarterly Router Tracker.
Ethernet Switch market highlights
The datacentre (DC) portion of the Ethernet switch market is booming as deployments of high-bandwidth, low-latency network infrastructure to support AI workloads accelerates. Revenues in the DC portion of the Ethernet switch market increased 54,7% YoY in 1Q25, which builds on growth of 32,1% YoY in the fourth quarter of 2024. Revenues in the DC segment for 200/400 GbE switches rose 189,7% YoY in 1Q25. IDC began tracking 800 GbE in 1Q25, showing revenues of $350,8-million, and making up 5,1% of market revenues. ODM (original device manufacturer) Direct sales continue to be a growing part of the datacentre segment, rising 67,5% YoY in 4Q24, and comprising 20,6% of the segment’s revenues in the quarter.
The non-datacentre (non-DC) segment, which includes Ethernet switches primarily used in enterprise campus and branch networks, increased 9,6% YoY in 1Q25. Supply and demand dynamics in the non-DC Ethernet switch market continue to stabilise after two years of growth rate volatility driven by the Covid-19-era global supply chain crisis. 1GbE switch revenue, which makes up more than half of the non-DC market segment’s revenues, rose 7,2% in 1Q25.
From a geographic perspective, in the Americas the total Ethernet switch market increased 43,7% YoY, driven by the DC portion of the market increased 66% in the US and the non-DC segment growing 17,4% in the US. In the Europe, Middle East & Africa region (EMEA), the total Ethernet switch market increased 19,5% YoY while in the Asia Pacific region, the market increased 22,7% YoY.
“A seemingly insatiable demand for infrastructure to power AI workloads, including high-speed Ethernet switches, has produced a renaissance in the datacentre Ethernet switching market and led to robust growth rates,” says Brandon Butler, senior research manager, Enterprise Networks at IDC. “Meanwhile, the non-datacentre Ethernet switch market’s return to growth is driven by increased investments in campus and branch network capacity and enterprises looking to take advantage of advanced AI-powered management capabilities.”
Router market highlights
The service provider segment of the router market – which includes both communications SPs and cloud SPs – made up 75,7% of the total router market in 1Q25 and increased 5,8% YoY in 1Q25. The enterprise segment accounts for the remaining balance of the market and rose 6% YoY in 1Q25. From a regional perspective, the total router market in the Americas rose 8,1% YoY; the market increased 6,2% YoY in the Asia Pacific region; and grew 2,6% YoY in EMEA.
Vendor highlights
Cisco’s total Ethernet switch revenues increased 4,7% YoY in 1Q25 to reach $3,6-billion, giving the company share of 30,9%. Revenues in the non-DC segment – which make up 65,7% of Cisco’s total Ethernet switch revenue – increased 9,3% YoY. In the DC segment, revenues declined 3,2% YoY. Cisco’s combined total router revenue declined 2,5% YoY in 1Q25, giving the company market share of 31,9%.
Arista Networks’ Ethernet switch revenues, 90,9% of which are in the DC segment, increased 27,1% YoY in 1Q25 to $1,6-billion, giving the company 13,9% market share for the total Ethernet switch market and 21,5% share in the DC segment of the market.
Nvidia’s Ethernet switch revenues, which are 100% in the DC segment, increased an eye-popping 760,3% YoY to reach $1,46-billion; the company’s DC Ethernet switch revenue increased 183,7% from 4Q24 to 1Q25 fueled by the company’s Spectrum X Ethernet switching platform. Nvidia holds 12,4% share in the total Ethernet switching market and 21,2% share in the DC segment of the market.
Huawei’s total Ethernet switch revenue increased 15,4% YoY in 1Q25 to reach $704-million, giving the company a market share of 6%. Huawei’s router revenue increased 12% in 1Q25, giving the company 28,4% market share.
HPE Aruba Networking’s total Ethernet switch revenue, 84,5% of which are in the non-DC segment, declined 0,5% YoY in 1Q24, giving the company 5% market share in 1Q25.