The worldwide Ethernet switch market recorded $14,5-billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2025 (2Q25) – a 42,1% YoY increase – fueled by strong growth in the data centre portion of the market as hyperscalers and cloud service providers race to build infrastructure capacity for the AI era.
The total worldwide enterprise and service provider (SP) router market increased 12,5% YoY to $3,6-billion in 2Q25. 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
Booming growth rates in the data centre (DC) portion of the Ethernet switch market continued in 2Q25 as deployments of high-bandwidth, low-latency network infrastructure to support AI workloads accelerate. Growth of 71,6% YoY in 2Q25 in the DC segment of the Ethernet switch market builds on growth of 54,7% YoY a quarter earlier. Within the DC portion, Nvidia’s growth continued, with revenues increasing 647% YoY to $2,3-billion in the quarter, giving the company the highest share in the DC portion of the market at 25,9%.
Revenues in the DC segment of the Ethernet switch market are being driven by the highest-speed ports. Revenues for 800GbE switches rose 222,1% sequentially from the first to the second quarter of 2025, rising to make up 12,8% of the DC portion’s revenue in 2Q25. Revenues for 200/400 GbE switches deployed in the data centre rose 175,5% YoY in 2Q25 and now make up 49,5% of the DC segment’s revenues.
ODM (original device manufacturer) Direct sales continue to be a growing part of the data centre segment, rising 76,9% YoY in 2Q25 and comprising 19,6% of the DC segment’s revenues in the quarter.
The non-data centre (non-DC) segment – which includes Ethernet switches primarily used in enterprise campus and branch networks – increased 12,5% YoY in 2Q25. 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. In the non-DC segment, 1GbE switch revenue – which makes up more than half of the non-DC market segment’s revenues – rose 11,3% in 2Q25. 25/50GbE switching showed solid growth in the non-DC segment, rising 27,5% YoY.
From a geographic perspective, in the Americas the total Ethernet switch market increased 56,8% YoY, driven by an increase in the DC portion of the market of 90,2% in the US. In the Europe, Middle East & Africa region (EMEA), the total Ethernet switch market increased 33,8% YoY while in the Asia Pacific region, the market increased 24% YoY.
“The AI era is fueling robust growth in the Ethernet switch market, predominantly in the data centre segment where hyperscalers, services providers, and enterprises race to build connectivity infrastructure to power AI workloads,” says Brandon Butler, senior research manager, Enterprise Networks at IDC. “Meanwhile, the non-data centre Ethernet switch market’s continued growth is driven by increased investments in campus and branch network capacity as enterprises look to take advantage of AI-powered management capabilities and prepare their networks for AI workloads.”
Router market highlights
The service provider segment of the router market, which includes both communications SPs and cloud SPs, made up 73,2% of the total router market in 2Q25 and increased 13,8% YoY in 2Q25. The enterprise segment accounts for the remaining balance of the market and rose 9,1% YoY in 2Q25. From a regional perspective, the total router market in the Americas rose 24,5% YoY; the market declined 1% YoY in the EMEA region; and grew 11,4% YoY in the Asia Pacific region.
Vendor highlights
Cisco’s total Ethernet switch revenues increased 12,3% YoY in 2Q25 to reach almost $4-billion, giving the company share of 27,3%. Revenues in the non-DC segment – which make up 68,3% of Cisco’s total Ethernet switch revenue – increased 13,8% YoY. In the DC segment, revenues rose 9,1% YoY. Cisco’s total router revenue increased 17,7% YoY in 2Q25, giving the company market share of 32,9%.
Arista Networks’ Ethernet switch revenues – 90,7% of which are in the DC segment – increased 33,5% YoY in 2Q25 to $1,8-billion, giving the company 12,6% market share for the total Ethernet switch market and 18,9% share in the DC segment of the market.
Nvidia’s Ethernet switch revenues, which are 100% in the DC segment, skyrocketed 647% YoY to reach $2,3-billion. Nvidia holds 15,7% share in the total Ethernet switching market and 25,9% share in the DC segment of the market.
Huawei’s total Ethernet switch revenue declined 2% YoY in 2Q25 to $1,2-billion, giving the company a market share of 8,3%. Huawei’s router revenue increased 13,3% in 2Q25, giving the company 30,6% market share.
HPE Aruba Networking‘s total Ethernet switch revenue – 84,9% of which are in the non-DC segment – increased 9,9% YoY, giving the company 4,7% market share in 2Q25.