The aBP Weekly: Cisco Reminded the Market What the AI Trade Is Really About
- Felix Ouma
- May 16
- 5 min read
This week’s market story was not really about the Federal Reserve, inflation, or even oil. It was about Cisco.
For most of the last two years, the AI trade has revolved around the same handful of names. Nvidia became the face of the movement, while investors piled into semiconductors, hyperscalers, and anything directly tied to AI chips. But this week, Cisco reminded the market that the AI buildout is much bigger than GPUs alone. It also requires networking infrastructure, data flow, connectivity, and the physical systems that allow AI to function at scale.
That shift in focus mattered. Cisco surged after earnings and helped push the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to fresh highs, while reigniting broader enthusiasm around AI infrastructure spending. The move also helped revive interest in parts of the technology market that had been overshadowed by the biggest AI winners. According to Kiplinger, Cisco jumped more than 13% after reporting strong results and sharply raising its AI infrastructure order forecast.
