Cisco to lay off around 4,000 employees: Report

Thousands of Cisco employees will be affected by a new layoff round, which could be announced this week

Cisco will reportedly lay off around 4,000 employees in its second round of job cuts this year as the world's largest networking company doubles down on artificial intelligence.

According to a report from Reuters, Cisco's new layoff round could affect around 4,000 employees or slightly more, which would be around the same number of employees Cisco laid off in February.

Reuters, which cited sources familiar with the matter, said the layoffs could be announced next week. Cisco is set to deliver its fourth quarter 2024 financial earnings results on August 14.

Cisco declined to comment on the matter when contacted.

The California-based networking giant employed about 85,000 people in July 2023. Following February's cut of about 4,250 employees, this would leave Cisco with just over 80,000 employees worldwide.

Cisco layoffs in 2024

In February, Cisco announced that it would conduct a companywide layoff round that would impact about five per cent of its workforce, totalling about 4,250 employees.

This was due to Cisco seeing "greater degrees of caution" related to product ordering during its fiscal Q2 in 2024, which lowered product revenues.

The tech giant confirmed it would be cutting jobs globally to adjust expenses and investments to reflect the current macro environment. Cisco at the time said it expects to recognise about $800m in charges associated with the restructuring, which was largely related to severance and other one-time termination benefits.

Cisco has been implementing many AI products into its portfolio with plans to drive $1bn worth of AI products orders in 2025.

Cisco launched a $1-bn fund to make investments in AI start-ups such as Cohere, Mistral AI and Scale AI.

Last week, Dell Technologies said it would be laying off employees in a restructuring efforts to become a "leaner company" for the AI era.