The networking industry loves inflection points. Over the years, we have had many new compute models that require the network to evolve. For as long as I can remember, the holy war between InfiniBand and Ethernet was fought on a relatively simple battlefield: throughput versus ubiquity. But as artificial intelligence workloads scale from tens of thousands of processors to massive clusters approaching the million-graphics-processing-unit mark, the network is fundamentally changing. It is no longer just a standalone infrastructure layer; it has become the critical backplane of a tightly integrated AI supersystem.

Read More About
The AI supersystem shift: Why Arista’s 1.6T announcement is an Ethernet inflection point

At Cisco Systems Inc.‘s annual event, Cisco Live, this week in Las Vegas, it was no surprise that artificial intelligence was the top theme of the show and dominated most of the news and product innovations announced. Cisco has been successful in riding the AI wave and using it as a growth engine. Over the past year, revenue and profits have grown, and the stock price has doubled. The company has accomplished this by positioning itself as “critical infrastructure for the AI era” and by revamping its entire product line to back that claim.

Read More About
Five takeaways from the Cisco Live keynotes

Startup Forward Inc. today rolled out Forward Predict, software that lets customers model the impact of network changes before changes go live. Rather than a routine feature update in a crowded artificial intelligence networking market, the move signals a broader shift in how networks should be designed, operated and trusted as AI becomes central to enterprise information technology.

Read More About
Move fast, break nothing: How Forward Predict brings CI/CD discipline to networking

Nvidia Corp.‘s latest networking innovations meet the needs of a new kind of network that supports the unique demands of artificial intelligence factories. Ethernet is no longer a generic plumbing choice but an enabler of high-performance AI. With today’s unveiling of Multipath Reliable Connection, or MRC, on Spectrum-X Ethernet, Nvidia is pushing Ethernet even deeper into AI-native territory — and doing so in partnership with OpenAI Group PBC and Microsoft Corp.

Read More About
Nvidia’s MRC: When ‘just Ethernet’ isn’t enough for gigascale AI

Extreme Networks Inc. used its Extreme Connect 2026 user conference this week to make a strong case that artificial intelligence-driven networking has finally arrived. Building on Platform ONE, the company rolled out a full-stack vision spanning new Wi-Fi 7 access points, enhanced fabric-ready switching and a second-generation artificial intelligence layer called Agent ONE, designed to act less like a chatbot and more like an operational co-worker for NetOps teams.

Read More About
Extreme Connect 2026: Agentic AI, Platform ONE and the next phase of enterprise networking