Arista Networks sees no impact from Trump tariffs, to invest $1 bn in India

Time of India

a day ago

NEW DELHI: US-based
Arista Networks
said it sees no immediate impact from the Donald Trump-led administration's tariffs, and would invest $1 billion in India towards domestic manufacturing and increasing local hiring.
With this, Arista joins European vendors
Nokia
and
Ericsson
, which already make various equipment, including 5G radio and antenna, in India.
'We are not impacted by the tariffs, even in the US. However, we have manufacturing facilities in the Americas, and India is also one of them. The impact of tariffs is uncertain. But if we can manufacture in India and supply domestically, then our goal would be to get the least cost products to our customers globally,'
Ashwin Kohli
, chief customer officer, Arista Networks, told
ETTelecom
.
The US government had originally imposed 25% tariffs on India, with the additional 25% set to become effective from August 27, owing to an ongoing Section 232 investigation by the US Commerce Department as mandated under the Trade Expansion Act, 1962. It is expected to impact various sectors, including electronics, automobile parts, jewellery exporters and others, while the telecom sector has been largely kept out of the purview of tariffs.
Kohli, however, said, 'In the last 10-11 years, we have already invested almost $1 billion in India, and we actively consider acquisitions. Moving forward, we are going to invest probably another $1 billion in the next four to five years as well.'
The top executive said Arista is extensively investing in its manufacturing partners to support them with training, technology, and capability development while enabling them to hire more personnel locally to scale their business and contribute to the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' (self-reliant India) vision.
'We have continued to expand our presence across all major regions in India, with strong hubs in Bengaluru, Pune, and Chennai. This includes software and hardware engineering,' he stated.
The Santa Clara-headquartered vendor has tied up with contract manufacturers Sanmina and VVDN to produce campus equipment and
data center
products, respectively. It is, however, also going to produce other equipment for consumption in India and in the broader Asia market.
'Our products are used in sectors such as data center, campus, routing,
AI
. So, we will manufacture data center and campus gear initially, and then we will manufacture for cloud and AI customers in India,' Kohli said. 'We are going to ship locally initially, and then we are hoping to ship equipment to all of Asia as well.
According to the company, part of the investments will also be directed toward research and development and software development.
'We are continuing to invest in job creation both at Arista across our engineering, TAC, sales and marketing teams, as well as our partners, including distributors, value-added resellers, and manufacturing partners,' the executive said.
Sameer Padhye
, vice president (global services & India sales), Arista Networks, said that the current total addressable market (TAM) for the vendor in India is $3.6-4 billion across LAN and telco equipment segments.
'The TAM is growing at about 11% year-on-year for us and will reach around $6 billion by the end of this decade. So, there is plenty of opportunity for us to grow, given the growth due to data center expansion, cloud, and AI,' Padhye said.