New Cisco CFO takes helm amid $2 billion in AI orders

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Good morning. Cisco Systems, long anchored in its networking hardware business—selling routers, switches, and other infrastructure products—has repositioned itself to meet surging enterprise demand for AI infrastructure. Its new chief financial officer, Mark Patterson, is now at the center of that strategy.
The San Jose–based communications giant (No. 83 on the Fortune 500) reported earnings on Wednesday for its fiscal fourth quarter and year that ended on July 26. AI infrastructure orders from webscale customers reached more than $800 million in Q4, bringing fiscal 2025's total to over $2 billion—more than double the $1 billion target first set in Q4 fiscal 2024.
Quarterly revenue came in at $14.7 billion, up 8% from a year earlier and slightly ahead of the $14.62 billion analysts expected.
'In Q4, revenue, gross margin and operating margin were at the high end of our guidance ranges, earnings per share was above the guidance range, and we delivered solid operating cash flow,' Patterson said on Wednesday's earnings call.
A 25-year Cisco veteran, Patterson became EVP and CFO on July 27, succeeding Scott Herren, who held the role since December 2020 and retired this summer. Herren is credited with helping shift Cisco's business mix toward software and recurring revenue.
In recent years, particularly since 2024, Cisco has made a strategic pivot to position itself as the networking backbone for AI infrastructure. In 2024, it closed its $28 billion all-cash acquisition of Splunk, a cybersecurity and analytics firm that uses AI and machine learning, and rolled out Hypershield, an AI-native system that embeds security into every software component and application running on networks, from servers to public and private clouds.
Over his long career at Cisco, Patterson has held leadership roles in finance, strategy, and operations, as well as more than a decade in sales covering every customer segment and geography. Most recently, he served as chief strategy officer before stepping into the CFO position.
'As I look ahead, we have significant opportunities—whether in AI infrastructure for the webscale space, the nascent but growing enterprise AI market, or the buildout of neo-clouds and sovereign AI,' Patterson said on Wednesday's earnings call, his first as CFO.
Strengthening cybersecurity through Splunk, advancing campus modernization, maintaining disciplined financing, and ensuring sustainable growth and shareholder value are also on his agenda.
'What I really want to do is make sure we're funded for success,' he said. 'You can expect that I will focus on durable, profitable growth.'
Maintaining momentum will be key to strategy as Cisco customers adopt agentic AI.
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com