Ethernet More Than Doubles Size of InfiniBand as the Leading Fabric for AI Scale-Out Networks in 2025, According to Dell’Oro Group

Written by Sameh Boujelbene

NVIDIA and Celestica Lead Ethernet Switch Sales in AI Clusters with Nearly 50 Percent Combined Share

 

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – March 10, 2026 – According to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the telecommunications, security, networks, and data center industries, Ethernet switch sales in AI back-end networks more than tripled and accounted for more than two-thirds of data center switch sales in AI clusters during the fourth quarter of 2025 and for the full year.

“The growing size of AI clusters, combined with ongoing supply chain constraints, is driving the need for vendor diversity and therefore for Ethernet,” said Sameh Boujelbene, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, and xAI are all adopting Ethernet. Although InfiniBand continues to grow, Ethernet is expanding at a much faster pace.”

“The Ethernet vendor landscape in AI back-end networks remains highly competitive. In 2025, Celestica and NVIDIA led the market with a combined 50 percent share. Arista ranked third, despite a significant portion of its AI-related product revenue being deferred. Cisco has also started to accelerate its switch shipments in AI back-end networks with large hyperscalers. HPE/Juniper scored new accounts. Meanwhile, other new entrants are actively pursuing this opportunity. We expect the increasing need for vendor diversity at both the chip and system levels to drive continued share shifts and keep this market highly dynamic,” added Boujelbene.

Additional highlights from the 4Q 2025 Data Center Switch – AI Back-end Networks Report:

  • 800 Gbps switches accounted for the vast majority of the Ethernet switch shipments and revenues in AI back-end networks during the quarter.
  • 1600 Gbps is expected to begin shipping in the second half of 2026 and drive significant revenue growth as well as share shifts.

 

About the Report

Dell’Oro Group’s Data Center Switch – AI Back-end Networks Quarterly Report provides an in-depth look at switches deployed in AI back-end networks to connect accelerated servers. The report contains in-depth market and vendor-level information on manufacturers’ revenue; ports shipped; average selling prices for both Modular and Fixed Managed and Unmanaged Ethernet Switches for speeds ranging from ≤100 Gbps up to ≥3.2 Tbps. It also covers revenue split by various regions and various customers segments — Top 4 US Cloud providers, Top 3 China Cloud providers,  Neocloud, Rest of Cloud, Large Enterprises, and Rest of Enterprises. For more information about the report, please contact us at dgsales@delloro.com.

About Dell’Oro Group

Dell’Oro Group is a market research firm that specializes in strategic competitive analysis in the telecommunications, security, enterprise networks, and data center infrastructure markets. Our firm provides in-depth quantitative data and qualitative analysis to facilitate critical, fact-based business decisions. For more information, contact Dell’Oro Group at +1.650.622.9400 or visit https://www.delloro.com.

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About the Author

Sameh Boujelbene

Vice President

Sameh Boujelbene joined Dell’Oro Group in 2011 and is responsible for the Ethernet Data Center Switch market research. To ensure the Data Center Switch market research captured the impact from AI and ML workloads, she authored an Advanced Research Report

Sameh Boujelbene

Vice President

Sameh Boujelbene joined Dell’Oro Group in 2011 and is responsible for the Ethernet Data Center Switch market research. To ensure the Data Center Switch market research captured the impact from AI and ML workloads, she authored an Advanced Research Report

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