Delivers the resilient, open Ethernet foundations required to connect and scale massive, distributed AI factories
News Summary
SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit 2026, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) introduced new silicon, systems and optical innovations that advance open AI infrastructure from rack-scale compute to distributed AI capacity. Together, the announcements demonstrate how Cisco is engineering the network as a coherent, programmable architecture while preserving the openness and choice customers expect in the super intelligence era. The new capabilities deepen Cisco's continued commitment to deliver an open stack from silicon to Kubernetes, required to connect the AI foundations for hyperscalers, neoclouds and enterprises. Strong market adoption validates Cisco's leadership and underscores deep customer trust as demand for AI compute capacity rapidly accelerates.
"AI is redefining what it means to scale infrastructure. It's no longer just about individual data centers or clusters, but how we connect compute at massive scale without compromising performance or resilience. Cisco's strength across silicon, networking, optics,systems and security puts us in a unique position to deliver the open infrastructure customers need as AI continues to evolve," said Kevin Wollenweber, SVP and General Manager of Data Center and Internet Infrastructure, Cisco.
"Scale-Across" Connects the World's AI Capacity
Scale-across extends coordinated AI workloads across facilities, building on traditional data center interconnect (DCI) technologies while introducing significantly different workload requirements. When accelerators across sites participate in the same coordinated job, congestion, latency and recovery can directly affect compute utilization and job progress. Cisco draws on its silicon, routing and optical networking leadership to address those requirements as one packet-to-optical architecture.
Cisco's scale-across architecture brings together Silicon One P200, deep-buffered systems and coherent optics to connect AI fabrics across locations to act as a unified cluster. It provides customers a single, unified compute fabric enabled by the performance, deep programmability and embedded security of the Silicon One architecture. Cisco is the first in the industry to announce its 51.2T systems, powered by the Silicon One P200, are deployed in a production environment by leading hyperscalers.
"Microsoft and Cisco share a longstanding partnership rooted in engineering collaboration and innovation. We are pleased to announce that today, Microsoft has moved into production on systems powered by the Cisco Silicon One P200. As our infrastructure demands grow, the P200's robust architecture provides the speed and enhanced buffering capabilities necessary to address the increasing scale of our cloud and high-performance services. This milestone reflects the next stage in our long-term collaboration, ensuring we continue to deliver the performance and reliability required for the modern digital era," said Anand Ramakrishna, Corporate Vice President, Engineering, Microsoft.
"Alibaba is proud to announce a major milestone for our next-generation backbone network, eCORE. We have deployed our in-house Quantum Cat router at massive scale, powered by the Cisco Silicon One P200. These routers bring 51.2 Tbps of routing capacity to our infrastructure. They feature a fully shared deep-buffer architecture, high programmability, and excellent power efficiency. This setup provides the exact performance and scale needed for today's heavy cloud and AI workloads. We paired Cisco's silicon with Alibaba's custom systems and the SONiC operating system. This combination proves the true value of open networking. It delivers the flexibility and operational power required for some of the world's most demanding networks. We look forward to deepening our work with Cisco, the Open Compute Project (OCP), and the SONiC community. Together, we will continue to advance open, high-performance networking for the AI era," said Dennis Cai, Vice President, Head of Network Infrastructure, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group
Scaling AI from Rack to Fabric for the 1.6T Era
Inside the data center, AI scale is driving the same need for greater bandwidth, density and power efficiency across silicon, systems and optics. To meet the radical bandwidth requirements of the next generation of AI, Cisco's Silicon One portfolio is delivering the next level of network performance designed for massive AI scale. As a member of OCP's ESUN, Cisco is committed to advancing open, interoperable, high-performance AI networking at scale and collaborating actively with ESUN on the 1.0 and future specifications for scale-up workloads.
Announced earlier this year, the 102.4T Silicon One G300 is now available for customer sampling, and the first G300-powered systems are currently shipping to customers. Cisco is also expanding the Silicon One portfolio with the first 51.2T switching silicon with 200G SerDes designed for top-of-rack (ToR) deployments. The new Silicon One G302 delivers 51.2T capacity and features Cisco 1.6T optics and direct-to-chip liquid cooling integration to drive efficiency gains. The G302 is built to power ToR switch systems, which sit at the rack level and gather traffic from servers and connect it efficiently to the larger data center network. This optimizes how servers are linked and integrated, delivering unprecedented front-end scale, density, and throughput for hyperscalers. The G302 is planned to begin shipping to customers before the end of 2026.
Cisco and NVIDIA Introduce New Pluggable Optics
Together with NVIDIA, Cisco also unveiled plans to develop the Ultra-Dense Small Form Factor Pluggable (USFP), a new high density 400Gb/s-per-lane capable optical module. Compared to other approaches to increasing the bandwidth of optical modules, USFP relies on a proven operating model to scale to 400Gb/s-per-lane. USFP is expected to deliver 4x the bandwidth density and 1.3x the power efficiency of 200Gb/s-per-lane optics, improving the efficiency and scalability of AI factories without sacrificing serviceability, deployment flexibility or the operational simplicity of today's pluggable optics. To drive broad industry engagement and adoption, Cisco and NVIDIA plan to create an open industry specification for USFP through an upcoming community-led multi-source project.
Expanding Secure AI Networking
SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) is the open-source operating system that forms the foundation of many hyperscaler and now neoclouds, service providers and enterprise deployments, across the AI builder ecosystem. Cisco customers can adopt Cisco-validated SONiC with Nexus One, a next generation data center architecture, embracing an open approach for multi-site to rack-scale environments. This support will be extended with Live Protect for customers starting mid-year 2027. Utilizing Cisco runtime technology, Live Protect reduces the exposure customers would typically face between a vulnerability disclosure and a patch on supported Cisco products and releases. Live Protect will give Cisco SONiC customers time to test and deploy the permanent software fix without disrupting operations.
Control and Recovery at AI Scale
Out-of-band management systems form a network operators rely on to provide remote access even when the production network is down, allowing for fixes during a blackout or cyber incident. But at AI scale, out-of-band management systems can become a patchwork of legacy systems, tools and proprietary interfaces, making thousands of GPU nodes harder to manage and fix. The Cisco 8001, a new Silicon One A100-powered management system available as 10G or 1G , solves this challenge by upgrading performance and bringing SONiC to this critical network. Operators can use familiar APIs, automation and operating practices from the fabric to the rack, without building and maintaining a separate management environment. Customers can now deploy a simpler, programmable management network that scales with AI infrastructure, and remains available when it is needed most.
Cisco Silicon One: The Industry's Most Scalable and Programmable Unified Networking Architecture
Cisco Silicon One is the industry's most scalable and programmable unified networking architecture, offering a complete portfolio of networking devices across AI, hyperscaler, data center, enterprise, and service provider use cases. Introduced in 2019, Cisco Silicon One is playing critical roles in major networks around the world. With today's innovations, Silicon One proves its ability to scale from 100G to 100T with a single, unified silicon architecture.
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About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that is revolutionizing the way organizations connect and protect in the AI era. For more than 40 years, Cisco has securely connected the world. With its industry leading AI-powered solutions and services, Cisco enables its customers, partners and communities to unlock innovation, enhance productivity and strengthen digital resilience. With purpose at its core, Cisco remains committed to creating a more connected and inclusive future for all. Discover more on The Newsroom and follow us on X at @Cisco.
Disclaimer: Some products or features described may be in various stages of development and offered on a when-and-if available basis. Cisco reserves the right to change delivery timelines and will have no liability for any delays or failures to deliver.
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Der hessische Ministerpräsident Boris Rhein (CDU) hat eine Neujustierung des Umgangs mit der AfD im Bundestag gefordert und damit eine innerparteiliche wie parlamentarische Grundsatzdebatte angestoßen. In einem Interview mit dem Magazin „Stern“ plädierte der CDU-Politiker dafür, der AfD die ihr nach dem üblichen Verteilungsschlüssel zustehenden Vorsitzendenposten in den Fachausschüssen des Bundestags nicht länger zu verwehren. „Die Partei ist gewählt, und so sollte man mit ihr auch umgehen“, sagte Rhein und verwies darauf, dass die AfD im hessischen Landtag und in anderen Länderparlamenten bereits Ausschussvorsitze innehat.
Im Bundestag verfügt die AfD wie die anderen Fraktionen über ein Vorschlagsrecht für bestimmte Ausschussvorsitze. Bisher scheiterte sie jedoch regelmäßig daran, dass ihre Kandidatinnen und Kandidaten bei den Wahlen in den Ausschüssen nicht die Unterstützung der Abgeordneten der übrigen Parteien erhielten und damit die nötigen Mehrheiten verfehlten. Eine Klage der AfD-Bundestagsfraktion vor dem Bundesverfassungsgericht blieb im September 2024 ohne Erfolg; Karlsruhe sah keinen Anlass, in das Verfahren der Ausschussbesetzungen einzugreifen. Politisch aber gewinnt die Frage durch Rheins Vorstoß neue Brisanz.
Rhein grenzt sich zugleich von einer inhaltlichen Annäherung an die AfD ab und lehnt ein Verbotsverfahren gegen die Partei ab. Er halte das vielzitierte Bild einer „Brandmauer“ für falsch, betonte der CDU-Landeschef. Für die Union gelte: „Wir grenzen uns klar von der AfD ab, aber wir grenzen die Partei nicht aus.“ Das müsse sich auch in der Parlamentsarbeit widerspiegeln. Anstelle juristischer Schritte warb Rhein dafür, die AfD politisch zu stellen: Die CDU müsse den Wählerinnen und Wählern „ein besseres Angebot machen“ und die „Deutungshoheit über die Alltagsfragen“ zurückgewinnen. Eine Zusammenarbeit mit der AfD setze aus seiner Sicht eine „Politik der klaren roten Linien“ voraus.
Die AfD bewertet die Äußerungen des hessischen Regierungschefs als Signal eines sich abzeichnenden Kurswechsels in der Union. Der Parlamentarische Geschäftsführer der AfD-Bundestagsfraktion, Bernd Baumann, sprach gegenüber der Nachrichtenagentur AFP von einem „überfälligen“ Schritt und einem Zeichen für ein „generelles Umdenken in der CDU“. Die Forderung nach Ausschussvorsitzen sei „nur der erste Schritt – weitere werden folgen“, prognostizierte Baumann. Angesichts jüngster Wahlergebnisse sehe er die Union unter Druck, ihre bisherige Ausgrenzungsstrategie zu überdenken. Koalitionsfraktionen im Bundestag wiesen einen von Rhein geforderten Kurswechsel allerdings zurück und halten bislang an der Linie fest, AfD-Kandidaten für Ausschussvorsitze nicht zu unterstützen.
In den Fachausschüssen des Bundestags wird ein Großteil der inhaltlichen Gesetzgebungsarbeit vorbereitet. Die Vorsitzenden spielen eine zentrale Rolle bei der Organisation der Beratungen und der Tagesordnungsgestaltung. Die Verteilung dieser Schlüsselpositionen erfolgt nach einem festgelegten Schlüssel zwischen den Fraktionen, doch bleibt die tatsächliche Besetzung an die Wahl durch die Ausschussmitglieder gebunden. Vor diesem Hintergrund berührt die von Rhein angestoßene Debatte nicht nur die Machtbalance zwischen den Fraktionen, sondern auch die Frage, wie das Parlament mit Parteien umgeht, die zwar demokratisch gewählt sind, von großen Teilen des Hauses aber weiterhin klar abgelehnt werden.
