Nvidia's $6.9 billion side bet just paid off in a big way
Key takeaways
- Jensen Huang was buying GPUs, building the chip story, and a networking company felt like a rounding error next to that.
- Nvidia (NVDA) passed Cisco in data center Ethernet switching revenue for the first quarter of 2026, the first time that's happened.
- Nvidia's switching revenue grew 192.7% year over year to $2.1 billion, good for a 21.5% share of a data center segment that itself grew 61% to $10 billion.
Nvidia's $6.9 billion side bet just paid off in a big way Hillary Remy Sat, June 20, 2026 at 12:33 AM GMT+7 5 min read NVDA CSCO Back in 2020, Nvidia dropped $6.9 billion on a company most people had never heard of, Mellanox, an Israeli outfit that made networking switches and adapters.
At the time, it barely registered. Jensen Huang was buying GPUs, building the chip story, and a networking company felt like a rounding error next to that. Six years on, the rounding error just beat Cisco.
Nvidia (NVDA) passed Cisco in data center Ethernet switching revenue for the first quarter of 2026, the first time that's happened. Not a small corner of Cisco's business either; it's the category Cisco basically built. Seeking Alpha reported the figures, pulled from IDC's latest tracker.