Dell’Oro Group Reports Ethernet Extends Lead as AI Back-End Switch Sales Surpass Front-End in 2Q 2026

In 2Q 2026, switch sales for AI back-end networks surpassed front-end networks for the first time, while Ethernet extended its lead and helped ease supply constraints, according to Dell’Oro Group research.

Market shift in AI network spending

Dell’Oro Group reported that AI back-end network switch spending surpassed large front-end network spending within three years of back-end networks’ emergence. The firm said 2Q 2026 marked the first time back-end switch sales exceeded front-end switch sales.

Sameh Boujelbene, vice president at Dell’Oro Group, said spending growth in back-end networks outpaced front-end networks and that the overall market size increased in absolute terms. He also said supply availability will play an increasingly important role and that the market is expected to remain supply-constrained rather than demand-constrained for at least the next one-to-two years.

Ethernet performance and supply constraints

Dell’Oro Group said Ethernet further extended its lead in AI back-end networks during the quarter. The report linked Ethernet’s performance to mitigation of supply constraints.

Switch shipment and vendor highlights

Dell’Oro Group said Ethernet AI back-end sales were primarily dominated by scale-out and scale-across use cases, with scale-up use cases expected to emerge in the second half of the year. It also said 800 Gbps switches accounted for the vast majority of Ethernet switch shipments and revenues in AI back-end networks during the quarter.

The report stated that Celestica retained the leading position in Ethernet AI back-end switch sales, followed by NVIDIA and then Arista. It said Cisco gained the most share and ranked fourth, and that Arista would have been more closely tied if deferred AI revenue were included.

Bandwidth ramp expectations

Dell’Oro Group said 1.6 Tbps began sampling and is expected to ramp in the second half of 2026. The report framed this as part of changes across switch speeds used in AI back-end networks.

This Analyst Signals brief reflects a neutral, fact-based summary of the original research note.

Blog post, originally published at delloro.com.