Here’s a list of 10 possible “Ciscos” for the emerging AI era — companies that are (or could be) to AI infrastructure what Cisco was to the Internet: the backbone builders, the connective tissue, the enablers of scale.
🧠10 Possible "AI-Era Ciscos" (Infra Giants in the Making)
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NVIDIA
Why: Already the GPU kingpin. But it's now expanding into networking (e.g., Mellanox), AI cloud infra, and full-stack AI systems. Becoming the "hardware+software fabric" of the AI age. -
TSMC
Why: The invisible foundation of AI — fabs that make the chips. If NVIDIA is the architect, TSMC is the builder. As AI demand grows, TSMC becomes more geopolitically and economically critical. -
AMD
Why: Rising challenger to NVIDIA, with competitive AI and data center chips (like MI300). May power alternative AI infrastructure providers looking to avoid Nvidia lock-in. -
Broadcom
Why: Quietly dominates custom silicon, networking chips, and infrastructure software. Their tech powers AI data centers even if they’re not front-and-center. -
Arista Networks
Why: Modern data center networking, low-latency fabrics, and AI cluster connectivity. Like Cisco in the 90s — building the roads for AI traffic. -
Lambda Labs
Why: The "DIY NVIDIA stack" for startups and mid-size orgs. Affordable AI servers, cloud GPU access, and full-stack ML infra. Positioning itself as the dev-friendly infra layer. -
CoreWeave
Why: Ex-GPU crypto miner turned AI cloud. One of the fastest-scaling alternatives to AWS for AI workloads. Building infra-as-a-service for inference and training at scale. -
Graphcore (or another chip startup)
Why: Betting on novel compute paradigms. If they crack the "post-GPU" architecture (e.g., IPUs, TPUs), they could be the dark horse Cisco of new AI hardware. -
Celestial AI / Lightmatter / Ayar Labs
Why: Optical and photonic interconnects — essential for scaling AI clusters beyond today's thermal/electrical limits. Could power the next-generation AI data highways. -
Anthropic / OpenAI Infra Division
Why: Building internal, vertically integrated superclusters (custom racks, interconnects, scheduling). Their infra efforts may birth the AWS of AGI — or be spun out into infra-first giants.
🚀 Bonus Mentions
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Amazon / Microsoft / Google (Infra Arms) – They’re still the cloud backbones, increasingly offering custom AI infra (e.g., Trainium, Azure Maia, Google TPUv5).
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SiFive / RISC-V startups – Open hardware standards may drive new AI infra designed from the ground up.
It is almost like watching the early internet. the vision was clear, but the dial-up speeds and frequent disconnects were the reality. we are at that similar inflection point for AI, waiting for the superhighways to catch up.
— Godwin Osama, PMP (@OsamaGodwin) June 6, 2025
Using it at 7am UK time solves that issue. The models in Cursor are extremely reliable, smarter and never run into limits. Wait for the US to wake up and after 2pm everything throttles hard for me
— Mik (@needtofilm) June 6, 2025
So early it hurts. Feels like we’re driving a Ferrari on gravel roads crazy potential, but the tooling and infra just aren’t there yet. Exciting and wildly frustrating at the same time.
— Saad Ships AI (@saad_ships_Ai) June 6, 2025
10 Possible "AI-Era Ciscos" (Infra Giants in the Making) https://t.co/cAZ4yV2vwW
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) June 6, 2025
totally. hit limits on claude and gemini 2 days ago and had to apply for upgrade
— ctmakes (@ctmakes) June 6, 2025
I am not working on AI infrastructure, but massive social infrastructure. You should look into this: https://t.co/ZCi1DP8SSD
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) June 6, 2025
No. There will be no such gap years.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) June 6, 2025
What does Chroma do?
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) June 6, 2025
You found me. This is just 1/3rd of the idea. The rest is semi-stealth. https://t.co/ZCi1DP8SSD Let's talk.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) June 6, 2025
Looking at this now: https://t.co/8rSAZpMorm I am raising 1M at a 10M valuation.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) June 6, 2025
Projection. 1M is 100M to 1B in less than 10 years. Conservative.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) June 6, 2025
I never bought into the anti-woke b.s. This is like from the Akbar Birbal story ..... "Cut the thief's leg." pic.twitter.com/MV6Rkc7gmW
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) June 6, 2025
https://t.co/kX1I9cFwDN I know Nihal and Reshama. Listening to this now. https://t.co/bjgkpoEpGY
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) June 6, 2025
Maybe AI isn’t going to replace therapists after all 🤔 pic.twitter.com/WSQzf5RdJL
— Nicholas Fabiano, MD (@NTFabiano) June 5, 2025
If your startup has made $1 from a happy paying customer you’ve done what 90% of startups never will. Please celebrate that and keep going
— Andrew Gazdecki (@agazdecki) June 6, 2025
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) June 6, 2025