Arista Networks is a leader in data-driven, client-to-cloud networking solutions for large data centers, campuses, and routing environments. The company specializes in delivering high availability, agility, automation, analytics, and security through its advanced network operating stack, with the Arista Extensible Operating System (EOS) at its core. Arista's product offerings are divided into three main categories: Core, Cognitive Adjacencies, and Network Software and Services, catering to a diverse customer base that includes large cloud customers, service providers, financial services, and government agencies .
- Core - Provides high-speed data center and cloud networking systems and AI Ethernet switching platforms, serving as the primary revenue driver.
- Cognitive Adjacencies - Offers campus wired and wireless products and advanced routing systems, enhancing connectivity and network performance.
- Network Software and Services - Delivers subscription-based solutions like CloudVision and advanced threat sensors, focusing on network management and security.
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| Name | Position | External Roles | Short Bio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jayshree Ullal ExecutiveBoard | President, CEO, and Chairperson of the Board | Board Member at Snowflake Inc. | Jayshree Ullal has been with ANET since October 2008, leading the company as CEO and President. She was appointed Chairperson of the Board in December 2023. Previously held leadership roles at Cisco. | View Report → |
Ashwin Kohli Executive | Chief Customer Officer (CCO) | None | Promoted to CCO in July 2024. Previously SVP of Customer Engineering. Focuses on customer satisfaction and AI networking solutions. | |
Chantelle Breithaupt Executive | Chief Financial Officer (CFO) | None | Joined ANET in January 2024 as SVP, Chief of Staff, and became CFO in February 2024. Previously CFO at Aspen Technology and held senior finance roles at Cisco and GE. | |
Chris Schmidt Executive | Chief Sales Officer | None | Promoted to Chief Sales Officer in July 2024. Previously SVP of Worldwide Sales. | |
John McCool Executive | Chief Platform Officer and SVP of Engineering and Operations | None | Joined ANET in March 2017. Leads hardware design, development, and manufacturing. Key contributor to AI and cloud networking product lines. | |
Kenneth Duda Executive | Chief Technology Officer and SVP of Software Engineering | None | Co-founder of ANET in 2004, Duda has been instrumental in software engineering and technological innovation at the company. | |
Marc Taxay Executive | SVP and General Counsel | None | Joined ANET in February 2013. Previously General Counsel at MedeAnalytics and Coremetrics. | |
Charles Giancarlo Board | Board Member | CEO and Chairman of Pure Storage; Board Member at Zscaler | Joined ANET's board in April 2013. Extensive experience in networking and cloud computing. | |
Daniel Scheinman Board | Board Member | Board Member at Zoom Video Communications and SentinelOne | Joined ANET's board in October 2011. Lead director at Zoom and SentinelOne. | |
Kelly Battles Board | Board Member | Board Member at DataStax, Genesys, Clari, and Alpha Medical | Joined ANET's board in July 2020. Chair of the Audit Committee. Former CFO at Quora and Alpha Medical. | |
Lewis Chew Board | Board Member | Board Member at Cadence Design Systems and Intuitive Surgical | Joined ANET's board in July 2021. Chair of the Audit Committee. Former CFO at Dolby Laboratories and National Semiconductor. | |
Mark B. Templeton Board | Board Member | Board Member at Nutanix, Inc. | Joined ANET's board in June 2017. Former CEO of Citrix Systems and DigitalOcean. | |
Yvonne Wassenaar Board | Board Member | Board Member at Forrester Research, JFrog, and Rubrik | Joined ANET's board in July 2022. Serves on the Audit and Nominating Committees. Former CEO of Puppet and Airware. |
- Your 2025 outlook assumes some gross margin declines; can you elaborate on what's underlying these expectations and how customer mix and potential 10%+ customers factor into this?
- Given the extended lead times for advanced semiconductors and your increased purchase commitments and on-hand inventory, how are you managing the risks of overstocking or obsolescence if AI deployments slow down?
- With the progress of your five major AI trials being uneven and one customer moving slower than expected, how do you plan to mitigate the risks associated with such concentration, and what steps are you taking to expand beyond these key customers?
- Considering the competitive landscape in AI networking, especially with NVIDIA's increased market share and offerings like Spectrum X, how do you plan to defend your position against competitors including NVIDIA, Cisco, Juniper, and Nokia?
- You mentioned that WiFi is currently your weakest area in campus networking; what specific strategies are you implementing to improve in this segment, and how will you address the lack of sales coverage to fully capitalize on enterprise opportunities?
Research analysts who have asked questions during Arista Networks earnings calls.
Aaron Rakers
Wells Fargo
4 questions for ANET
Amit Daryanani
Evercore
4 questions for ANET
Antoine Chkaiban
New Street Research
4 questions for ANET
Atif Malik
Citigroup Inc.
4 questions for ANET
Karl Ackerman
BNP Paribas
4 questions for ANET
Meta Marshall
Morgan Stanley
4 questions for ANET
Ryan Koontz
Needham & Company, LLC
4 questions for ANET
Samik Chatterjee
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
4 questions for ANET
Tal Liani
Bank of America
4 questions for ANET
Benjamin Reitzes
Melius Research
3 questions for ANET
David Vogt
UBS Group AG
3 questions for ANET
Michael Ng
Goldman Sachs
3 questions for ANET
Simon Leopold
Raymond James
3 questions for ANET
Benjamin Bollin
Cleveland Research Company
2 questions for ANET
James Fish
Piper Sandler Companies
2 questions for ANET
Matthew Niknam
Deutsche Bank
2 questions for ANET
Sebastien Cyrus Naji
William Blair & Company, L.L.C.
2 questions for ANET
George Notter
Jefferies
1 question for ANET
Sebastien Naji
William Blair
1 question for ANET
Timothy Long
Barclays
1 question for ANET
Competitors mentioned in the company's latest 10K filing.
| Company | Description |
|---|---|
The data center and campus networking markets have been historically dominated by this competitor, and it is also a competitor in the NDR market. It has acquired Acacia Communications and offers network security solutions. | |
This competitor provides GPUs and technologies like InfiniBand and NV Link, which compete with Ethernet for AI networking clusters. It is also a competitor in the data center and campus networking markets. | |
This competitor is mentioned as a provider of network equipment and systems in the data center and campus networking markets. | |
This competitor operates in the data center and campus networking markets and has acquired Force10 Networks. | |
This competitor is active in the data center and campus networking markets and has entered into an agreement to acquire Juniper Networks. | |
This competitor is mentioned in the data center and campus networking markets and is being acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. | |
This competitor has acquired VMware and is involved in cloud networking solutions. | |
DarkTrace | This competitor operates in the NDR market, providing network security solutions. |
ExtraHop | This competitor is mentioned in the NDR market, providing network security solutions. |
Gigamon | This competitor operates in the NPB market, competing with Arista DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF). |
This competitor is active in the NPB market, competing with Arista DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF). | |
This competitor is mentioned in the NPB market, competing with Arista DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF). | |
AVIZ Networks | This competitor operates in the NPB market, competing with Arista DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF). |
| Customer | Relationship | Segment | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
Microsoft | Strategic cloud customer with large periodic orders. Provides ongoing purchases of networking solutions. | All | Revenue share: $7,003.15 billion total revenue in 2024 ; Microsoft: 20% in 2024, 18% in 2023, 16% in 2022. |
Meta Platforms | Strategic cloud customer with large periodic orders. Provides ongoing purchases of networking solutions. | All | Revenue share: $7,003.15 billion total revenue in 2024 ; Meta Platforms: 15% in 2024, 21% in 2023, 26% in 2022. |
Notable M&A activity and strategic investments in the past 3 years.
| Company | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
Pluribus Networks | 2022 | Completed in June 2022, this acquisition enhanced Arista Networks’ unified cloud fabric networking capabilities, specifically for telco cloud, 5G, and DPU-based networking, by integrating Pluribus' technology and talent—including adding around 150 employees—and strengthening strategic partnerships with Ericsson and NVIDIA. |
Untangle, Inc. | 2022 | This deal was aimed at bolstering Arista Networks’ investments in security and switching fabrics by integrating Untangle’s edge threat management capabilities, targeting low-end security for commercial and distributed enterprise markets while aligning with the company’s broader system-wide product goals and culture. |
Recent press releases and 8-K filings for ANET.
- Todd Nightingale, two months into his role as President & COO, is prioritizing AI initiatives, campus networking expansion and optimizing manufacturing/supply chain to meet surging demand.
- Campus revenue guidance was raised from $750 million to $800 million following the completion of the VeloCloud acquisition, delivering a full portfolio: Wi-Fi, switching, routing, SD-WAN and NAC.
- AI networking targets of $750 million backend and $750 million frontend revenue remain in place, with customer count increasing from 4–5 to 25–30 AI and NeoCloud deployments, underpinning raised guidance.
- Differentiation centers on the single-image EOS operating system—subject to daily auto-tests for reliability—and deep merchant-silicon expertise enabling unique features and scale across data center, AI and campus products.
- Arista completed the VeloCloud acquisition on July 1, adding $50 million to its FY2025 revenue guidance and enhancing its branch-to-cloud WAN offering.
- The company will simplify AI networking guidance by combining front-end and back-end forecasts into a single number for 2026, reflecting customer feedback that they cannot distinguish between the two segments.
- In partnership with Broadcom, Arista’s Jericho 4 chip complements its Tomahawk portfolio for 200 Gbps AI spine and interconnect deployments; Tomahawk 6 is in sampling with expected product availability in H2 2026.
- Arista emphasizes end-to-end observability for large AI clusters via its CloudVision platform, which delivers network-to-NIC telemetry to minimize job completion times.
- The enterprise campus market represents a $30 billion TAM—matching the data center market—where Arista currently has low single-digit share versus ~30% in data centers, and is expanding channel partnerships to capture medium-sized campuses.
- Arista expects the emerging scale-up AI networking market to be roughly equal in size to the scale-out market, with Ethernet becoming a realistic addressable technology by 2028.
- The company’s 800 Gig portfolio, based on Tomahawk silicon, targets both back-end AI meshes and data-center interconnect (DCI); AI-DCI will remain a small slice of total AI networking spend for large customers.
- Two cloud titans are at or near 100,000 GPU clusters by year-end 2025, with a third scaling early 2026 and a fourth (currently on InfiniBand) transitioning more slowly to Ethernet.
- Arista highlights its hardware-plus-middleware “Blue Box” advantage—deep buffering, EOS intelligence and manufacturing diagnostics—to differentiate from white-box alternatives and is fully UEC-ready.
- The firm is developing products on Broadcom’s Tomahawk 6 (mechanical samples received), with production timing to follow Broadcom’s typical ~12-month sample-to-production cycle.
- Arista raised its guidance in its recent results, reflecting strong demand in the ongoing infrastructure cycle
- Cisco’s cloud orders doubled from $350 million to $600 million QoQ, underscoring robust momentum in network equipment demand
- Networking drives ~70% of Cisco’s product revenues, with orders growing faster than revenues and expected to accelerate revenue growth and prompt higher guidance in coming quarters
- The boom is fueled by AI and data growth, spanning large cloud providers, “baby cloud” firms like Oracle, smaller cloud players, and enterprise deployments
- The Board appointed Todd Nightingale, age 45 and former CEO of Fastly, as President & COO effective July 1, 2025.
- Mr. Nightingale’s compensation includes a $350,000 annual base salary, a prorated FY 2025 bonus, and eligibility for discretionary bonus starting in FY 2026.
- He will receive $30 million in RSUs vesting 25% after one year and 1/16 quarterly over ~4 years, plus $2 million in PSUs across three six-month performance periods.
- The severance agreement provides 12 months of salary continuation, acceleration of time-based equity vesting, and a 50% unvested equity acceleration on a change in control, subject to release execution.
- Arista is all in on AI, investing in both “networking for AI” (high-speed, low latency Ethernet-based products) and AI-enhanced network management tools like AVA for improved observability and root cause analysis.
- The company envisions a $70 billion total addressable market (TAM), with each of its three pillars—AI, data center/cloud, and enterprise/campus—representing a $20-25 billion opportunity.
- Arista continues to differentiate itself with its robust software stack (EOS), supporting both traditional cloud and advanced AI applications while maintaining leadership in spine-leaf networking for hyperscalers.
- The executives also noted openness to emerging technologies such as co-packaged optics, while emphasizing that pluggable optics remain preferred for reliability, troubleshooting, and manufacturability.
- Q1 2025 Financial Performance: Delivered $2.05B in revenue (up 27.6% YoY) with net income of $826.2M and diluted EPS of $0.65
- Share Repurchase Initiatives: Executed its largest quarterly repurchase of $887.1M and received Board approval for an additional $1.5B repurchase program
- Product Innovation: Introduced intelligent AI networking capabilities, including Cluster Load Balancing and AI job-centric observability via CloudVision UNO
- Guidance & Margins: Provided Q2 guidance with expected revenue of $2.1B; Q1 margins reported were 64.1% gross and non-GAAP margins of ~63% gross and ~46% operating
- Tariff Impact: Management highlighted tariff uncertainties may impose a 1–1.5 percentage point adverse effect on gross margins
- Leadership Update: General Counsel Marc Taxay resigned effective May 7, 2025, with Sean Christofferson promoted to General Counsel effective May 8, 2025