Arista Networks: 3 Key Takeaways for Long-Term Investors

On its third-quarter 2026 earnings call, held on Nov. 3, 2026, Arista (NYSE:ANET) announced revenue of $3.66 billion, representing 58.5% year-over-year growth. Rapid expansion in artificial intelligence infrastructure accelerates customer demand for open network operating systems over legacy proprietary fabrics. This operational momentum allows the enterprise networking vendor to capture market share across data centers and corporate campuses. Three things management said stand out.

1. Open Ethernet Standards Drive Massive AI Scale

Management is expanding its Etherlink switching suite as cloud providers shift from legacy proprietary cables to open Ethernet standards. This dynamic underpins projected deployments exceeding 10 gigawatts of power capacity across diverse processing units by the end of 2027.

In 2026, we are in a super cycle of AI, having already surpassed 100 Etherlink customers. By the end of '27, we are forecasting greater than 10 gigawatts of deployment across 10 or more different types of compute accelerators.
-- Jayshree Ullal, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer

2. Enterprise Campus Growth Accelerates Beyond Data Centers

Corporate accounts are replacing legacy network vendors to gain reliability and dynamic security segmentation. Management expects cognitive campus revenue, representing enterprise branch switches, to hit $2 billion in 2027 alongside $7 billion from artificial intelligence fabrics.

Within this envelope, we expect our AI fabrics target to be the fastest-growing segment and to double to approximately $7 billion, while our cognitive campus represents a healthy growth of 60%, much faster than the market to approximately $2 billion in 2027.
-- Jayshree Ullal, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer

3. Unified Software Architecture Limits Security Vulnerabilities

Operating a single Extensible Operating System isolates software processes, preventing network disruptions during routine patches. This design keeps Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs), or security flaw counts, far below those of competing multi-operating-system platforms.

Arista has maintained one of the lowest CVE counts, less than 100 in the industry over the last 2 decades, while others are rising exponentially due in part to the simple fact that multiple networking operating systems tend to have more vulnerabilities than just one.
-- Kenneth Duda, Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer

Looking Ahead

Surging demand for AI infrastructure positions fiscal year 2027 for $18.5 billion in revenue. Robust balance sheets, proprietary software isolation, and long-term supplier commitments support execution as management monitors component lead times.

For fiscal year 2027, the revenue growth outlook is between 38% and 40%, equating to approximately $18.5 billion at the midpoint.
-- Chantelle Breithaupt, Chief Financial Officer

Future competitive advantages hinge on migrating proprietary interconnects to open Ethernet rack standards across diverse accelerators.

Just as we were staring at InfiniBand and now we can go, of course, it's going to be Ethernet. We're looking forward to a time where we were staring at proprietary UALink or NVLink, and we're going to go, of course, it's going to be ESUN.
-- Jayshree Ullal, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer

The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Arista Networks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.