Ethernet AI switch sales doubled year-over-year in Q2 2026, per SDxCentral. InfiniBand revenue rebounded 22% sequentially, but Ethernet now captures 41% of AI interconnect revenue, up from 28% a year ago.
Key facts
- Ethernet AI switch sales doubled YoY in Q2 2026
- InfiniBand revenue rebounded 22% sequentially
- Ethernet now captures 41% of AI interconnect revenue
- Nvidia holds 78% of InfiniBand market share
- Google's Virgo interconnects 134,400 TPUv8t chips
The AI networking market is bifurcating. Ethernet switch sales for AI workloads doubled year-over-year in Q2 2026, according to SDxCentral. Meanwhile, InfiniBand revenue rebounded 22% sequentially, driven by large-scale cluster deployments. The data suggests hyperscalers are not abandoning InfiniBand, but they are increasingly adopting Ethernet for more flexible, multi-vendor AI fabrics.
The Ethernet Surge
Ethernet's share of AI interconnect revenue rose from 28% to 41% in the past year. The shift is fueled by the Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) and Google's Virgo network, which interconnects 134,400 TPUv8t chips at 47 Pbps. Ethernet offers lower cost per port, broader vendor choice, and easier integration with existing data center infrastructure. Broadcom's Tomahawk 5 switch ASIC, shipping in volume, has been a key enabler.
InfiniBand's Resilience
InfiniBand remains the high-performance choice for the largest training clusters. Nvidia holds 78% of the InfiniBand market, per SDxCentral. The 22% sequential revenue rebound suggests that Nvidia's Quantum-X800 platform, with 800 Gbps per port, is winning new deployments. However, Nvidia's own Spectrum-X Ethernet platform is cannibalizing InfiniBand from within — Nvidia now sells both.
Ethernet's Rise Is a Bet Against Vendor Lock-In
This isn't just about speed. Ethernet's doubling signals that hyperscalers are prioritizing flexibility over peak performance. A single InfiniBand fabric locks you into Nvidia's roadmap, cabling, and management tools. Ethernet lets operators mix switches from Arista, Cisco, Juniper, and Broadcom — and run Nvidia GPUs alongside AMD or Intel. The UEC's goal of 1.6 Tbps Ethernet by 2027 could further erode InfiniBand's advantage.
What to watch
Watch for Ultra Ethernet Consortium's 1.6 Tbps specification release in late 2026, and whether Nvidia's Spectrum-X Ethernet revenue growth rate surpasses its Quantum InfiniBand sales in Q3 earnings.
Source: news.google.com
