With a renewed focus on AI-powered infrastructure, sovereign data centers, and deep collaboration with Indian CIOs, Cisco is doubling down on its India strategy. CEO Chuck Robbins and Cisco’s EVP & GM Jeetu Patel emphasized the company’s vision to make India a core hub for global innovation, manufacturing, and AI deployment. Cisco’s India operations are evolving rapidly, from being a global R&D center to now manufacturing select Cisco products exclusively in India for global markets.
While exact figures were not shared, executives confirmed that operations are ahead of schedule, and India has proven to be globally export-ready, backed by effective government collaboration.
“India is no longer an extension. It’s part of our engineering fabric,” said Jeetu Patel.
As India ramps up its AI ambitions and enforces stricter data localization rules, Cisco is carving out its role not as a cloud provider, but as a reliable AI infrastructure partner — supporting governments and enterprises in building secure, sovereign AI systems.
“This isn’t about repatriating from the public cloud—it’s about reaccelerating private cloud adoption for next-gen workloads,” Patel noted.
Cisco is betting big on two critical AI paths -
· AI in cybersecurity (“AI Defense”) — using AI to detect threats, protect AI models, and secure runtime environments
· Securing AI infrastructure itself — including the data, networks, and users accessing the models
AI Defense deployments are already underway in India; though specific customers remain unnamed.
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