Ethernet Switch Market Size and Share
Ethernet Switch Market Analysis by Mordor Intelligence
The Ethernet switch market size stood at USD 37.25 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 54.96 billion by 2030, registering an 8.09% CAGR over the forecast period. Surging demand for low-latency, high-bandwidth fabrics inside hyperscale data centers is the principal driver, as operators upgrade from 10 Gbit/s links to 25 Gbit/s, 100 Gbit/s and—by mid-decade—800 Gbit/s to support AI training clusters that now require 102.4 Tb/s switching capacity. Asia-Pacific retains clear leadership thanks to China’s manufacturing backbone and India’s rapid digital-infrastructure rollout, whereas the Middle East and Africa block is expanding fastest on the back of smart-city and 5G initiatives. Fixed-configuration platforms dominate enterprise rollouts, yet software-defined virtual switches are expanding the addressable base as organisations look for programmable control planes. Supply-chain tightness for switch ASICs, escalating energy-efficiency mandates and trade restrictions on Chinese OEMs temper short-term capital-spending appetites.
Key Report Takeaways
- By switch type, fixed-configuration models led with 65.69% revenue share in 2024, whereas virtual/software-defined switches are projected to grow at a 12.46% CAGR through 2030.
- By port speed, 25 Gbit/s captured 28.75% of the Ethernet switch market share in 2024; speeds of 200 Gbit/s and above are forecast to advance at a 14.04% CAGR to 2030.
- By end user, data centers accounted for 35.43% of the Ethernet switch market size in 2024, while industrial and IoT deployments are set to expand at an 11.54% CAGR through 2030.
- By switching technology, Layer 3 devices held 39.43% share in 2024 and software-defined networking switches represent the fastest-rising cohort at a 12.65% CAGR.
- By deployment model, on-premise managed solutions retained 58.43% share in 2024; cloud-managed alternatives are expected to post a 9.58% CAGR to 2030.
- By region, Asia-Pacific led with 41.56% of 2024 revenue, whereas the Middle East and Africa region is poised for a 12.54% CAGR through 2030.
Global Ethernet Switch Market Trends and Insights
Drivers Impact Analysis
| Driver | (~) % Impact on CAGR Forecast | Geographic Relevance | Impact Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proliferation of hyperscale data centers | +2.1% | North America and Asia-Pacific | Medium term (2-4 years) |
| Rising adoption of PoE for IoT devices | +1.3% | North America and Europe | Long term (≥ 4 years) |
| Migration to higher-speed Ethernet | +1.8% | Global—hyperscalers in North America and APAC | Short term (≤ 2 years) |
| Network virtualisation and SDN deployments | +1.2% | North America and Europe | Medium term (2-4 years) |
| Edge computing and industrial automation | +1.0% | Manufacturing hubs in Asia-Pacific | Long term (≥ 4 years) |
| Government broadband-infrastructure funding | +0.8% | United States (BEAD programme) | Medium term (2-4 years) |
| Source: Mordor Intelligence | |||
Proliferation of hyperscale data centers
Global hyperscale capacity has doubled every four years, crossing 1,000 active sites, with another 120–130 facilities coming online annually. The United States alone hosts 51% of that footprint, while Amazon, Microsoft and Google command 60% of installed racks. Each new campus deploys tens of thousands of top-of-rack and spine-leaf switches, translating directly into volume demand for the Ethernet switch market. [1]Niva Yadav, “Hyperscale Data Center Capacity to Double Every Four Years,” Data Center Dynamics, datacenterdynamics.comAI clusters intensify this pull: GPU fabrics now require at least 1 Tb/s bandwidth per accelerator, creating urgency to migrate to 800 Gbit/s leaf ports and 102.4 Tb/s chassis cores.
Rising adoption of PoE for IoT devices
Power over Ethernet (PoE) revenues are projected to jump from USD 1.72 billion in 2024 to USD 8.90 billion by 2032, a 22.8% CAGR that underpins robust demand for PoE-enabled switches. [2]Serena Aburahma, “Forecast and Insights on PoE and the PoE Market,” Cabling Install, cablinginstall.com Retrofits of legacy buildings during the pandemic accelerated uptake, as factories, hospitals and offices embraced low-voltage wiring for smart lighting, IP cameras and environmental sensors. IEEE extensions that raise the ceiling to 100 W per port now let integrators power LED arrays and PTZ cameras over the same cable, cutting installation costs and simplifying network management.
Migration to higher-speed Ethernet
Shipment of high-speed Ethernet ports (≥ 100 Gbit/s) is forecast to compound at 50% annually through 2028, eclipsing prior upgrade cycles. Hyperscalers are leaping directly from 400 Gbit/s to 800 Gbit/s fabrics, with most AI clusters expected to use 800 Gbit/s switch uplinks by 2025. Enterprises favour 25 Gbit/s as an incremental step from 10 Gbit/s because it delivers 2.5× throughput at a modest premium while re-using existing copper or OM3 fibre plants. Standards work inside the Ultra Ethernet Consortium will codify deterministic congestion control and link-level telemetry to ensure these rates scale reliably.
Network virtualisation and SDN deployments
Seventy-two percent of IT leaders plan to run software-defined platforms across multiple domains within two years, driven by the need for centralised policy and zero-trust enforcement. Adoption of the open-source SONiC NOS is pivotal; analysts expect 30% of organisations operating large data-centre fabrics to standardise on SONiC by 2025. Commercial support from Cisco, Juniper and NVIDIA eases integration pain, while Kubernetes and container-native workloads heighten demand for fine-grained micro-segmentation. For the Ethernet switch market, virtualisation creates new attach points for per-port telemetry and in-band analytics.
Restraints Impact Analysis
| Restraint | (~) % Impact on CAGR Forecast | Geographic Relevance | Impact Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supply-chain constraints for switch ASICs | −1.4% | North America and Europe | Short term (≤ 2 years) |
| Preference for open-source white-box switches | −0.9% | North America—large enterprises | Medium term (2-4 years) |
| Geopolitical trade restrictions on Chinese vendors | −1.1% | United States and Europe | Medium term (2-4 years) |
| Energy-efficiency regulations pressuring capex | −0.7% | European Union and North America | Long term (≥ 4 years) |
| Source: Mordor Intelligence | |||
Supply-chain constraints for switch ASICs
Lead-times for 51.2 Tb/s and 102.4 Tb/s merchant silicon have stretched beyond 40 weeks, largely because Broadcom remains the sole volume supplier of bleeding-edge die stacks. Networking revenue at Broadcom surged 158% year on year in fiscal 2024, signalling that demand continues to outrun wafer capacity. [3]Zacks Analyst Team, “Broadcom Rides on Strong Demand for XPUs,” Nasdaq, nasdaq.com Marvell’s entrance with its Teralynx 10 family—shipping 51.2 Tb/s parts since mid-2024—helps diversify supply; shipments are forecast to scale from 77,000 units in 2024 to 1.8 million by 2028. That said, heavy reliance on fabs in Taiwan and South Korea exposes the Ethernet switch market to geopolitical shocks.
Preference for open-source white-box switches
Large enterprises and cloud builders are adopting disaggregated hardware running SONiC to escape proprietary vendor lock-in. Cost analysis indicates capex savings of 30–40% per port relative to branded chassis, though the operating model requires deeper network-engineering skills. As the ecosystem matures with orchestration overlays and commercial support contracts, traditional vendors face margin compression, compelling them to pivot toward differentiated software and ASIC pipelines.
Segment Analysis
By Switch Type: Fixed solutions anchor mainstream deployments
Fixed-configuration platforms generated 65.69% of 2024 revenues, underscoring their appeal for campus networks and branch offices where plug-and-play simplicity trumps chassis flexibility. These devices deliver up to 48 access ports with integrated PoE budgets that fit wiring-closet constraints. Ruggedised units extend fixed designs to harsh industrial sites, pushing incremental shipments for the Ethernet switch market.
Virtual/software-defined switches will expand at a 12.46% CAGR through 2030 as operators embed packet-forwarding functions into x86 or Arm servers. Kubernetes-native container networks and overlay fabrics such as VXLAN accelerate this trend, letting enterprises codify policies in software while lowering hardware spend. Hyperscale cloud operators publish reference designs that shorten evaluation cycles and lift mainstream adoption.
Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase
By Port Speed: 25 Gbit/s is mainstream while 800 Gbit/s rises sharply
The 25 Gbit/s cohort commands 28.75% share of the Ethernet switch market size, propelled by a painless upgrade from 10 Gbit/s over existing multimode fibre. In campus Wi-Fi 6 refreshes, multi-gig (2.5/5 Gbit/s) uplinks are gaining steam to backhaul dense AP clusters, but they remain a niche slice by revenue.
Looking forward, ports of 200 Gbit/s and higher are projected to grow at 14.04% CAGR to 2030, driven by AI training pipelines that saturate inter-GPU fabrics. Early-adopter hyperscalers will field 800 Gbit/s leaf-to-spine links by 2025, compressing upgrade cycles from five years to roughly three. Standardisation efforts toward 1.6 Tbit/s are already underway inside the Ethernet Alliance roadmap.
By End User: Data-centre dominance continues yet industrial installs outpace
Data-centre operators held 35.43% share in 2024, furnishing the bulk of purchase orders for 100 Gbit/s and 400 Gbit/s silicon. Telcos follow with spine-leaf fabrics underpinning 5G core and fronthaul rollouts. The Ethernet switch market will see its fastest absolute growth, however, inside industrial and IoT envelopes that are forecast to post an 11.54% CAGR to 2030. Deterministic TSN profiles, rugged housings and extended-temperature components make these switches staples of smart-factory lines and utilities substations.
By Switching Technology: Layer 3 roars, SDN captures the spotlight
Layer 3 switching accounted for 39.43% of 2024 spend because enterprises need VLAN segmentation and east-west routing at the campus core. Meanwhile, software-defined architectures are trending at a 12.65% CAGR, propelled by controller-based intent engines and AI-driven telemetry that diagnoses anomalies automatically. Vendors now embed neural-network models inside operating systems, offering real-time path-selection advice—an emerging upsell in the Ethernet switch industry.
Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase
By Deployment Model: Cloud management narrows the skills gap
On-premise managed solutions kept 58.43% of 2024 deployments, reflecting a preference for deterministic control in finance, healthcare and defence. Public-cloud dashboards, nonetheless, are catching up: they deliver zero-touch provisioning, global software updates and AIOps insights. The resulting 9.58% CAGR through 2030 for cloud-managed hardware will open new managed-service opportunities, particularly for small and mid-size businesses that lack full-time networking staff.
Geography Analysis
Asia-Pacific contributed 41.56% of worldwide revenue in 2024, anchored by China’s expansive manufacturing base and local sourcing rules that favour domestic brands. India’s Digital India programme and Japan’s industrial robots add further pull, ensuring the Ethernet switch market stays buoyant in the region. Government subsidies for 5G backhaul and AI research compound local volume.
North America remains a high-value arena owing to hyperscale cloud build-outs. The Biden administration’s USD 42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) fund is incentivising rural-fibre upgrades, translating into fresh orders for hardened aggregation switches. Energy-efficiency regulations, nevertheless, oblige operators to weigh power budgets more closely, prompting interest in 7-nm and 5-nm ASICs that halve watts per gigabit.
Europe shows steady growth as enterprises refresh campus cores and telcos densify fibre to support 5G standalone cores. The EU’s Ecodesign Directive 2019/424 imposes idle-power limits on networking gear, nudging buyers toward more efficient silicon. Meanwhile, the Middle East and Africa represents the fastest-growing territory at a 12.54% CAGR to 2030, benefitting from greenfield smart-city projects in Saudi Arabia and data-centre construction in South Africa. Latin America adds incremental upside via e-government connectivity and fintech penetration.
Competitive Landscape
Market concentration is moderate. NVIDIA vaulted past Cisco and Arista in 2025 data-centre Ethernet revenue by bundling its Spectrum-X switches with H100 GPUs, thereby solving end-to-end AI cluster performance. HPE’s USD 14 billion takeover of Juniper Networks closes a portfolio gap in cloud-native switching and elevates the combined entity’s share in security fabrics. Cisco responded by integrating its Silicon One ASICs into NVIDIA’s reference designs, signalling coopetition in the Ethernet switch market.
Arista continues to grow in cloud titans, posting record quarterly revenue above USD 2 billion in Q1 2025 and launching its EOS Smart AI Suite for cluster load balancing. Broadcom and Marvell battle for merchant-silicon sockets, with Broadcom’s 158% networking-revenue jump underscoring the tailwind from AI fabrics. White-box ODMs such as Celestica and Quanta expand footprints as hyperscalers opt for disaggregated architectures, while start-ups build value in intent-based analytics.
Energy efficiency and ASIC road-map control are now pivotal differentiators. Vendors advertise sub-25 W per 100 Gbit/s port and boast on-chip AI engines that cut congestion by predicting microbursts. Open-source NOS support—including SONiC and Open-Network Linux—has become table stakes for Tier-1 bids. Edge-focused specialists target rugged PoE++ models for transportation and smart-building retrofits, a pocket where incumbents hold limited share.
Ethernet Switch Industry Leaders
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Cisco Systems, Inc.
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Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
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Arista Networks, Inc.
-
Dell Technologies Inc.
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Juniper Networks, Inc.
- *Disclaimer: Major Players sorted in no particular order
Recent Industry Developments
- July 2025: HPE closed its USD 14 billion Juniper Networks acquisition, doubling networking’s contribution to group operating income.
- June 2025: NVIDIA surpassed Cisco and Arista in data-centre Ethernet sales on the strength of Spectrum-X uptake.
- May 2025: ASUS selected MaxLinear 2.5 Gbit/s Switch SoCs for new 7- and 10-port platforms aimed at SMB buyers
- March 2025: Arista launched EOS Smart AI Suite featuring cluster load balancing and universal network observability.
Global Ethernet Switch Market Report Scope
| Fixed Configuration Switches |
| Modular Switches |
| Rugged / Industrial Switches |
| Virtual / Software-Defined Switches |
| 1 G and Below |
| 2.5 G / 5 G |
| 10 G |
| 25 G |
| 40 G |
| 50 G |
| 100 G |
| 200 G and Above |
| Data Centers |
| Telecommunications Service Providers |
| Enterprise Campus Networks |
| Small and Medium Businesses |
| Industrial and IoT |
| Layer 2 Switches |
| Layer 3 Switches |
| Power over Ethernet (PoE) Switches |
| Software-Defined Networking (SDN) Switches |
| Managed Switches |
| Unmanaged Switches |
| On-Premise Managed |
| Cloud-Managed |
| North America | United States | |
| Canada | ||
| Mexico | ||
| Europe | Germany | |
| United Kingdom | ||
| France | ||
| Italy | ||
| Spain | ||
| Russia | ||
| Rest of Europe | ||
| Asia-Pacific | China | |
| Japan | ||
| India | ||
| South Korea | ||
| ASEAN | ||
| Australia and New Zealand | ||
| Rest of Asia-Pacific | ||
| Middle East and Africa | Middle East | United Arab Emirates |
| Saudi Arabia | ||
| Turkey | ||
| Rest of Middle East | ||
| Africa | South Africa | |
| Nigeria | ||
| Rest of Africa | ||
| South America | Brazil | |
| Argentina | ||
| Rest of South America | ||
| By Switch Type | Fixed Configuration Switches | ||
| Modular Switches | |||
| Rugged / Industrial Switches | |||
| Virtual / Software-Defined Switches | |||
| By Port Speed | 1 G and Below | ||
| 2.5 G / 5 G | |||
| 10 G | |||
| 25 G | |||
| 40 G | |||
| 50 G | |||
| 100 G | |||
| 200 G and Above | |||
| By End User | Data Centers | ||
| Telecommunications Service Providers | |||
| Enterprise Campus Networks | |||
| Small and Medium Businesses | |||
| Industrial and IoT | |||
| By Switching Technology | Layer 2 Switches | ||
| Layer 3 Switches | |||
| Power over Ethernet (PoE) Switches | |||
| Software-Defined Networking (SDN) Switches | |||
| Managed Switches | |||
| Unmanaged Switches | |||
| By Deployment Model | On-Premise Managed | ||
| Cloud-Managed | |||
| By Geography | North America | United States | |
| Canada | |||
| Mexico | |||
| Europe | Germany | ||
| United Kingdom | |||
| France | |||
| Italy | |||
| Spain | |||
| Russia | |||
| Rest of Europe | |||
| Asia-Pacific | China | ||
| Japan | |||
| India | |||
| South Korea | |||
| ASEAN | |||
| Australia and New Zealand | |||
| Rest of Asia-Pacific | |||
| Middle East and Africa | Middle East | United Arab Emirates | |
| Saudi Arabia | |||
| Turkey | |||
| Rest of Middle East | |||
| Africa | South Africa | ||
| Nigeria | |||
| Rest of Africa | |||
| South America | Brazil | ||
| Argentina | |||
| Rest of South America | |||
Key Questions Answered in the Report
What is the projected growth rate of the Ethernet switch market between 2025 and 2030?
The market is forecast to expand at an 8.09% CAGR, rising from USD 37.25 billion in 2025 to USD 54.96 billion by 2030.
Which region currently leads the Ethernet switch market?
Asia-Pacific held 41.56% of global revenue in 2024, driven by manufacturing expansion in China and digital-infrastructure spending in India.
Why are 25 Gbit/s ports so prevalent in enterprise upgrades?
They offer 2.5× the bandwidth of 10 Gbit/s links while re-using existing cabling, providing a cost-effective step-up path.
How will AI workloads influence switch-speed adoption?
AI training clusters are accelerating the shift to 800 Gbit/s and future 1.6 Tbit/s fabrics to satisfy east-west bandwidth needs.
What factors could restrain Ethernet switch market growth?
Extended lead-times for high-end ASICs, trade restrictions on Chinese vendors and stricter energy-efficiency rules may curb near-term spending.
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