Nvidia is best known for the GPUs that power the artificial intelligence boom. But according to a report from Wccftech, the company has now quietly claimed the top spot in another corner of the datacenter — Ethernet switching, the networking gear that moves data between the servers inside large computing facilities.
According to Wccftech, the datacenter Ethernet switching segment ballooned to $15.4 billion in the first quarter of 2026. Ethernet switches are the equipment that connects servers and lets them talk to one another at high speed. As AI systems grow larger, they increasingly rely on huge clusters of chips working in parallel, which puts a premium on fast, reliable networking between them.
The report frames Nvidia's rise as notable because the company is moving beyond its core business of selling AI accelerators and pushing deeper into the surrounding infrastructure. By leading in switching as well as in chips, Nvidia would extend its reach across more of the hardware that goes into building modern AI datacenters.
It is worth noting that this brief is based on a single source, Wccftech, summarized via Google News, and the underlying market figures and methodology are not detailed here. Readers should treat the specifics — including the size and growth of the segment — as that outlet's reporting rather than independently confirmed numbers.
Why it matters: if Nvidia is now leading the market for the networking gear that ties AI servers together, it signals the company is tightening its grip on the entire AI datacenter stack, not just the chips at its center.