Cisco is ‘very optimistic’ about its expanding business with China EVs
Cisco established operations in China in 1994.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
DALIAN, China — Cisco is “very optimistic” about its growing business with Chinese electric car companies as they expand overseas, the company’s Greater China head told CNBC on Tuesday.
The EV segment is the U.S. tech giant’s second-largest for the region — Cisco generates most of its revenue in Greater China from manufacturing companies, and within that, electric cars form the largest category, said Ming Wong, vice president and CEO of Cisco Greater China.
Chinese EV-makers have ramped up their global expansion in the last year as domestic competition intensified.
However, trade tensions have escalated, with the U.S. and likely the European Union, increasing tariffs on imports of Chinese electric cars.
That doesn’t necessarily restrict their growth. Chinese automakers, such as BYD, are investing in local factories.
Cisco, which provides networking equipment and software for businesses, is working with at least 10 electric car customers as they build factories, offices and research and development centers overseas, according to Wong.
“At least as of now, we don’t hear anything from the [EV] customers saying that, ‘Oh, because of this, we need to stop investing, or we need to slow down,'” he added.
“It’s actually the other way around. A lot of things happening. They will keep pushing, going forward, and we’ll see how this will evolve.”
It’s unclear how much spending such business expansion will generate, said Shiv Shivaraman, Asia region leader, and partner and managing director at consulting firm AlixPartners.
“But you should expect that there is going to be manufacturing-related capex as well as office-related capex,” he said. “And I think tariffs will definitely accelerate, if not increase it.”
Getting China businesses back to growth
The U.S.-based tech company has run into challenges in the China market as the two countries increasingly rely on domestic players in the name of national security.
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins told analysts in 2019 that the U.S.-China trade war resulted in a “significant impact” on its business in China.
The company’s revenue in the country fell by 25% on an annualized basis in the quarter ended late July 2019, Cisco said at the time.
“What we’ve seen is in the state on enterprises … we’re just being — we’re being uninvited to bid,” Robbins said. “We’re not being allowed to even participate anymore.”
Sales to carriers declined more forcefully as well, he said.
Looking ahead, Wong is hopeful that the China business can return to growth this year. He did not specifically reference the 2019 period in his remarks.
He pointed out that state-owned and non-state-owned businesses are turning to Cisco as they expand globally. “So we are shifting our focus and portfolio to that side,” Wong said.
Also supporting Cisco’s business are Chinese internet companies such as Alibaba that are expanding globally, Wong said. He added that Cisco also benefits from its ability to connect different graphics processing unit providers together in a market where AI giant Nvidia is restricted.
GPUs are the chip systems powering the training and implementation of the latest artificial intelligence models.
In Cisco’s latest quarterly reporting period, which ended in late April, total revenue fell by 13% from a year ago, with revenue in Asia-Pacific, Japan and China falling 12% during that time.
Wong pointed out the latest slump in the Asia-Pacific, Japan and China revenue is off a high base, and he expects it to grow more quickly in the next one or two years.
“Asia Pacific is still the highest growth area for Cisco,” he said.
— CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report.
A drone operator loads a Walmart package into Zipline’s P1 fixed-wing drone for delivery to a customer home in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, on March 30, 2023.
Bunee Tomlinson
Zipline, a startup that delivers everything from vaccines to ice cream via electric autonomous drones, expanded its service to the Dallas area on Tuesday through a partnership with Walmart.
In Mesquite, Texas, about 15 miles east of Dallas, Walmart customers can sign up to receive orders within 30 minutes, delivered on Zipline’s newest unmanned aerial vehicles, known as P2 Zips.
The drones are capable of carrying up to eight pounds worth of cargo within a 10-mile radius, and can land a package on a space as small as a table or doorstep. The company, which ranked 21st on CNBC’s 2024 Disruptor 50 list, plans to expand soon in the Dallas metropolitan area.
Zipline CEO and co-founder Keller Rinaudo Cliffton said P2 Zips have “dinner plate-level” accuracy. They employ lift and cruise propellers and feature a fixed wing that helps them maneuver quietly, even through rain or gusts of wind up to 45 miles per hour.
In the delivery process, a P2 Zip will hover around 300 feet above ground level and dispatch a mini-aircraft with a container called the delivery zip, which descends on a long tether and moves into place using fan-like thrusters before setting down and allowing package retrieval.
Both the P2 Zip and the delivery zip use cameras, other sensors and Nvidia chips to determine what’s happening in the environment around them, and to avoid obstacles while making a delivery.
In March 2025, Zipline announced that its drones have logged more than 100 million autonomous miles of flight to-date, a number equivalent to flying more than 4,000 loops around the planet, or 200 lunar round trips, the company said in a video to mark the milestone.
Since it began operations in 2016, Rinaudo Cliffton said, Zipline has completed around 1.5 million deliveries, far more than competitors in the West. Wing, a Zipline rival focused on residential deliveries, has reported more than 450,000 deliveries since 2012.
Zipline initially focused on logistics in health care, making deliveries by drone to clinics and hospitals in nations where infrastructure sometimes impeded timely access to life-saving medicines, blood, vaccines and personal protective equipment. The company, valued at $4.2 billion in a 2023 financing round, is now making deliveries in Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Japan and the U.S., and expanded well beyond hospitals and clinics.
In addition to Walmart, customers include Sweetgreen, Chipotle and other quick-serve restaurants, as well as health clinics and hospital systems such as Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic.
Zipline’s launch in Mesquite comes days after President Donald Trump’s announcement of widespread tariffs roiled markets on concern that companies would face rising costs and a slowdown in consumers spending. Rinaudo Cliffton said he doesn’t anticipate massive impediments to Zipline’s business, as its drones are built in the U.S., with manufacturing and testing in South San Francisco.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway