Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins wants data centers in space | The Verge

PodcastsAIBusinessCisco CEO Chuck Robbins wants data centers in spaceThe head of the networking giant on energy, infrastructure, and why AI is writing Cisco code.by Nilay PatelApr 6, 2026, 3:15 PM UTCLinkShareNilay Patel is editor-in-chief of The Verge, host of the Decoder podcast, and co-host of The Vergecast.Today, I’m talking with Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco.Cisco is one of those big companies that everyone has heard of but that most of us don’t have to interact with very much; it’s not really a consumer brand. But all of us are in some way using Cisco’s products and services every day because it makes a huge amount of networking equipment for other big companies, like telecoms and ISPs. It’s a guarantee that somewhere between me recording this and you watching, listening to, or reading it, the bits have passed through Cisco products. Without the actual routers and switches and silicon — and the software to make those things work — there’s no internet, there’s no cloud, and there’s no AI.Verge subscribers, don’t forget you get exclusive access to ad-free Decoder wherever you get your podcasts. Head here. Not a subscriber? You can sign up here.That’s Cisco’s new big business, of course: building all the networking needed inside all of the data centers the AI companies are trying to build. Chuck and I spent a lot of time discussing that. First, where should we build all these data centers? Because it’s not clear that anyone wants them around.A data center is a really unpl...