SAN FRANCISCO – October 31, 2026 -- Server-class Ethernet NIC revenues more than doubled in two years, rising from less than $6 billion in 2023 to more than $13 billion in 2025, according to Crehan Research.
2025 delivers record revenue and record growth
The report says 2025 produced both the highest revenue and the fastest revenue growth the market has recorded. Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research, said the market has followed "nearly a vertical straight line" since the initial release of ChatGPT.
200GbE and 400GbE NIC sales more than triple in one year
Sales of 200 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 400GbE NICs more than tripled over the past year, as customers rapidly deployed high-speed NICs in generative AI networks. These speeds now account for more than half of total market revenues.
Foundational NICs link GPUs in back-end networks while DPUs/SmartNICs serve the front end
Crehan said high-speed foundational Ethernet NICs are the connection of choice for linking GPUs and XPUs in back-end networking. High-speed Ethernet DPUs/SmartNICs are a common front-end connection. Both categories posted very strong growth.
Cloud, enterprise and storage segments also post robust gains
Generative AI has been the main driver of the growth, but general cloud service provider compute, enterprise networking and storage have also seen very robust increases, Crehan said.