Chuck Robbins

Chuck Robbins said India's approach of building strategic capabilities while partnering with trusted companies is a practical path to technology sovereignty.

India’s approach of developing strategic capabilities while partnering with trusted companies offered a practical path towards technology sovereignty.

Robbins said India offers strong long-term growth for Cisco in manufacturing, engineering and chip design, and Cisco is expanding Indian manufacturing with a growing share exported globally.

Cisco Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins said India offers strong long-term growth opportunities for the company in manufacturing, engineering and semiconductor design. He added that Cisco is expanding its manufacturing operations in India, with a growing share of its output being exported to global markets.

Robbins said India is a highly trusted partner for American and global firms, creating an environment in which Cisco is comfortable investing.

India has been an incredible trusted partner for lots of American companies, in particular, and global companies...it really does create an environment where we are comfortable investing, and I think that is super important...

Robbins argued the world needs more technology capacity and would welcome India as a partner with that capacity, since no country can build the whole stack itself.

The world needs more capacity in this space too, so the world would welcome a friend like India who has that capacity,

Robbins says Cisco's biggest opportunity in India is expanding its silicon design team, which is currently small compared with its Israel and US teams.

The biggest opportunity we see is actually to expand our silicon design team here, so we currently have fair amount of resources in Israel, fair number in the United States, and we have a small group here that are part of that team, and we think there's a big opportunity.

Robbins says that outside the US, the Middle East and India are Cisco's next two biggest markets and offer the highest growth opportunities.

The US is a very important market. Obviously, our most important market today. But outside the United States, the Middle East and India are the next two big areas for us we are focused on. I think those are the highest growth opportunities,

Robbins believes India's pro-growth strategy is working, as shown by its GDP growth.

India has a pro-growth strategy, and added "I think it's working, given the GDP growth that we're seeing here."

Robbins says efforts to slow AI development will not work, so the focus should be on keeping security and defences moving at the same pace or faster.

there is this whole debate about should we slow down AI or not. You are not going to slow it down. I mean, I just don't think that is going to happen

Robbins supports sensible rules on model releases and guardrails but argues AI's downsides are solvable technology problems like those of past technologies.

We certainly need to have logic around how models get released, logic around guardrails. We should know what's going on. But every technology we've ever introduced has had positives and negatives. I mean, you just have to solve for the negatives.

Robbins says AI models are exposing gaps in basic cyber hygiene such as password and patch management, and that security should be the priority over regulation, which bad actors ignore.

I think guardrails, sure...I think understanding the risks, absolutely. But I think we just have to focus on the security side of it. Focus on effective guardrails, focus on hygiene

Robbins warns that India and any other country must balance regulation against innovation speed, or risk falling behind.

I think you are going to have to make sure you get that balance just right, so that your regulation doesn't slow down the innovation. Because if it does, you fall behind.

Robbins does not see AI as a net job disruptor and expects winners to be firms that redeploy staff to raise output rather than use AI merely to cut costs.

You can either do the same amount of work you're doing today potentially with fewer people, and have the same output, or you can decide you're going to keep the number of people you have, redeploy them and move them into other spaces, and leverage AI effectively to fundamentally increase your output at the same cost, which is better for your P&L.