SC
Analyst Index · Infrastructure & Telecoms
Seamus Crehan
President and Founder, Crehan Research (was Dell'Oro Group)
- 64%
- Accuracy
- –
- Not yet ranked
- 1
- Predictions scored
- 9
- Still to fall due
1 right
Scored predictions1
Right · 100%Given their expected increase in market adoption and associated price premiums, customer spending on smartNICs will likely exceed spending on foundational and performance server-class NICs within three years
What happened. Crehan reported in March 2024 that in calendar 2023 SmartNIC revenue, including DPUs and IPUs, surpassed foundational/performance NIC revenue and made up more than half of a $6bn server-class Ethernet NIC market. The crossover he called within three years happened in 2023, inside the deadline, on Crehan's own SmartNIC definition. SmartNICs were about 10% of NIC volumes when he made the call, so it was not a safe bet. Sources: crehanresearch.com.
Source: SmartNIC Revenue Reached $1.5 Billion in 2021, Reports Crehan Research (press release)
Caveat. No independent evidence available. Scored on Crehan Research’s own figures.
Still to fall due9 predictions
- Mar 2028
Most Fibre Channel HBA customers, on the other hand, have yet to upgrade to 64Gbps, but we expect this adoption to accelerate, driving 64Gbps to account for about half of all HBA shipments within two years.
Infrastructure & Telecoms · made Mar 2026 · source - Jan 2031
We are projecting a 200-fold increase in scale-up Ethernet switching bandwidth alone.
Infrastructure & Telecoms · made Jan 2026 · source - Jan 2031
Crehan predicts that the ramp in scale-up will have an even more profound impact on total market bandwidth, driving a 15-fold increase in the next five years
Infrastructure & Telecoms · made Jan 2026 · source - Jan 2031
a steep ramp of Ethernet switch deployments for scale-up in AI rack-systems ... will push total sales to surpass $250B over the next five years
Infrastructure & Telecoms · made Jan 2026 · source - Jan 2030
back-end AI Ethernet networking alone increasing eight-fold to comprise over one-third of the total revenue
Infrastructure & Telecoms · made Jan 2025 · source - Jan 2030
Crehan Research predicts that combined Ethernet switch and NIC market revenue will double within five years to surpass $50 billion.
Infrastructure & Telecoms · made Jan 2025 · source - Jan 2027
The company expects this technology to surpass 50-Gbps SerDes shipments to become the most-deployed data center Ethernet switch SerDes speed within three years.
Infrastructure & Telecoms · made Jan 2024 · source - Jan 2028
Crehan Research predicts that 800 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switches will see rapid customer adoption and will surpass 20 million ports in annual shipments within four years
Infrastructure & Telecoms · made Jan 2024 · source - Dec 2021
Shipments of 400 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) data center switch ports are on track to exceed 10 million this year, more than triple the prior year's shipments
Infrastructure & Telecoms · made Oct 2021 · source
