What changed in Arista Networks,'s 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025

No corresponding language in the FY2024 10-K.

No corresponding language in the FY2024 10-K.

No corresponding language in the FY2024 10-K.

No corresponding language in the FY2024 10-K.

No corresponding language in the FY2024 10-K.

No corresponding language in the FY2024 10-K.

No corresponding language in the FY2024 10-K.

No corresponding language in the FY2024 10-K.

In order to reduce manufacturing lead times and plan for adequate component supply, we have issued and expect to continue to issue purchase orders for components and products that are non-cancellable and non-returnable, including purchase commitments for semiconductors as disclosed in Note 5. Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our business is emerging from a period of unprecedented global supply chain disruptions. Throughout this period, we made significant supply chain investments, including incremental purchase commitments for long lead time components in response to extended visibility to deployment plans from our customers. Although the global supply chain has shown improvement, we have had to invest in inventory to address forecast uncertainty and expect that our inventory and purchase commitments will remain volatile as we ramp new product introductions. In particular, we have increased our purchase commitments to respond to the rapid deployment of AI networks and reduce overall lead times which will increase our working capital requirements. There is no guarantee that suppliers will meet their commitments or that actual customer demand will not be lower than our demand forecasts. As customer lead times improve more broadly, we have seen and expect to continue to see a commensurate reduction in visibility to customer demand and a gradual return to a somewhat shorter demand-planning horizon. Additionally, certain customers have and may continue to engage in cost reduction measures including reductions in capital expenditures and other efficiency efforts which may result in a cancellation of orders or reduce demand for our products. [removed] We establish a liability for non-cancellable, non-returnable purchase commitments with our component inventory suppliers for quantities in excess of our demand forecasts, or for products that are considered obsolete. In addition, we establish a liability and reimburse our contract manufacturer for component inventory purchased on our behalf that has been rendered excess or obsolete due to manufacturing and engineering change orders, or in cases where inventory levels greatly exceed our demand forecasts. The magnitude of these balances, combined with a reduction in customer demand-planning horizons and shifting product priorities, has resulted in increased risk that we may not be able to sell all of this inventory, which in turn has resulted, and may in the future result, in additional excess and obsolete inventory-related charges. Our non-cancellable commitments and the cash deposits to secure our purchases with our contract manufacturers are disclosed in Note 5. Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. If we ultimately determine that we have excess or obsolete inventory, we may have to reduce our prices and write down inventory to its estimated realizable value, which in turn could result in lower gross margins. If we are unable to effectively manage our supply and inventory, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.

Our business depends on the overall demand for information technology, network connectivity and access to data and applications. Weak domestic or global economic conditions and continuing economic uncertainty, fear or anticipation of such conditions, a recession, geopolitical pressures, including international trade disputes, global pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic, or a reduction in information technology and network infrastructure spending or a deterioration of the financial performance, condition or prospects of our customers, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects in a number of ways, including longer sales cycles, reduced demand or lower prices for our products and services, higher default rates among our channel partners, reduced unit sales and lower or no growth. [removed] In addition, the global macroeconomic environment has been negatively affected by, among other things, the uncertainty in the global banking and financial services markets, epidemics, instability in global economic markets, the new U.S. presidential administration, increased uncertainty associated with recent and scheduled increases in U.S. trade tariffs in the context of escalated and unresolved trade disputes and tensions between the U.S., China, Mexico, Canada and other countries, inflationary pressures, higher interest rates, instability in the global credit markets, the impact and uncertainty regarding global central bank monetary policy, instability in the geopolitical environment, the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts, political tensions between Taiwan and China, political demonstrations, and foreign governmental debt concerns which have caused, and are likely to continue to cause, uncertainty and instability in local economies and in global financial markets. While some of our customers may be adversely affected by negative macroeconomic conditions, the impact may be particularly significant in our enterprise market where we are seeking to increase our penetration into this market. A government shutdown or a default by the U.S. government on its debt obligations, or related credit-rating downgrades could also have adverse effects on the broader global economy and contribute to, or worsen, an economic recession. We believe that any extended or renewed economic disruptions or deterioration in the global economy could have an adverse impact to our liquidity or to our current and projected business operations, financial condition or results of operations. For example, if banks or other financial institutions with whom we have banking relationships or whose corporate bonds are held in our marketable securities investment portfolio, enter receivership or become insolvent in the future, we may be unable to access, and we may lose some of our existing cash, cash equivalents and investments to the extent those funds are not insured or otherwise protected by the FDIC. In addition, in such circumstances we might not be able to timely pay key vendors and others. We regularly maintain cash balances that are not insured or are in excess of the FDIC's insurance limit. Any delay in our ability to access our cash, cash equivalents and investments (or the loss of such funds) or to timely pay key vendors and others could have a material adverse effect on our operations and cause us to need to seek additional capital sooner than planned.

We have made substantial investments to develop new products and services and enhancements to existing products through our acquisitions and internal research and development efforts to expand our product offerings and maintain our revenue growth. If we are unable to anticipate technological changes in our industry by introducing new or enhanced products and services in a timely and cost-effective manner or if we fail to introduce products and services that meet market demand, we may lose our competitive position, our products may become obsolete, and our business, financial condition or results of operations could be adversely affected. For example, with our most recently introduced 800 GbE and AI focused Ethernet [removed] products, our ability to continue to maintain our competitive position with our customers will depend on our ability to deliver these new products in a timely manner, our customers' acceptance of these products and the growth of the markets that these products serve. In addition, the evaluation, testing and qualification of our new products by our customers may be lengthy and may require increased customer trials and contracts with acceptance clauses, which delay revenue recognition may negatively impact our revenue.

[removed] As of December 31, 2024, we have recorded long-term tax liabilities of $110.0 million related to uncertain tax positions; however, we are unable to make a reasonably reliable estimate of the timing of settlement, if any, of these future payments.

[removed] In connection with the TCJA, effective from January 1st, 2022, the TCJA eliminates the option to deduct research and development expenditures currently and requires taxpayers to capitalize and amortize them over five or fifteen years pursuant to Internal Revenue Code ("IRC") Section 174. As of December 31, 2024, the incremental cash tax impact resulting from the regulation was approximately $210.2 million for the year, of which substantially all the liability has been paid. It is anticipated that IRC Section 174 will result in cash tax outlays exceeding our income tax expense over the next three years unless the current legislation is changed. There is no material change to our effective tax rate as a result of this regulation.

[removed] It also is possible that the Chinese government will retaliate in ways that could impact our business. For example, China has announced controls on both the use of Micron products and export [removed] license requirements on certain materials used, among other things, in the production of semiconductors, optical components, and other electronic devices including germanium and gallium. [removed] China also has announced a new export control regime. Additionally, these restrictions could disrupt the ability of China to produce semiconductors and other electronics and impact our ability to source components from China. China has also announced plans to implement retaliatory countermeasures in response to the additional 10% tariffs imposed by the United States in February 2025, including new tariffs on certain U.S. origin goods, and has implemented export controls on various critical metal materials. These restrictions could impact the cost of components or inputs used to produce our products.

In order to reduce [removed] manufacturing lead times and plan for adequate component supply, we have issued and expect to continue to issue purchase orders for components and products that are non-cancellable and non-returnable, including purchase commitments for semiconductors as disclosed in Note 5. Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. [removed] Our business is emerging from a period of unprecedented global supply chain disruptions. Throughout this period, we made significant supply chain investments, including incremental purchase commitments for long lead time components in response to extended visibility to deployment plans from our customers. Although the global supply chain has shown improvement, we have had to invest in inventory to address forecast uncertainty and expect that our inventory and purchase commitments will remain volatile as we ramp new product introductions. In particular, we have increased our purchase commitments to respond to the rapid deployment of AI networks and reduce overall lead times which will increase our working capital requirements. [removed] There is no guarantee that suppliers will meet their commitments or that actual customer demand will not be lower than our demand forecasts. As customer lead times improve more broadly, we have seen and expect to continue to see a commensurate reduction in visibility to customer demand [removed] and a gradual return to a somewhat shorter demand-planning horizon. Additionally, certain customers have and may continue to engage in cost reduction measures including reductions in capital expenditures and other efficiency [removed] efforts which may result in a cancellation of orders or reduce demand for our products. We establish a liability for non-cancellable, non-returnable purchase commitments with our component inventory suppliers for quantities in excess of our demand forecasts, or for products that are considered obsolete. In addition, we establish a liability and reimburse our contract manufacturer for component inventory purchased on our behalf that has been rendered excess or obsolete due to manufacturing and engineering change orders, or in cases where inventory levels greatly exceed our demand forecasts. The magnitude of these balances, combined with a reduction in customer demand-planning horizons and shifting product priorities, has resulted in increased risk that we may not be able to sell all of this inventory, which in turn has resulted, and may in the future result, in additional excess and obsolete inventory-related charges. Our non-cancellable commitments and the cash deposits to secure our purchases with our contract manufacturers are disclosed in Note 5. Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. If we ultimately determine that we have excess or obsolete inventory, we may have to reduce our prices and write down inventory to its estimated realizable value, which in turn could result in lower gross margins. If we are unable to effectively manage our supply and inventory, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.

We establish a liability for non-cancellable, non-returnable purchase commitments with our component inventory suppliers for quantities in excess of our demand forecasts, or for products that are considered obsolete. In addition, we establish a liability and reimburse our contract manufacturer for component inventory purchased on our behalf that has been rendered excess or obsolete due to manufacturing and engineering change orders, or in cases where inventory levels greatly exceed our demand forecasts. The magnitude of these balances, combined with a reduction in customer demand-planning horizons and shifting product priorities, has resulted in increased risk that we may not be able to sell all of this inventory, which in turn has resulted, and may in the future result, in additional excess and obsolete inventory-related charges. Our non-cancellable commitments and the cash deposits to secure our purchases with our contract manufacturers are disclosed in Note 5. Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. If we ultimately determine that we have excess or obsolete inventory, we may have to reduce our prices and write down inventory to[removed] its estimated realizable value, which in turn could result in lower gross margins. If we are unable to effectively manage our supply and inventory, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.

[removed] Historically, large purchases by a relatively limited number of customers have accounted for a significant portion of our revenue. [removed] We have experienced unpredictability in the timing of orders from these large customers primarily due to the [removed] time it takes these customers to evaluate, test, qualify and accept our products, the overall complexity of these large orders and changes in demand [removed] patterns specific to these customers, including reductions in or changes in mix of capital expenditures by these customers and the impact of cost reduction and other efficiency efforts by these customers. [removed] For example, sales to our end customer Microsoft represented 20%, 18% and 16% of our total revenue for the years ended 2024, 2023 and 2022 respectively. And sales to our end customer Meta Platforms represented 15%, 21% and 26% of our total revenue, respectively for the years ended 2024, 2023 and 2022. This variability in customer concentration has been linked to the timing of new product deployments, and spending cycles with these customers, and we expect continued variability in our customer concentration and timing of sales on a quarterly and annual basis. In addition, we typically provide [removed] pricing discounts to large customers, [removed] which reduces gross margins for the period in which such sales occur.

[removed] Several jurisdictions have passed new laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, and other matters, and other jurisdictions are considering imposing additional restrictions. These laws continue to develop and may be [removed] inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA") became operative on January 1, 2020 and was amended by the California Privacy Rights Act ("CPRA") going into effect over time through July 1, 2023. Aspects of the CCPA/CPRA and its interpretation remain uncertain and are likely to remain uncertain for an extended period and may require us to incur additional costs and expenses in an effort to comply. In addition to the CCPA/CPRA, numerous other states have enacted or are considering similar laws that will require ongoing compliance efforts and investment. [removed] For example, Connecticut, Virginia, Colorado and Utah have enacted legislation similar to the CCPA and CPRA that took effect in 2023; Florida, Montana, Oregon, and Texas have enacted similar legislation that took effect in 2024; Delaware, Tennessee, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nebraska, New Jersey and Tennessee have enacted similar legislation effective, or taking effect in 2025; and Indiana, Rhode Island and Kentucky have enacted similar legislation that will become effective in 2026.

Assessing our processes, procedures and staffing in order to improve our internal control over financial reporting is an ongoing process. Preparing our financial statements involves a number of complex processes, many of which are [removed] done manually and are dependent upon individual data input or [removed] review. These processes include, but are not limited to, calculating revenue, inventory costs and the preparation of our statement of cash flows. [removed] While we continue to automate our processes and enhance our review controls to reduce the likelihood [removed] for errors, we expect that for the foreseeable future many of our processes will remain manually intensive and thus subject to human error.

[removed] If tariffs, trade restrictions, or trade barriers remain in place or if new tariffs, trade restrictions, or trade barriers are placed on products such as ours by U.S. or foreign governments, especially China, our costs may increase. We believe we can adjust our supply chain and manufacturing practices to minimize the impact of the tariffs and any impact on the supply chain of components sourced [removed] in China, but our efforts may not be [removed] successful, there can be no assurance that we will not experience a disruption in our business related to these or other changes in trade [removed] practices and the process of changing suppliers in order to mitigate any such tariff costs could be complicated, time-consuming, and costly.

Managing our manufacturing capacity and extended supply chain is complex, and our inventory management systems and related supply-chain visibility tools may not enable us to effectively manage the supply of our products and product components. Our ability to manage our supply chain has also and could continue to be adversely affected by other factors including geopolitical conditions such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict and related economic sanctions against Russia, the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Houthi attacks on marine vessels in the Red Sea, changing international trade policies and political tensions between China and Taiwan. Global geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainties have resulted in prolonged manufacturing and supply chain disruptions, including temporary closures of certain manufacturing and supplier facilities particularly within China and controls on certain supplies including China's restrictions in the use of Micron products and its controls on metals used in semiconductor manufacturing such as gallium and germanium which, in turn, have caused and may continue to cause shortages of, and extended lead times for, components used to manufacture our products, increases in the prices for such components, a reduction, unpredictability or interruption of supply, prioritization of component shipments to other vendors and decommitments of orders. In addition, China imposed additional export controls on critical metals including tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum, and indium (and related compounds) in February 2025 as part of its response to the United States's imposition of an additional 10% tariff on products from China. Insufficient component supply, and increases in the time required to manufacture our products [removed] may lead to prolonged inventory shortages, manufacturing disruptions and increased customer lead times for our [removed] products that could result in increased cancellation of orders or loss of future sales opportunities altogether as potential customers turn to competitors' products that are readily available. In addition, in order to meet customer lead times, we [removed] have, and may continue to expedite the supply of components and make incremental investments in our supply chain to increase our capacity for manufacturing products, which increases our product [removed] costs.

[removed] Tax laws are dynamic and subject to change. Changes in tax laws and regulations and interpretations of such laws and regulations, including taxation of earnings outside of the U.S. may have adverse effects on our operating results and could impact the tax treatment of our earnings and cash and cash equivalent balances we currently maintain. [removed] Furthermore, due to shifting economic and political conditions, tax policies and rates in various jurisdictions, may be subject to significant change. Domestically, following the 2024 Presidential election, it is possible the newly elected Trump Administration and Republican controlled Congress will pass some tax reform in order to address certain provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expiring at the end of 2025. It is uncertain what proposals to reform U.S. and International tax laws might pass and whether such laws could increase or decrease the U.S. corporate tax rate. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ("OECD"), [removed] comprising 38 international member countries including the United States, has introduced a global minimum tax initiative ("Pillar Two"), which [removed] has been adopted by members of the [removed] European Union ("EU"), among other jurisdictions. While the U.S. has not yet adopted Pillar Two, other OECD countries outside or the EU are actively considering changes to existing tax laws or have proposed new laws to align with the recommendations and guidelines proposed by the OECD, including Pillar Two. Enactment of such tax laws could increase our tax obligations in countries where we do business or cause us to change the way we operate our business. We have assessed the impacts of these new laws in countries that we operate in and do not currently anticipate any material impacts to our effective tax rate. However, we cannot provide any assurance that there will not be a material impact to our effective tax rate in the future as a result of these developments or other proposed changes.

We and our contract manufacturers procure components and build our products based on our forecasts. These forecasts are based on estimates of future demand for our products, which are in turn based on historical trends and analysis from our sales and marketing organizations, adjusted for overall market conditions and other factors. In order to address [removed] supply chain shortages and extended lead times, we have entered, and may continue to enter, into significant purchase commitments with our contract manufacturers and suppliers, with issuance of non-cancellable purchase orders for such commitments. There is no guarantee that suppliers will meet their commitments or that actual customer demand will directly match our demand forecasts. If our forecasts materially change from our initial projections, customers' orders are cancelled or if we otherwise do not need such inventory, we may under- or over-procure inventory, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

[removed] We cannot predict what actions may ultimately be taken with respect to trade relations between the United States and China or other countries, what products may be subject to such actions or what actions may be taken by the other countries in retaliation. If we are unable to obtain or use components for inclusion in our products, if component prices increase significantly or if we are unable to export or sell our products to any of our customers, our business, liquidity, financial condition, and/or results of operations would be materially and adversely affected.

• [removed] changes in trade controls, economic sanctions, or other international trade regulations, which have in general recently trended toward increasing breadth and complexity of controls, and which may affect our ability to import or export our products to and from various countries;

We may be unable to sustain or increase our revenue from our large customers, grow revenue with new or other existing customers at the rate we anticipate or at all, or offset a decline or discontinuation of concentrated purchases by our larger customers with purchases by new or existing customers. These customers could reduce their spending levels or otherwise could choose to divert all or a portion of their business with us to one of our competitors, re-assign spending allocations, increase their adoption of "white box" solutions and open-source network operating systems, demand pricing concessions for our services, or require us to provide enhanced services that increase our costs. Moreover, the AI market is new and customers continue to evaluate their opportunity in this market, recent advances in network architecture may result in increased efficiencies and lowering of infrastructure spending and the potential demand for our AI Ethernet switches may not develop as anticipated or at all. If these factors drive some of our large customers to cancel all or a portion of their business relationships with us, the growth in our business and the ability to meet our current and long-term financial forecasts may be materially impacted. We expect that such concentrated purchases will continue to contribute materially to our revenue for the foreseeable future and that our results of operations may fluctuate materially as a result of such larger customers' buying patterns. In addition, we may see consolidation of our customer base, such as among Internet companies and cloud service providers, which could result in the loss of customers. [removed] The loss of such customers, or a significant delay or reduction in their purchases, including reductions or delays due to customer departures from recent buying patterns, or an unfavorable change in competitive conditions could materially harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

• [removed] managing the supply of our products and product components is complex;

[removed] Our products may also be subject to further increased U.S. or international tariffs as a result of the outbreak of and escalation in international trade wars between the U.S., China, Mexico and other [removed] countries. In response to the February 2025 U.S. government tariffs scheduled on goods of Canadian, Mexican, and Chinese origin, all three affected countries announced plans to implement retaliatory measures including new tariffs on certain [removed] U.S. goods, and, in the case of China, new export controls [removed] on certain critical metal items. The U.S. tariffs on Canadian and Mexican origin products and the Canadian and Mexican tariffs on U.S. origin products has been suspended for a period of 30 days pursuant to agreements between the U.S. government and the Canadian and Mexican governments, pending further negotiations between these countries. Such agreements and negotiations may fail and result in the imposition of new trade measures between any or all of these countries and the United States. The February 2025 U.S. government executive orders scheduling the tariff increases on goods of Canadian, Mexican, and Chinese origin also included provisions allowing for further escalation of tariffs in the event affected countries implement retaliatory measures. Such increases could result in the imposition of extreme tariff or non-tariff measures, which may lead to a breakdown in international supply chains due to increased tariff costs and disruptions in the availability of goods.

[removed] Breaches of our cybersecurity systems, or other security or privacy breaches or incidents with respect to our products, services, networks, systems, or data, could degrade our ability to conduct our business operations and deliver products and services to our [removed] customers, cause vulnerabilities in our products and services, and subject us to regulatory enforcement actions and or fines or liabilities for damages incurred by our customers or partners, delay our ability to [removed] recognize revenue, compromise the integrity of our software products and our networks, systems, and data, result in significant data losses and the theft of our intellectual property, damage our reputation, expose us to liability to third parties and require us to incur significant additional costs to maintain the security of our networks and data.

From time to time, we are involved in legal proceedings relating to matters incidental to the ordinary course of our business, including patent, copyright, commercial, product liability, employment, class action, whistleblower and other litigation, in addition to governmental and other regulatory investigations and proceedings. Such matters can be time-consuming, divert management's attention and resources, cause us to incur significant expenses or liability and/or require us to change our business practices.[removed] For example, we were previously involved in litigation with Cisco and OptumSoft. In addition, on November 25, 2020, WSOU filed a lawsuit against us in the Western District of Texas asserting that certain of our products infringe three WSOU patents. WSOU's allegations are directed to certain features of our wireless and switching products. WSOU seeks remedies including monetary damages, attorney's fees and costs. On February 4, 2021, we filed an answer denying WSOU's allegations. On November 5, 2021, the case was transferred to the Northern District of California. On March 30, 2022, WSOU dismissed one of the patents with prejudice, removing Arista wireless products from those accused of infringement. On July 1, 2022, the court stayed the case pending the resolution of an inter partes review of one of the patents-in-suit. On May 30, 2023, the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board ("PTAB") ruled all challenged claims in the inter partes review unpatentable. The district court case remains stayed pending appeal and/or final resolution of the PTAB ruling. We intend to vigorously defend against the claims brought against us by WSOU. However, we cannot be certain that any of WSOU's claims will be resolved in our favor, regardless of the merits of those claims. Any adverse litigation ruling could result in a significant damages award against us and injunctive relief.

In addition, business disruptions and supply chain and manufacturing disruptions may result in customers delaying or canceling or reprioritizing capital expenditures on information technology and network infrastructure, which may affect the overall demand for our products. Customers may also be placing orders based on longer planning horizons to ensure supply. We also believe that our customers continue to assess the impact of these macroeconomic factors on their businesses and future investment plans, resulting in business uncertainty and a more constrained approach to forecasts and orders. Continuing or [removed] worsening economic instability or the deterioration of the financial performance, condition or prospects of our customers could result in a cancellation of, or defaults in the payments for, such orders or otherwise adversely affect spending for IT, network infrastructure, systems and tools, and limit our ability to forecast future demand for our products, which could reduce expected revenue or result in a write-down of excess or obsolete inventory.[removed] A downturn or a recession may also significantly affect financing markets, the availability of capital and the terms and conditions of any financing arrangements, including the overall cost of financing as well as the financial health or creditworthiness of our customers. Circumstances may arise in which we need, or desire, to raise additional capital, and such capital may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all.

[removed] We operate on December 31st year end and typically have lower sequential quarter over quarter revenue growth in the first quarter of each fiscal year, often followed by stronger sequential revenue growth in the [removed] ensuing quarters. We believe that this [removed] seasonality results from a number of factors, including the procurement, budgeting and deployment cycles of [removed] many of our customers. The effects of [removed] recent supply chain disruptions and our rapid growth may have reduced the impact of [removed] seasonal or cyclical factors that might otherwise have influenced our business and broader industry performance. If our growth rates slow, [removed] seasonal or cyclical variations in our operations may become more pronounced over time and may materially affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.[removed] In addition, any supply chain shortages and manufacturing disruptions that result in extended lead times may impact our ability to manufacture and ship products to our customers in a timely manner, which may disrupt typical seasonal trends.

Although we have entered into significant purchase commitments to support long-term customer demand, if we are unable to obtain sufficient quantities of any of these components on commercially reasonable terms or in a timely manner, or if we are unable to obtain alternative sources for these components, shipments of our products could be delayed or halted entirely, [removed] or we may be required to redesign our products. Any of these events could result in [removed] the cancellation of orders, lost sales, reduced gross margins or damage to our customer relationships, which would adversely impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and [removed] prospects. Additionally, if our suppliers do not meet their commitments, customers cancel orders or actual demand is less than our demand forecasts, it could result in excess or obsolete inventory, which we would be required to write down to its estimated realizable value, which in turn could result in lower gross margins and operating income. Our operating cash flows have also been and may in the future be negatively impacted by an increase of component inventories on hand or at our contract manufacturers.

Our products are subject to various export controls and because we incorporate encryption technology into certain of our products, certain of our products may be exported from various countries only with the required export license or through an export license exception. If we were to fail to comply with the applicable export control laws, customs regulations, economic sanctions or other applicable laws, we could be subject to monetary damages or the imposition of restrictions which could be material to our business, operating results and prospects and could also harm our reputation. Further, there could be criminal penalties for knowing or willful violations, including incarceration for culpable employees and managers. Obtaining the [removed] necessary export license or other authorization for a particular sale may be time-consuming and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities. Furthermore, certain export control and economic sanctions laws prohibit the shipment of certain products, technology, software and services to embargoed countries and sanctioned governments, entities, and persons. For example, in addition to the controls imposed on China, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the United States and other countries imposed restrictions on the import to the US of raw materials and goods from Russia and certain economic sanctions and severe export control restrictions against Russia, Belarus and regions of Ukraine as well as certain Russian nationals and entities which required us, in many cases, to terminate business relationships in those countries. These sanctions and restrictions have continued to increase as the conflict has further escalated, and the United States and other countries could impose wider sanctions and export restrictions as well as prohibitions on the import into the United States of additional raw materials from Russia and take other actions in the future that could further impact our [removed] business. Any deterioration in relations between Taiwan and China could lead to additional sanctions or export controls [removed] on China, on specific individuals or entities, or otherwise in the region which could impact our ability to sell to certain of our customers, source components from China, or otherwise negatively impact our business. Even though we take precautions to ensure that we and our channel partners comply with all relevant regulations, any failure by us or our channel partners to comply with such regulations could have negative consequences, including reputational harm, government investigations and penalties. In addition, economic sanctions that are vague and not subject to guidance by regulators lead to heightened compliance risk.

Any allegations or violation of the FCPA or other applicable anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws and anti-money laundering laws could result in whistleblower complaints, sanctions, settlements, prosecution, enforcement actions, fines, damages, adverse media coverage, investigations, loss of export privileges, severe criminal or civil sanctions, or suspension or [removed] debarment from government contracts, all of which may have an adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of [removed] operations, and prospects. Responding to any [removed] investigation or action will likely result in a [removed] materially significant diversion of management's attention and resources and [removed] significant defense costs and other [removed] professional fees.

[removed] Additional changes or threatened changes in U.S. trade measures have affected and may continue to affect trade involving additional countries as well, including Mexico, Canada, Colombia, the United Kingdom, and the member countries of the European Union among others. Each of these measures or threatened measures may instigate reciprocal countermeasures by affected countries, potentially accelerating further increases in trade measures. Such escalations in these trade measures may directly impair our business by increasing trade-related costs or disrupting established supply chains and may indirectly impair our business by causing a negative effect on global economic [removed] conditions and financial markets. The ultimate impact of these trade measures is uncertain, and may be affected by various factors, including whether and when such trade measures are implemented, the timing when such measures may become effective, and the amount, scope, or nature of such trade measures.

As a consequence of the concentrated nature of our customer base and their purchasing behavior, our quarterly revenue and results of operations have fluctuated from quarter to quarter and are difficult to estimate and we expect the fluctuations to continue. Changes in the business requirements or focus, upgrade cycles, vendor selection, project prioritization, manner in which spending allocations are assigned among multiple vendors based upon specific network roles or projects, financial prospects, lack of growth of our large customers, capital resources and expenditures or purchasing behavior and deceleration in spending of these customers could significantly decrease our sales to such customers or could lead to delays, reductions or cancellations of planned purchases of our products or services. In addition, an increased focus on the deployment of AI enabled solutions by these customers has accelerated the need for advanced technology offerings including some offerings from potential new market entrants. This prioritization of AI related infrastructure investment has at times come in conjunction with the announcement of various cost reduction measures by such customers, including optimization and increased efficiency in non-AI related capital expenditures. In addition, although the focus on deployment of AI enabled solutions has driven increased demand for networking, the long-term trajectory is unknown. As such, demand estimates for our new products are difficult to forecast and can create volatility in our revenue. [removed] In some instances, such measures have had, and may continue to have, an impact on certain current or future projects and have reduced our visibility to customer demand and may result in a reduction or uncertainty in the timing of orders from these large customers, which may negatively impact our revenue and increase the risk of excess and obsolescence charges on our products. In addition, fiscal 2024 was marked by a year of new product introductions and expanded use cases, particularly in the AI Ethernet market, and we expect this to continue into fiscal 2025. This has resulted in increased customer trials and contracts with acceptance periods, and an increase in the volatility and magnitude of our product deferred revenue balances, which in turn may create variability in our revenue results on a quarterly and annual basis. In addition, if we are not able to satisfy the requirements under customer trials or contracts with acceptance periods, we may be required to accept product returns from our customers, which would prevent us from recognizing revenue on such transactions and may result in the write-down of inventory.

[removed] • sales of substantial amounts of our common stock [removed] could reduce the market price of our common [removed] stock;

[removed] Because our products are primarily manufactured internationally, the import of our products may be affected by changes in applicable tariffs. Our products are primarily manufactured in Malaysia, Vietnam, and Mexico, and we also procure [removed] some of our products directly from China. In February 2025, the U.S. government scheduled 25% tariffs to be imposed on products of Mexican origin. Although subsequent discussions between the President of the United States and the [removed] President of Mexico have resulted in an agreement to temporarily defer the effective date for these tariffs, this policy may be reversed at any time. In addition, [removed] imports of products manufactured in Malaysia and/or Vietnam may be targeted for U.S. tariff increases in light of the increased trade imbalances between the United States and these countries, which has increased significantly in the past decade as manufacturing operations have increasingly moved to these countries due to strained U.S.-China trade relations. An increase in trade-related costs associated with these imports may impair the profitability of such international production, may strain our suppliers' ability to provide inputs necessary for the production of these items, and may otherwise affect our manufacturing partners' ability to provide our products at previously contracted prices. We also may not be able to pass on the full burden of the increase in trade-related costs to our partners and/or customers which could impact our profitability and/or our competitiveness.

• [removed] breaches of our cybersecurity systems or other security breaches could degrade our ability to conduct our business operations and deliver products and services to our customers, cause vulnerabilities in our products [removed] and services or subject us to regulatory enforcement actions and or fines or liabilities for damages incurred by our customers or partners.

Our products are subject to various export controls and because we incorporate encryption technology into certain of our products, certain of our products may be exported from various countries only with the required export license or through an export license exception. If we were to fail to comply with the applicable export control laws, customs regulations, economic sanctions or other applicable laws, we could be subject to monetary damages or the imposition of restrictions which could be material to our business, operating results and prospects and could also harm our reputation. Further, there could be criminal penalties for knowing or willful violations, including incarceration for culpable employees and managers. Obtaining the necessary export license or other authorization for a particular sale may be time-consuming and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities. Furthermore, certain export control and economic sanctions laws prohibit the shipment of certain products, technology, software and services to embargoed countries and sanctioned governments, entities, and persons. For example, in addition to the controls imposed on China, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the United States and other countries imposed restrictions on the import to the US of raw materials and goods from Russia and certain economic sanctions and severe export control restrictions against Russia, Belarus and regions of Ukraine as well as certain Russian nationals and entities which required us, in many cases, to terminate business relationships in those countries. These sanctions and restrictions have continued to increase as the conflict has further escalated, and the United States and other countries could impose wider sanctions and export restrictions as well as prohibitions on the import into the United States of additional raw materials from Russia and take other actions in the future that could further impact our business. Any deterioration in relations between Taiwan and China could lead to additional sanctions or export controls on China, on specific individuals or entities, or otherwise in the region which could impact our ability to sell to certain of our customers, source components from China, or otherwise negatively impact our business. Even though we take precautions to ensure that we and our channel partners comply with all relevant regulations, any failure by us or our channel partners to comply with such regulations could have negative consequences, including reputational harm, government investigations and penalties. In addition, economic sanctions that are vague and not subject to guidance by regulators lead to heightened compliance risk.

• [removed] risks associated with U.S. and foreign legal requirements, including those relating to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, telecommunications, cybersecurity, supply chain integrity, privacy, data protection and [removed] the importation, certification and localization of our products in foreign countries;

In addition, inflationary pressures and shortages have increased and may continue to increase costs for certain materials, components, supplies and services. As a result of cost inflation in our supply chain, we have implemented targeted price increases from time to time. However, these price increases could result in a decrease in demand for our products which would decrease revenue. In addition, if business were subject to sustained economic stress or recession, many of the risk factors identified in this risk factors section could be heightened. We determine our operating expenses largely on the basis of anticipated revenue and a high percentage of our expenses are fixed in the short and medium term. As a result, a failure or delay in generating or recognizing revenue could cause significant variations in our operating results and operating margin from quarter to quarter. Failure to sustain or improve our gross margins reduces our profitability and may have a material adverse effect on our business and stock [removed] price.

[removed] There is currently significant uncertainty about the future relationship between the United States, and various other countries, most significantly China, Canada and Mexico, with respect to trade policies, treaties, tariffs and taxes. The U.S. government has and continues to make significant additional changes in U.S. trade policy and has taken certain actions that could negatively impact U.S. trade. In addition, there may be further changes in U.S. trade policy given the change in the presidential administration.

• defects, errors or vulnerabilities in our products, [removed] failure of our products to detect security breaches or incidents, misuse of our products or [removed] risks of product liability could harm our business;

Our business depends on the overall demand for information technology, network connectivity and access to data and applications. Weak domestic or global economic conditions and continuing economic uncertainty, fear or anticipation of such conditions, a recession, geopolitical pressures, including international trade disputes, global pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic, or a reduction in information technology and network infrastructure spending or a deterioration of the financial performance, condition or prospects of our customers, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects in a number of ways, including longer sales cycles, reduced demand or lower prices for our products and services, higher default rates among our channel partners, reduced unit sales and lower or no growth. In addition, the global macroeconomic environment has been negatively affected by, among other things, the uncertainty in the global banking and financial services markets, epidemics, instability in global economic markets, the new U.S. presidential administration, increased uncertainty associated with recent and scheduled increases in U.S. trade tariffs in the context of escalated and unresolved trade disputes and tensions between the U.S., China, Mexico, Canada and other countries, inflationary pressures, higher interest rates, instability in the global credit markets, the impact and uncertainty regarding global central bank monetary policy, instability in the geopolitical environment, the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts, political tensions between Taiwan and China, political demonstrations, and foreign governmental debt concerns which have caused, and are likely to continue to cause, uncertainty and instability in local economies and in global financial markets. While some of our customers may be adversely affected by negative macroeconomic conditions, the impact may be particularly significant in our enterprise market where we are seeking to increase our penetration into this market. A government shutdown or a default by the U.S. government on its debt obligations, or related credit-rating downgrades could also have adverse effects on the broader global economy and contribute to, or worsen, an economic recession. We believe that any extended or renewed economic disruptions or deterioration in the global economy could have an adverse impact to our liquidity or to our current and projected business operations, financial condition or results of operations. For example, if banks or other financial institutions with whom we have banking relationships or whose corporate bonds are held in our marketable securities investment portfolio, enter receivership or become insolvent in the future, we may be unable to access, and we may lose some of our existing cash, cash equivalents and investments to the extent those funds are not insured or otherwise protected by the [removed] FDIC. In addition, in such circumstances we might not be able to timely pay key vendors and others. We regularly maintain cash balances that are not insured or are in excess of the FDIC's insurance limit. Any delay in our ability to access our cash, cash equivalents and investments (or the loss of such funds) or to timely pay key vendors and others could have a material adverse effect on our operations and cause us to need to seek additional capital sooner than planned.

• [removed] risks associated with government trade [removed] restrictions, including those which may impose restrictions, including prohibitions on the exportation, re-exportation, sale, shipment or other transfer of programming, technology, components, and/or services to foreign persons;

• the budgeting, sales, implementation and refresh cycles, purchasing practices, technology roadmaps and priorities and buying patterns of [removed] customers, including large customers who generally receive lower pricing terms due to volume discounts and who may or may not make large bulk purchases in certain quarters or who may elect to re-assign allocations to multiple vendors based upon specific network roles or projects or who may be placing orders based on longer planning horizons to ensure supply;

Our corporate headquarters and the operations of our key manufacturing vendors, logistics providers and partners, as well as many of our customers, are located in areas exposed to risks of natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Japan and Taiwan. In addition, climate change may result in greater frequency and severity of natural disasters. A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, tsunami, fire or a flood, or other catastrophic event such as the COVID-19 pandemic or other disease outbreak, could have a material adverse effect on our or their business, which could in turn materially affect our financial condition, results of operations and prospects. These events could result in manufacturing and supply chain disruptions, shipment delays, order cancellations, and sales delays which could result in missed financial targets. Any health epidemic could have a material adverse effect on our ability to obtain components for our products that are supplied from Asia or to manufacture our products in Asia. Any such disruption of our suppliers, our contract manufacturers or our service providers would likely impact our sales and operating results. In addition, a health epidemic could adversely affect the economies of many countries, resulting in an economic downturn that could affect demand for our products [removed] and likely impact our operating results. In addition, acts of terrorism and war could cause disruptions in our business or the business of our manufacturers, logistics providers, partners or customers or the economy as a whole. Given our typical concentration of sales at each quarter end, any disruption in the business of our manufacturers, logistics providers, partners or customers that affects sales at the end of our quarter could have a particularly significant adverse effect on our quarterly results.

[removed] We increasingly depend upon [removed] our IT systems to conduct virtually all [removed] of our business operations, ranging from [removed] our internal operations and product development activities to [removed] our marketing and sales efforts and communications with [removed] our customers and business partners. [removed] Computer programmers or other persons or organizations may attempt to penetrate our network security, or that of our website or systems, and access, use, or obtain confidential, personal, or otherwise sensitive or proprietary information about us or our customers, or via these or other methods, including denial of service attacks and other cyberattacks, disrupt or cause interruptions of our systems, products, services and networks. In addition, geopolitical tensions and conflicts, such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Israel-Hamas hostilities and deteriorating relations with China, may create a greater risk of cyberattacks against our company and our manufacturers, suppliers, logistics providers, banks and other business partners. Because the techniques used to access, disrupt, or sabotage networks and systems change frequently and may not be recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques. In addition, our software and sophisticated hardware and operating system software and applications that we develop or procure from third parties may contain vulnerabilities or defects in design or manufacture, including "bugs," viruses, ransomware and other malware, and other problems that could cause the software or applications to fail or otherwise to unexpectedly interfere with the operation of the system or that could result in a breach of or disruption to our systems, products, services or networks or the systems, networks, products, or services of third parties that support us and our services. We also face risks of others gaining unauthorized access to our products and services and introducing malicious software, and such malicious software, defects, bugs or vulnerabilities, or other defects, bugs, or vulnerabilities in our products or services may result in failures or interruptions of our products or services or expose our end-customers' networks, leaving their networks unprotected against the latest security threats.

• the amount and timing of operating costs and capital expenditures related to the operation and expansion of our [removed] business;

The timing of our sales and revenue recognition is difficult to predict because of the length and unpredictability of our products' sales cycles. A sales cycle is the period between initial contact with a prospective customer and any sale of our products. End-customer orders often involve the purchase of multiple products. These orders are complex and difficult to complete because prospective customers generally consider a number of factors over an extended period of time before committing to purchase the products and solutions we sell. Customers, especially our large customers, often view the purchase of our products as a significant and strategic decision and require considerable time to evaluate, test and qualify our products prior to making a purchase decision and placing an order. The length of time that customers devote to their evaluation, contract negotiation and budgeting processes varies significantly. In addition, customers may delay upgrades to their network infrastructure which extends the upgrade and sales cycle. Our products' sales cycles are lengthy in certain cases, especially with respect to our prospective large customers and certain markets including the enterprise, campus and AI markets. During the sales cycle, we expend significant time and money on sales and marketing activities and make investments in evaluation equipment, all of which lower our operating margins, particularly if no sale occurs. Even if a customer decides to purchase our products, there are many factors affecting the timing of our recognition of revenue, which makes our revenue difficult to forecast. For example, there may be unexpected delays in a customer's internal procurement processes, particularly for some of our larger customers for which our products represent a very small percentage of their total procurement activity. In addition, due to macroeconomic uncertainties, the sales cycle may be extended and there may be delays and reductions of expenditures and cancellations by customers. There are many other factors specific to customers that contribute to the timing of their purchases and the variability of our revenue recognition, including the strategic importance of a particular project to a customer, budgetary constraints and changes in their personnel.

[removed] For example, in 2018, the Office of the U.S. [removed] Trade Representative ("USTR") enacted various [removed] tariffs of 7.5%, 10%, 15% and 25% on imports into the U.S. from China, including communications equipment products and components manufactured and imported from China. USTR has continued to expand these tariffs recently announcing new tariffs of up to 100% on certain products. Since then, China has retaliated through various trade related measures including imposing tariffs on imports into China from the United States. Most recently, in February 2025, the U.S. [removed] government imposed an additional 10% tariff on imports from China, on top of existing tariff burdens, and the U.S. President has indicated that additional tariffs may be forthcoming. In response, China announced additional tariffs on certain U.S.-origin goods and implemented new export controls on various critical metals.

• enhanced [removed] U.S. tax, tariff, import/export restrictions, Chinese regulations or other trade barriers may negatively affect our business;

• [removed] earthquakes, fire, power outages, floods, health epidemics and other catastrophic events could harm our business;

• sales of our [removed] switches generate most of our product revenue;

[removed] We may be unable to sustain or increase our revenue from our large customers, grow revenue with new or other existing customers at the rate we anticipate or at all, or offset a decline or discontinuation of concentrated purchases by our larger customers with purchases by new or existing customers. These customers could reduce their spending levels or otherwise could choose to divert all or [removed] a portion of their business [removed] with us to one of our competitors, re-assign spending allocations, increase their adoption of "white box" solutions and open-source network operating systems, demand pricing concessions for our services, or require us to provide enhanced services that increase our costs. Moreover, the AI market is new and customers continue to evaluate their opportunity in this market, recent advances in network architecture may result in increased efficiencies and lowering of infrastructure spending and the potential demand for our AI Ethernet switches may not develop as anticipated or at all. If these factors drive some of our large customers to cancel all or a portion of their business relationships with us, the growth in our business and the ability to meet our current and long-term financial forecasts may be materially impacted. We expect that such concentrated purchases will continue to contribute materially to our revenue for the foreseeable future and that our results of operations may fluctuate materially as a result of such larger customers' buying patterns. In addition, we may see consolidation of our customer base, such as among Internet companies and cloud service providers, which could result in the loss of customers. The loss of such customers, or a significant delay or reduction in their purchases, including reductions or delays due to customer departures from recent buying patterns, or an unfavorable change in competitive conditions could materially harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Our future success depends, in part, on our ability to continue to attract and retain highly skilled personnel, particularly software engineering and sales personnel. In addition, we are expanding internationally and into adjacent markets including the enterprise and AI market, which requires a significant investment of time, effort and financial resources into hiring and training our sales force to address these markets. If we do not effectively train our direct sales force, we may be unable to add new customers, increase sales to our existing customers, or successfully expand into new markets. Competition for highly skilled personnel is often intense, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area where we have a substantial presence and need for highly skilled personnel. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we have to provide more attractive compensation packages and other amenities. Research and development personnel are aggressively recruited by startup and growth companies, which are especially active in many of the technical areas and geographic regions in which we conduct product development. In addition, in making employment decisions, particularly in the high-technology industry, job candidates often consider the value of the stock-based compensation they are to receive in connection with their employment. Declines in the market price of our stock could adversely affect our ability to attract, motivate or retain key employees. In addition, our future performance also depends on the continued services and continuing contributions of our senior management to execute our business plan and to identify and pursue new opportunities and product innovations. Our employment arrangements with our employees do not generally require that they continue to work for us for any specified period, and therefore, they could terminate their employment with us at any time. If we are unable to attract or retain qualified personnel, or if there are delays in hiring required personnel, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be seriously harmed.

• deterioration of political relations between the U.S. and China, Canada, Mexico, Russia and [removed] EU including international trade wars and increased tariffs between the U.S. and such countries or regions, which could have a material adverse effect on our sales as well as our manufacturing operations and supply chain in these countries;

[removed] As a consequence of the concentrated nature of our customer base and their purchasing behavior, our quarterly revenue and results of operations have fluctuated from quarter to quarter and are difficult to estimate and we expect the fluctuations to continue. Changes in the business requirements or focus, upgrade cycles, vendor selection, project prioritization, manner in which spending allocations are assigned among multiple vendors based upon specific network roles or projects, financial prospects, lack of growth of our large customers, capital resources and expenditures or purchasing behavior and deceleration in spending of these customers could significantly decrease our sales to such customers or could lead to delays, reductions or cancellations of planned purchases of our products or services. In addition, [removed] an increased focus on [removed] the deployment of [removed] AI enabled solutions by these customers has accelerated the need for advanced technology offerings including some offerings from potential new market entrants. This prioritization of AI related infrastructure investment has at times come in conjunction with the announcement of various cost reduction measures by such customers, including optimization and increased efficiency in non-AI related capital expenditures. In addition, although the focus on deployment of AI enabled solutions has driven increased demand for networking, the long-term trajectory is unknown. As such, demand estimates for our new products are difficult to forecast and can create volatility in our revenue. In some instances, such measures have had, and may continue to have, an impact on certain current or future projects and have reduced our visibility to customer demand and may result in a reduction or uncertainty in the timing of orders from these large customers, which may negatively impact our revenue and increase the risk of excess and obsolescence charges on our products. In addition, fiscal 2024 was marked by a year of new product introductions and expanded use cases, particularly in the AI Ethernet market, and we expect this to continue into fiscal 2025. This has resulted in increased customer trials and contracts with acceptance periods, and an increase in the volatility and magnitude of our product deferred revenue balances, which in turn may create variability in our revenue results on a quarterly and annual basis. In addition, if we are not able to satisfy the requirements under customer trials or contracts with acceptance periods, we may be required to accept product returns from our customers, which would prevent us from recognizing revenue on such transactions and may result in the write-down of inventory.

Our revenue growth rates in previous periods may not be indicative of our future performance. We have experienced annual revenue growth rates of 19.5%, 33.8%, [removed] 48.6%, and 27.2% in 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively. In the future, our revenue growth rates will continue to be volatile due to cyclical trends in our business, and as we become more [removed] penetrated in our existing customer base and product markets and look to enter and expand into new markets. [removed] In addition, we have experienced supply constraints that have resulted in manufacturing and shipment delays, which have negatively affected the timing of revenue recognition. If these manufacturing and supply chain disruptions recur and/or if we are unable to reduce our lead times it could also result in the cancellation of orders by customers, reduce demand from existing customers in future periods, and increase difficulty in adding new customers. Other factors may also contribute to declines in our growth rates, including changes in demand for our products and services, particularly from our large customers, the deterioration of the financial performance, condition or prospects of our large customers, changes in capital spending by our large customers, increased competition, price sensitivities from our customers to increases in our pricing, our ability to successfully manage our expansion or continue to capitalize on growth opportunities, the maturation of our business, geopolitical pressures, recession risks and monetary policy shifts, and our ability to be successful in the [removed] AI market and adjacent markets, such as campus switching, Wi-Fi networking markets and network security markets. Recent technologies, such as generative AI models, have emerged, and while they have driven increased demand for networking, the long-term trajectory is unknown and it is difficult for us to predict the demand for such new technologies. Customers may overestimate demand for their AI build outs and cancel, delay, reduce or otherwise modify their purchase commitments with little or no notice to us. In addition, customer may implement changes to their network architecture to improve efficiencies and reduce demand for our products. As such, demand estimates for our new products are difficult to forecast and create volatility in our revenue. In addition, given the timing and prioritization of customer orders and shipment patterns, near term revenue trends may not be reflective of current demand levels. Furthermore, any prolonged economic disruptions or deterioration in the global economy could have a negative impact on demand from our customers in future periods, particularly in the enterprise market where we are continuing to expand our penetration. which may result in reductions in overall demand from these customers in future periods and negatively impact our revenue, financial condition, business or prospects. You should not rely on our revenue for any prior quarterly or annual period as an indication of our future revenue or revenue growth. If we are unable to maintain consistent revenue or revenue growth, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially adversely affected, and our stock price could be volatile.

In addition, we cannot assure that any limitation of liability provisions in our customer agreements, contracts with third-party vendors and service providers or other contracts would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any liabilities or damages with respect to any particular claim relating to a security breach or other security-related matter. We also cannot be certain that our insurance coverage will be adequate for data handling or data security liabilities actually incurred, that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all, or that any future claim will not be excluded or otherwise be denied coverage by any insurer. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our reputation, financial condition and operating results.

We use machine learning and AI technologies in our offerings and business, including in our Arista Guardian for Network Identity offering, and we are making investments in expanding our AI capabilities in our products, services, and tools, including ongoing deployment and improvement of existing machine learning and AI technologies, as well as developing new product features using AI technologies. [removed] AI technologies are complex and rapidly evolving, and we face significant competition from other companies as well as evolving legal and regulatory landscapes. Laws and regulations applicable to AI continue to develop and may be inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. For example, the European Union has adopted on an Artificial Intelligence Act that, when effective, prohibits certain AI applications and systems and imposes additional requirements on the use of certain applications or systems. Additionally, some U.S. states have proposed, and in certain cases enacted, legislation addressing aspects of the use and deployment of AI. The use of AI technologies in new or existing products may result in new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, new or modified laws or regulations, claims, demands, and litigation, confidentiality, privacy, data protection, or security risks, ethical concerns, or other complications that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We have also outsourced some business functions to third parties, including our manufacturers, logistics providers, and cloud service providers, and our business operations also depend, in part, on the success of these third parties' own cybersecurity measures. Similarly, we rely upon distributors, resellers and system integrators to sell our products and our sales [removed] operations depend, in part, on the reliability of their cybersecurity measures. Additionally, we depend upon our employees to appropriately handle confidential, sensitive, and proprietary data and comply with the security measures we have instituted to prevent exposure of our networks and systems to security breaches and incidents, the unauthorized access to our products and the loss of data. We and the aforementioned third parties also face the risk of ransomware and other [removed] malicious software, phishing schemes and other social engineering methods, fraud and other malfeasance, cybersecurity threats from state sponsors and other actors, and intentional or negligent acts or omissions of employees and contractors. Furthermore, our acquisition of Awake Security and our provision of its NDR platform may result in us being a more attractive target for such attacks. Accordingly, if our cybersecurity systems and measures or those of [removed] any of the aforementioned third parties fail to protect against sophisticated cyber-attacks, other means of effectuating security breaches or incidents, interruptions or other disruptions of our or our third-party service providers' systems, networks, products, or services, the mishandling of data by employees and contractors, the corruption, loss, or mishandling or other unauthorized processing of data by unauthorized persons, or any other means of unauthorized access to, or use of, our manufacturing process, products, services, networks, systems, or data that we or such third parties maintain, operate, or process, our ability to conduct our business effectively could be damaged in a number of ways, including:

[removed] Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock [removed] in the public market, or the perception that such sales could occur, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock and may make it more difficult for you to sell your common stock at a time and price that you deem appropriate and may dilute your voting power and your ownership interest in us. In addition, we have registered the offer and sale of all shares of common stock that we may issue under our equity compensation plans. If holders, by exercising their registration rights, sell large numbers of shares, it could adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

• failure to comply with government laws and [removed] regulations could harm our business;

[removed] Should the relationship between China and Taiwan deteriorate, it is possible that the U.S. government could impose new controls on China, [removed] specific parties, or specific kinds of transactions in the region [removed] that could impact our [removed] business including our ability to [removed] source components from China and sell to certain of our [removed] customers. These restrictions could impact the cost of components or inputs used to produce our products. Additionally, these controls or any additional restrictions may impact our [removed] ability to export certain products to China and/or prohibit us from selling our products to certain of our customers.

Given the relatively fluid regulatory environment in China and the United [removed] States and uncertainty how the U.S. government or foreign governments will act [removed] with respect to tariffs, international trade agreements and policies, a trade war, further governmental action related to tariffs or international trade policies, or additional tax or other regulatory changes in the future could directly and adversely impact our financial results and results of [removed] operations.

Managing our manufacturing capacity and extended supply chain is complex, and our inventory management systems and related supply-chain visibility tools may not enable us to effectively manage the supply of our products and product components. Our ability to manage our supply chain has also and could continue to be adversely affected by other factors including geopolitical conditions such as [removed] the Russia-Ukraine conflict and related economic sanctions against Russia, the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Houthi attacks on marine vessels in the Red Sea, changing international trade policies and political tensions between China and Taiwan. Global geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainties have resulted in prolonged manufacturing and supply chain disruptions, including temporary closures of certain manufacturing and supplier facilities particularly within China and controls on certain supplies including China's restrictions [removed] in the use of [removed] Micron products and its controls on metals used in semiconductor manufacturing such as gallium and germanium which, in turn, have caused and may continue to cause shortages of, and extended lead times for, components used to manufacture our products, increases in the prices for such components, a reduction, unpredictability or interruption of supply, prioritization of component shipments to other vendors and decommitments of orders.[removed] In addition, China imposed additional export controls on critical metals including tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum, and indium (and related compounds) in February 2025 as part of its response to the United States's imposition of an additional 10% tariff on products from China. Insufficient component supply, and increases in the time required to manufacture our products may lead to prolonged inventory shortages, manufacturing disruptions and increased customer lead times for our products that could result in increased cancellation of orders or loss of future sales opportunities altogether as potential customers turn to competitors' products that are readily available. In addition, in order to meet customer lead times, we have, and may continue to expedite the supply of components and make incremental investments in our supply chain to increase our capacity for manufacturing products, which increases our product costs.

• [removed] seasonality or cyclical fluctuations in our markets;

From time to time, we may receive inquiries from governmental [removed] agencies or we may make voluntary disclosures regarding our compliance with applicable governmental regulations or requirements relating to various matters, including import/export controls, federal securities laws and tax laws and regulations which could lead to formal investigations. Actual or alleged noncompliance with applicable laws, regulations or other governmental requirements could lead to regulatory investigations, enforcement actions, and other proceedings, private claims and litigation, and potentially may subject us to[removed] sanctions, mandatory product recalls, enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, fines, damages, civil and criminal penalties or injunctions. If any governmental fines, penalties, or other sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal litigation, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially adversely affected. In addition, responding to any investigation, action or other proceeding will likely result in a significant diversion of management's attention and resources and an increase in professional fees. Enforcement actions, investigations, and fines, penalties, and other sanctions could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

[removed] Organizations are increasingly subject to a wide variety of attacks on their networks, systems, endpoints, products and services, and no security solution, including our security platform, can address all possible security threats or block all methods of penetrating a network, products and services or otherwise perpetrating a security incident. Additionally, any defects, errors, or vulnerabilities in our security platform or in the hardware upon which it is deployed, including a failure to implement updates to such platform, could temporarily or permanently limit our detection capabilities and expose our end-customers' networks, leaving their networks unprotected against the latest security [removed] threats. If customers of our security platform do suffer a [removed] data security incident or data breach, even if it is not attributable to a failure of our [removed] platform to identify any threat or vulnerability, customers may believe that our platform failed to detect a threat or vulnerability, which could harm our reputation or negatively affect our financial results.

Although we have entered into significant purchase commitments to support long-term customer demand, if we are unable to obtain sufficient quantities of any of these components on commercially reasonable terms or in a timely manner, or if we are unable to obtain alternative sources for these components, shipments of our products could be delayed or halted entirely, or we may be required to redesign our products. Any of these events could result in the cancellation of orders, lost sales, reduced gross margins or damage to our customer relationships, which would adversely impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Additionally, if our suppliers do not meet their commitments, customers cancel orders or actual demand is less than our demand forecasts, it could result in excess or obsolete inventory, which we would be required to write down to its estimated realizable value, which in turn could result in lower gross margins and operating income. Our operating cash flows have also been and may in the future be negatively impacted by an increase of component inventories on hand or at our contract manufacturers.

Patent and other intellectual property rights disputes are common in the network infrastructure, network security and Wi-Fi industries and have resulted in protracted and expensive litigation for many companies. Many companies in the network infrastructure, network security and Wi-Fi industries, including our competitors and other third parties, as well as non-practicing entities, own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights, which they may use to assert claims of infringement, misappropriation, or other violations of intellectual property rights against us. From time to time, they have or may in the future also assert such claims against us, our customers or channel partners whom we typically indemnify against claims that our products infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate the intellectual property rights of third parties.[removed] For example, we have previously been involved in litigation with Cisco and OptumSoft, and are currently involved in litigation with WSOU Investments LLC ("WSOU"), which is described in the "Legal Proceedings" subheading in Note 5. Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

The U.S. government continues to add additional entities, in China and elsewhere, to restricted party lists impacting the ability of U.S. companies to provide products, and in certain cases services, to these entities and, in some cases, receive products or services from these entities. Additionally, the U.S. government continues to expand controls enacted in October 2022 restricting the ability to send certain products and technology related to semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing, and supercomputing to China without an export license. In 2023 and 2024, the U.S. government expanded the list of advanced integrated circuits subject to heightened export controls, including certain hardware containing these specified integrated circuits, expanded the list of destinations requiring export authorization for such items, and added new restrictions based on the headquarters location of the parties involved. Proposed regulations would further expand the controls to impose a worldwide licensing requirement on certain integrated circuits and computing resources that are used for training of AI models. The U.S. government also continues to expand the scope of restrictions on the development or production of advanced integrated circuits and certain semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and the restrictions on supercomputing, in China and other countries. Proposed regulations would expand these controls further and impose additional reporting requirements. Other foreign governments may in turn impose similar or more restrictive controls. These controls or any additional restrictions may impact our ability to export certain products to China or other countries, prohibit us from selling our products to certain of our customers, restrict our ability to use certain [removed] Integrated Circuits ("ICs") in our products, [removed] or impact our suppliers who may utilize facilities or equipment described in these [removed] controls.

• [removed] general economic conditions, both domestically and in foreign markets, and disruptions in our business [removed] and the markets due to, among other things, recessionary risks and a global economic downturn, higher interest rates, monetary policy shifts, inflationary pressures, supply chain and labor shortages, [removed] the new U.S. presidential administration, the recent banking crisis, and geopolitical pressures;

As part of our business strategy, we have made and could continue to make investments in complementary companies, products or technologies which could involve licenses, additional channels of distribution, discount pricing or investments in or acquisitions of other companies. For example, we completed the acquisition of [removed] Untangle Holdings and Pluribus Networks in 2022, which required management to focus efforts on integrating [removed] these acquisitions with the [removed] company. In addition, the [removed] privately-held companies in which we [removed] invested are in the startup or development stages. These investments are inherently risky because the markets for the technologies or products these companies are developing are typically in the early stages and may never materialize, and we could lose our entire investment in these companies. We may not be able to find suitable investment or acquisition candidates and we may not be able to complete such investments or acquisitions on favorable terms, if at all. If we do complete investments or acquisitions, we may not ultimately strengthen our competitive position or achieve our goals, and any investments or acquisitions we complete could be viewed negatively by our customers, investors and securities analysts. Through acquisitions, we continue to expand into new markets and we may experience challenges in entering into new markets for which we have not previously manufactured and sold products, including facing exposure to new market risks, difficulty achieving expected business results due to a lack of experience in new markets, products or technologies or the initial dependence on unfamiliar distribution partners or vendors.

• increased expenses resulting from increases in component, production and logistics costs resulting from factors such as global inflationary pressures, [removed] shortages in supply for semiconductors, and China's controls on the use of certain products and on the export of metals used in semiconductor manufacturing, or the tariffs imposed by the U.S. on goods from other countries and tariffs imposed by other countries on U.S. [removed] goods, including the tariffs implemented by the U.S. government on various imports from China and Mexico;

[removed] To increase our revenue, we must add new customers, especially large customers, and sell additional products and services to existing customers. For example, one of our sales strategies [removed] is to expand our current footprint by targeting specific projects at our current customers because they are familiar with the operational and economic benefits of our solutions, thereby reducing the sales cycle into these customers. We also believe the opportunity with current customers is significant given their existing infrastructure and expected future spend. Another one of our sales strategies is focused on [removed] increasing penetration in the enterprise, campus and AI markets. However, sales strategies focused on expansion to adjacent markets can require more time and effort since enterprise and campus customers typically start with small purchases, and in the case of new markets such as AI where we are introducing new products there are often longer testing and qualification periods. For this reason, in order to grow our revenue, it is important for us to attract new large customers. Some factors that may limit our ability to attract new large customers include, but are not limited to, saturation with certain large cloud networking customers, customers priorities and initiatives to invest in new technology, competition, decreased capital spending by such customers, a limited number of such customers, and a decline in growth at such customers. If we fail to attract new large customers, including enterprise, campus and AI customers, fail to reduce the sales cycle and sell additional products to our existing customers or if our products are not accepted by these customers, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects will be harmed.

[removed] In June 2022, the import restrictions contained in the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act ("UFLPA") became effective. The UFLPA creates a rebuttable presumption that any goods mined, produced or manufactured, wholly or in part in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region ("XUAR") of China, or produced by a [removed] listed entity, were made with forced labor and would therefore not be entitled to entry at any U.S. port. Importers [removed] are required to present clear and convincing evidence that such goods are not made with forced labor. While we do not source items from the XUAR or from [removed] listed parties, and we have increased our supply chain diligence, there is risk that our ability to import components and products may be adversely affected by the UFLPA.

[removed] The U.S. government [removed] continues to add additional entities, in China and elsewhere, to restricted party lists impacting the ability of U.S. companies to provide products, and in certain cases services, to these entities and, in some cases, receive products or services from these entities. [removed] Additionally, the U.S. government continues to expand controls enacted in October 2022 restricting the ability to send certain products and technology related to semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing, and [removed] supercomputing to China without an export license. In 2023 and 2024, the U.S. government expanded the list of advanced integrated circuits subject to heightened export controls, including certain hardware containing these specified integrated circuits, expanded the list of destinations requiring export authorization for such items, and added new restrictions based on the headquarters location of the parties involved. Proposed regulations would further expand the controls to impose a worldwide licensing requirement on certain integrated circuits and computing resources that are used for training of AI models. The U.S. government also [removed] continues to expand the scope of restrictions on the development or production of advanced [removed] integrated circuits and certain semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and the restrictions on supercomputing, [removed] in China and other countries. Proposed regulations would expand these controls further and impose additional reporting requirements. Other foreign governments may in turn impose similar or more restrictive controls. These controls or any additional restrictions may impact our ability to export certain products to China or other countries, prohibit us from selling our products to certain of our customers, restrict our ability to use certain Integrated Circuits ("ICs") in our products, or impact our suppliers who may utilize facilities or equipment described in these controls.

• declines in maintenance renewals by customers could harm our business;

Our results of operations have historically varied from period to period, and we expect that this trend will [removed] continue. As a result, you should not rely upon our past financial results for any period as indicators of future performance. Our results of operations in any given period have been and could continue to be influenced by a number of factors, many of which are outside of our control and may be difficult to predict, including:

Moreover, because our sales are based primarily on purchase orders, some of our customers have previously and could continue to cancel, delay, reduce or otherwise modify their purchase commitments with little or no notice to us. [removed] For example, due to manufacturing and supply chain disruptions resulting in increased lead times, customers have, and may continue to place orders based on longer planning horizons. These customers may decide to delay or cancel such orders for any [removed] reason, including changes in their IT investment priorities, if economic conditions worsen or their financial performance, condition or prospects deteriorate. This limited visibility [removed] regarding our customers' product needs or changes in those needs, the timing and quantity of which could vary significantly, requires us to rely on estimated demand forecasts to determine how much material to purchase and product to manufacture. [removed] Extended supplier lead times on some newer technologies can create greater pressure on our ability to forecast future demand, which can lead to excess inventory or product shortages and to delays in fulfilling current and future purchase orders that can impede production by our customers and harm our customer relationships.[removed] Further, if we are unable to reduce our lead times, customers may also cancel existing orders or reduce future orders. In the event of any cancellations or reductions of orders, or any reductions in future demand, we may not have enough time to reduce operating expenses to mitigate the effect of the lost revenue on our business, and in addition, could incur increased excess and obsolete inventory-related charges, all of which could materially affect our operating results.

[removed] Should any of the above events occur, or [removed] be perceived to [removed] occur, we could be subject to significant claims for liability from our customers and others and regulatory investigations and actions from governmental agencies, and we could be required to expend significant capital and other resources to remediate and otherwise address any [removed] security breach or incident, including to notify individuals, entities, or regulatory [removed] bodies and to implement measures in an effort to prevent further breaches or incidents. In addition, our ability to protect our intellectual property rights could be compromised and our reputation and competitive position could be significantly harmed. [removed] Also, the regulatory and contractual actions, proceedings, litigation, investigations, fines, penalties and liabilities relating to any actual or perceived [removed] data breaches or security incidents that result in losses of, damage or destruction of, or unauthorized access to or acquisition of, credit card information or other personal or sensitive data of users of our services can be significant in terms of fines and reputational impact and necessitate changes to our business operations that may be disruptive to us. [removed] Additionally, we could incur significant costs [removed] in order to upgrade our [removed] cybersecurity systems and measures in an effort to prevent network and system disruptions and other [removed] security breaches and other incidents. Even the perception of inadequate security may damage our reputation and negatively impact our ability to win new customers and retain existing customers. Consequently, our financial performance and results of operations could be adversely affected by any of the foregoing types of [removed] security breaches, incidents, vulnerabilities, or other matters, or the perception that any of them have occurred.

[removed] Even after a customer makes a purchase, there may be circumstances or terms relating to the purchase that delay our ability to recognize revenue from that purchase including acceptance terms contained in such agreements. In addition, the significance and timing of our product enhancements, and the introduction of new products by our competitors, may also affect customers' purchases. For all of these reasons, it is difficult to predict whether a sale will be completed, the particular period in which a sale will be completed or the period in which revenue from a sale will be recognized, if at all. If our sales cycles lengthen or acceptance of such products is not achieved, our revenue could be lower than expected, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

[removed] As well, due to concerns with products and services from certain semiconductor, telecommunications and video providers based in China, U.S. Congress has enacted bans on the use of certain Chinese-origin components or systems either in items sold to the U.S. government or, in some cases, in the internal networks of government contractors and subcontractors (even if those networks are not used for government-related projects).[removed] Further, the Chinese government has responded to these U.S. actions by indicating its intention to develop an unreliable entity list, which may limit the ability of companies on the list to engage in business with Chinese customers.

Our income taxes are subject to volatility and could be adversely affected by several factors, some of which are outside of our control, including [removed] earnings that are lower than anticipated in countries that have lower tax rates and higher than anticipated in countries that have higher tax rates; our ability to generate and use tax attributes; changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities; transfer pricing adjustments from tax authorities [removed] challenging our methods for valuing developed technology or intercompany arrangements; tax effects of nondeductible compensation, including certain stock-based compensation; [removed] tax costs related to inter-company restructuring; changes in accounting principles; changes in tax law and regulations, treaties, or interpretation thereof; imposition of withholding or other taxes on payments by subsidiaries or customers; or a change in our decision to indefinitely reinvest certain foreign earnings.

In addition, business disruptions and supply chain and manufacturing disruptions may result in customers delaying or canceling or reprioritizing capital expenditures on information technology and network infrastructure, which may affect the overall demand for our products. [removed] Customers may also be placing orders based on longer planning horizons to ensure supply. We also believe that our customers continue to assess the impact of [removed] these macroeconomic factors on their [removed] businesses and future investment plans, resulting in business [removed] uncertainty and a more constrained approach to forecasts and orders. Continuing or worsening economic instability or the deterioration of the financial performance, condition or prospects of our customers could result in a cancellation of, or defaults in the payments for, such orders or otherwise adversely affect spending for IT, network infrastructure, systems and tools, and limit our ability to forecast future demand for our products, which could reduce expected revenue or result in a write-down of excess or obsolete inventory. A downturn or a recession may also significantly affect financing markets, the availability of capital and the terms and conditions of any financing arrangements, including the overall cost of financing as well as the financial health or creditworthiness of our customers. Circumstances may arise in which we need, or desire, to raise additional capital, and such capital may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all.

We have made substantial investments to develop new products and [removed] services and enhancements to existing [removed] products through our acquisitions and internal research and development [removed] efforts to expand our product offerings and maintain our revenue growth. If we are unable to anticipate technological changes in our industry by introducing [removed] new or enhanced products and services in a timely and cost-effective manner or if we fail to introduce products and services that meet market [removed] demand, we may lose our competitive position, our products may become obsolete, and our business, financial condition or results of operations could be adversely affected. For example, with our most recently introduced 800 [removed] GbE and AI focused Ethernet products, our ability to continue to maintain our competitive position with our customers will depend on our ability to deliver these new products in a timely manner, our customers' acceptance of these products and the growth of the markets that these products serve. In addition, the evaluation, testing and qualification of our new products by our customers may be lengthy and may require increased customer trials and contracts with acceptance clauses, which delay revenue recognition may negatively impact our revenue.

In addition, investments and acquisitions may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. For example, if we are unsuccessful at integrating any acquisitions or retaining key talent from those acquisitions, or the technologies associated with such acquisitions, into our company, the business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects of the combined company could be adversely affected. We may have difficulty retaining the employees of any acquired business or the acquired technologies or research and development expectations may prove unsuccessful. Any integration process may require significant time and resources, and we may not be able to manage the process successfully. Acquisitions may also disrupt our ongoing business, divert our resources and require significant management attention that would otherwise be available for development of our business. We may not successfully evaluate or utilize the acquired technology or personnel or accurately forecast the financial effects of an acquisition transaction, including accounting charges. Any acquisition or investment could expose us to unknown liabilities. Moreover, we cannot assure you that the anticipated benefits of any acquisition or investment would be realized or that we would not be exposed to unknown liabilities. We may not be successful in retaining or expanding the customers and sales activities of any acquired business or in realizing the expected operational and cost efficiencies anticipated with the acquisition. We may have to pay cash, incur debt or issue equity securities to pay for any such investment or acquisition, each of which could adversely affect our financial condition or the market price of our common stock. [removed] The sale of equity or issuance of debt to finance any such acquisitions could result in dilution to our stockholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed obligations and could also include covenants or other restrictions that would impede our ability to manage our operations. Moreover, if the investment or acquisition becomes impaired, we may be required to take an impairment charge, which could adversely affect our financial condition or the market price of our common stock.

Our products, [removed] services and internal network systems could become a target for security attacks, including attacks specifically designed to disrupt our business and our customers and introduce malicious software and attacks by state sponsors. [removed] If our products, [removed] services or internal networks, system or data are or are perceived to have been compromised, our reputation may be damaged and our financial results may be negatively affected.

Additionally, from time to time, we invest in expansion into adjacent markets, including campus and Wi-Fi networking, AI networking, cloud and enterprise routing markets, network security markets and SD-WAN markets. Although we believe these solutions are complementary to our current offerings, we have less experience and a more limited operating history in these markets, and our efforts in this area may not be successful. Expanding our services in existing and new markets and increasing the depth and breadth of our presence imposes significant burdens on our marketing, compliance, and other[removed] administrative and managerial resources. Our plan to expand and deepen our market share in our existing markets and possibly expand into additional markets is subject to a variety of risks and challenges. Our success in these new markets depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to our ability to develop new products, new product features and services that address the customer requirements for these markets, attract a customer base in markets in which we have less experience, compete with new and existing competitors in these adjacent markets, and gain market acceptance of our new products. In addition, when we introduce new products, we expect that it will take time for manufacturing to ramp production and fulfill customer demand.

• [removed] seasonality and industry cyclicality may cause fluctuations in our revenue;

Our business depends on the overall demand for information technology, network connectivity and access to data and applications. Weak domestic or global economic conditions and continuing economic uncertainty, fear or anticipation of such conditions, a recession, geopolitical pressures, including international trade disputes, [removed] global pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic, or a reduction in information technology and network infrastructure spending or a deterioration of the financial performance, condition or prospects of our customers, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects in a number of ways, including longer sales cycles, reduced demand or lower prices for our products and services, higher default rates among our channel partners, reduced unit sales and lower or no growth. In addition, the global macroeconomic environment has been negatively affected by, among other things, the uncertainty in the global banking and financial services markets, epidemics, instability in global economic markets, the new U.S. presidential administration, increased uncertainty associated with recent and scheduled increases in U.S. trade tariffs in the context of escalated and unresolved trade disputes and tensions between the U.S., China, Mexico, Canada and other countries, inflationary pressures, higher interest rates, instability in the global credit markets, the impact and uncertainty regarding global central bank monetary policy, instability in the geopolitical environment, the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts, political tensions between Taiwan and China, political demonstrations, and foreign governmental debt concerns which have caused, and are likely to continue to cause, uncertainty and instability in local economies and in global financial markets. While some of our customers may be adversely affected by negative macroeconomic conditions, the impact may be particularly significant in our enterprise market where we are seeking to increase our penetration into this market. A government shutdown or a default by the U.S. government on its debt obligations, or related credit-rating downgrades could also have adverse effects on the broader global economy and contribute to, or worsen, an economic recession. We believe that any extended or renewed economic disruptions or deterioration in the global economy could have an adverse impact to our liquidity or to our current and projected business operations, financial condition or results of operations. For example, if banks or other financial institutions with whom we have banking relationships or whose corporate bonds are held in our marketable securities investment portfolio, enter receivership or become insolvent in the future, we may be unable to access, and we may lose some of our existing cash, cash equivalents and investments to the extent those funds are not insured or otherwise protected by the FDIC. In addition, in such circumstances we might not be able to timely pay key vendors and others. We regularly maintain cash balances that are not insured or are in excess of the FDIC's insurance limit. Any delay in our ability to access our cash, cash equivalents and investments (or the loss of such funds) or to timely pay key vendors and others could have a material adverse effect on our operations and cause us to need to seek additional capital sooner than planned.

Our corporate headquarters and the operations of our key manufacturing vendors, logistics providers and partners, as well as many of our customers, are located in [removed] areas exposed to risks of natural disasters such as [removed] earthquakes and tsunamis, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Japan and Taiwan. In addition, climate change may result in greater frequency and severity of [removed] natural disasters. A significant natural disaster, [removed] such as an earthquake, tsunami, fire or a flood, or other catastrophic event such as the COVID-19 pandemic or other [removed] disease outbreak, could have a material adverse effect on our or their business, which could in turn materially affect our financial condition, results of operations and prospects. These events could result in manufacturing and supply chain disruptions, shipment delays, order cancellations, and sales delays which could result in missed financial targets. Any [removed] health epidemic could have a material adverse effect on our ability to obtain components for our products that are supplied from Asia or to manufacture our products in Asia. Any such disruption of our suppliers, our contract manufacturers or our service providers would likely impact our sales and operating results. In addition, [removed] a health epidemic could adversely affect the economies of many countries, resulting in an economic downturn that could affect demand for our products and likely impact our operating results. In addition, acts of terrorism and war could cause disruptions in our business or the business of our manufacturers, logistics providers, partners or customers or the economy as a whole. Given our typical concentration of sales at each quarter end, any disruption in the business of our manufacturers, logistics providers, partners or customers that affects sales at the end of our quarter could have a particularly significant adverse effect on our quarterly results.

• changes in the growth [removed] rate of existing or new customers [removed] or the deterioration of the financial performance, condition or prospects of existing or new customers, including large customers and service providers, changes in end-customer, distributor or [removed] reseller requirements or market needs, and changes in growth rates of the networking market;

[removed] The U.S. tariffs may also cause customers to delay orders as they evaluate where to take delivery of our products in connection with their efforts to mitigate their own tariff exposure. Such delays create forecasting difficulties for us and increase the risk that orders might be canceled or might never be placed. Current or future tariffs [removed] imposed by the U.S. may also negatively impact our customers' sales, thereby causing an indirect negative impact on our own sales. Even in the absence of further tariffs, the related uncertainty and the market's fear of [removed] an escalating trade [removed] war might cause our distributors and customers to place fewer orders for our products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, financial condition, and/or results of operations.

In addition, we may be subject to additional significant challenges to ensure that quality, processes and costs, among other issues, are consistent with our expectations and those of our customers. A new contract manufacturer or manufacturing location may not be able to scale its production of our products at the volumes or quality we require. This could also adversely affect our ability to meet our scheduled product deliveries to our customers, which could damage our customer relationships and cause the loss of sales to existing or potential customers, late delivery penalties, delayed revenue or an increase in our costs which could adversely affect our gross margins. This could also result in increased levels of inventory subjecting us to increased risk of excess and obsolete charges that could have a negative impact on our operating results.

Developing our products is expensive, and the investment in product development typically involves a long payback cycle. We expect to continue to [removed] invest heavily in software development in order to expand the capabilities of our cloud networking platform [removed] and introduce new products and [removed] features. We expect that our results of operations will be impacted by the timing and size of these investments. These investments may take several years to generate positive returns, if ever.

Our products are subject to various export controls and because we incorporate encryption technology into certain of our products, certain of our products may be exported from various countries only with [removed] the required export license or through an export license exception. If we were to fail to comply with the applicable export control laws, customs regulations, economic sanctions or other applicable laws, we could be subject to monetary damages or the imposition of restrictions which could be material to our business, operating results and prospects and could also harm our reputation. Further, there could be criminal penalties for knowing or willful violations, including incarceration for culpable employees and managers. Obtaining the necessary export license or other authorization for a particular sale may be time-consuming and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities. Furthermore, certain export control and economic sanctions laws prohibit the shipment of certain products, technology, software and services to embargoed countries and sanctioned governments, entities, and persons. For example, in addition to the controls imposed on China, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the United States and other countries imposed restrictions on the import to the US of raw materials and goods from Russia and certain economic sanctions and severe export control restrictions against Russia, Belarus and regions of Ukraine as well as certain Russian nationals and entities which required us, in many cases, to terminate business relationships in those countries. These sanctions and restrictions have continued to increase as the conflict has further escalated, and the United States and other countries could impose wider sanctions and export restrictions as well as prohibitions on the import into the United States of additional raw materials from Russia and take other actions in the future that could further impact our business. Any deterioration in relations between Taiwan and China could lead to additional sanctions or export controls on China, on specific individuals or entities, or otherwise in the region which could impact our ability to sell to certain of our customers, source components from China, or otherwise negatively impact our business.

Generally, we do not have guaranteed supply contracts with our component [removed] suppliers, and our suppliers have, or in the future could continue to, suffer shortages, require longer lead times, delay shipments, prioritize shipments to other vendors, [removed] reject orders, decommit orders, increase prices, impose expedite fees or cease manufacturing [removed] such products or selling them to us at any time. Supply of these components worldwide was and could continue to be adversely affected by supply constraints, [removed] as well as industry consolidation and geopolitical conditions such as international trade [removed] wars and increased political tensions. [removed] Such shortages, increased component lead times, reduced allocations of components and rejections or decommitments of orders have resulted in and may continue to result in increased component prices, fewer sourcing options, unpredictability of supply, prolonged manufacturing disruptions and increased product lead times, [removed] which has impacted and may in the future adversely impact our revenue and gross margins.

Our contract manufacturers typically fulfill our supply requirements on [removed] the basis of individual orders. We do not have long-term contracts with our third-party manufacturers that guarantee capacity, the continuation of particular pricing terms or the extension of credit limits. Accordingly, they are not obligated to continue to fulfill our supply requirements, which could result in supply shortages, and the prices we are charged for manufacturing services could be increased on short notice. For example, [removed] a competitor could place large orders with the third-party manufacturer, thereby utilizing all or substantially all of such third-party manufacturer's capacity and leaving the manufacturer little or no capacity to fulfill our individual orders without price increases or delays, or at all. Our contract with one of our contract manufacturers permits it to terminate the agreement for convenience, subject to prior notice requirements. We may not be able to develop alternate or second contract manufacturers in a timely manner.

• our inability to fulfill our customers' [removed] orders, the deferral, reduction or cancellation of orders [removed] or the delay in shipment of our [removed] products;

To the extent that our products are manufactured at facilities in foreign countries, we may be subject to additional risks associated with complying with local rules and regulations in those jurisdictions. [removed] For example, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of our contract manufacturers experienced temporary closures and labor shortages. Shelter in place orders, factory closures or reductions in staffing at our manufacturing sites would result in material disruptions, increased lead times and supply shortages of our products. Due to their existence in foreign locations, our contract manufacturers may also be subject to or become subject to new or increased tariffs which, if sufficiently high, may affect the profitability of these operations and may require relocation to new locations, moves which may require bearing associated costs. There is no guarantee that any contract manufacturing location [removed] may not be targeted by tariffs or other trade measures imposed by the United States or another country.

[removed] In addition, we cannot assure that any limitation of liability provisions in our customer agreements, contracts with third-party vendors and service providers or other contracts would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any liabilities or damages with respect to any particular claim relating to a security breach or other security-related matter. We also cannot be certain that our insurance coverage will be adequate for [removed] data handling or data security liabilities actually incurred, that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all, or that any future claim will not be excluded or otherwise be denied coverage by any insurer. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance[removed] coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our reputation, financial condition and operating results.

Finally, we are subject to examination of our income tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service [removed] ("IRS") and other tax authorities. Audits by the IRS or other tax authorities are subject to inherent uncertainties and could result in unfavorable outcomes, including potential fines or penalties. [removed] As we operate in numerous taxing jurisdictions, the application of tax laws can be subject to diverging and sometimes conflicting interpretations by tax authorities of these jurisdictions. The expense of defending and resolving such audits may be significant. [removed] The amount of time to resolve an audit is also unpredictable and may divert management's attention from our business operations. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from tax examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes. We cannot assure you that fluctuations in our provision for income taxes or our effective tax rate, the enactment of new tax laws or changes in the application or interpretation of existing tax laws or adverse outcomes resulting from examination of our tax returns by tax authorities will not have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

In particular, recent technologies, such as generative AI models, have emerged, and while they have driven increased demand for networking, the [removed] long-term trajectory is unknown and it is difficult for us to predict the demand for such new technologies. Customers may overestimate demand for their AI build outs and cancel, delay, reduce or otherwise modify their purchase commitments with little or no notice to us. In addition, customers may implement changes to their network architectures to improve efficiencies and reduce demand for our products. As such, demand estimates for our new products are difficult to forecast and create volatility in our revenue and inventory levels. If the AI market does not develop as anticipated or at all, then the potential demand for AI [removed] Ethernet switches may not be realized. Moreover, even if the market for AI applications does develop, the successful adoption of AI Ethernet products will be dependent upon their ability to compete against more established InfiniBand products or against the AI Ethernet products of other competitors to address AI networking clusters.

The markets in which we compete, including the markets for data center, campus [removed] networking and network visibility and [removed] security, are intensely competitive, and we expect competition to increase in the future from established competitors, industry consolidation and new market entrants. This competition has resulted in increased pricing pressure, which could result in reduced profit margins, increased sales and marketing expenses and the loss of market share, any of which would likely harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

In the event of a shortage or supply interruption from our component suppliers, we may not be able to develop alternate or second sources in a timely manner. Further, long-term supply and maintenance obligations to customers increase the duration for which specific components are required, which may increase the risk of component shortages or the cost of carrying inventory. In addition, our component suppliers change their selling prices frequently in response to market trends, including industry-wide increases in [removed] demand, or charge additional fees to expedite orders, and because we do not have contracts with these suppliers or guaranteed pricing, we are susceptible to availability or price fluctuations related to raw materials and components. If we are unable to pass component price increases along to our customers or maintain stable pricing, our gross margins could be adversely affected and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could suffer.

Our future success depends, in part, on our ability to continue to attract and retain highly skilled personnel, particularly software engineering and sales personnel. In addition, we are expanding internationally and into adjacent markets including the enterprise and AI market, which requires a significant investment of time, effort and financial resources into hiring and training our sales force to address these markets. If we do not effectively train our direct sales force, we may be unable to add new customers, increase sales to our existing customers, or successfully expand into new markets. Competition for highly skilled personnel is often intense, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area where we have a substantial presence and need for highly skilled [removed] personnel. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources [removed] than we have to provide more attractive compensation packages and other amenities. Research and development personnel are aggressively recruited by startup and growth companies, which are especially active in many of the technical areas and geographic regions in which we conduct product development. In addition, in making employment decisions, particularly in the high-technology industry, job candidates often consider the value of the stock-based compensation they are to receive in connection with their employment. Declines in the market price of our stock could adversely affect our ability to attract, motivate or retain key employees.[removed] In addition, our future performance also depends on the continued services and continuing contributions of our senior management to execute our business plan and to identify and pursue new opportunities and product innovations. Our employment arrangements with our employees do not generally require that they continue to work for us for any specified period, and therefore, they could terminate their employment with us at any time. If we are unable to attract or retain qualified personnel, or if there are delays in hiring required personnel, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be seriously harmed.

• defects and security vulnerabilities could be introduced into our software, thereby damaging the reputation and perceived reliability and security of our products and potentially making the data systems of our customers [removed] vulnerable to data loss and security breaches and incidents;

The data center and campus networking markets have been historically dominated by Cisco, with competition also coming from other large network equipment and system vendors, including Dell/EMC, Extreme Networks, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Huawei, [removed] Juniper Networks, Nvidia and white box networking vendors utilizing open-source operating systems. Most of our competitors and some strategic alliance partners have made acquisitions and/or have entered [removed] into or extended partnerships or other strategic relationships to offer more comprehensive product lines, including cloud networking solutions and network security. For example, Cisco acquired Acacia Communications, Broadcom acquired Brocade Communications and VMware, Dell acquired Force10 Networks, Hewlett Packard Enterprise [removed] recently announced the acquisition of Juniper Networks. This industry consolidation may lead to increased competition and may harm our business. Large system vendors are increasingly seeking to deliver vertically integrated cloud networking solutions to customers that combine cloud-focused hardware and software solutions as an alternative to our products. We expect this trend to continue as companies attempt to strengthen their market positions in an evolving industry and as companies are acquired or are unable to continue operations. Industry consolidation may result in stronger competitors that are better able to compete with us, and this could lead to more variability in our results of operations and could have a material adverse effect on our business, the pricing of our solutions, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

In addition, investments and acquisitions may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. [removed] For example, if we are unsuccessful at integrating any acquisitions or retaining key talent from those acquisitions, or the technologies associated with such acquisitions, into our company, the business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects of the combined company could be adversely affected. [removed] We may have difficulty retaining the employees of any acquired business or the acquired technologies or research and development expectations may prove unsuccessful. Any integration process may require significant time and resources, and we may not be able to manage the process successfully. Acquisitions may also disrupt our ongoing business, divert our resources and require significant management attention that would otherwise be available for development of our business. We may not successfully evaluate or utilize the acquired technology or personnel or accurately forecast the financial effects of an acquisition transaction, including accounting charges. Any acquisition or investment could expose us to unknown liabilities. Moreover, we cannot assure you that the anticipated benefits of any acquisition or investment would be realized or that we would not be exposed to unknown liabilities. We may not be successful in retaining or expanding the customers and sales activities of any acquired business or in realizing the expected operational and cost efficiencies anticipated with the acquisition. We may have to pay cash, incur debt or issue equity securities to pay for any such investment or acquisition, each of which could adversely affect our financial condition or the market price of our common stock. The sale of equity or issuance of debt to finance any such acquisitions could result in dilution to our stockholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed obligations and could also include covenants or other restrictions that would impede our ability to manage our operations. Moreover, if the investment or acquisition becomes impaired, we may be required to take an impairment charge, which could adversely affect our financial condition or the market price of our common stock.

Our sales contracts are primarily denominated in U.S. dollars, and therefore, substantially all of our revenue is not subject to foreign currency risk; however, [removed] as a result of the strengthening U.S. dollar, there has been an increase in the cost of our products to our customers outside of the U.S., which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. In addition, a decrease in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to foreign currencies could increase our product and operating costs in foreign locations. Further, a portion of our operating expenses is incurred outside the U.S., is denominated in foreign currencies and is subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. If we are not able to successfully hedge against the risks associated with the currency fluctuations, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.

Uncertainty around new and emerging AI technologies may require additional investment in the obtaining, developing and maintaining of proprietary datasets and machine learning models, development of new approaches and processes to provide attribution or remuneration to creators of training data, and development of appropriate protections, safeguards, and policies for handling the processing of data with AI technologies, which may be costly and could impact our expenses. AI technologies also present emerging legal, ethical and social issues, including with respect to potential or actual bias reflected in, or flawed outputs of, models. AI technologies that we make use of may produce or create outputs that appear correct but are factually inaccurate or otherwise flawed, which may expose us to brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, regulatory scrutiny, and/or legal liability.

We may experience reluctance or refusal by current or prospective customers in the European Economic Area (the "EEA"), the UK, or other regions to use our products, and we may find it necessary or desirable to [removed] make further changes to our handling of personal data of residents of the EEA, UK, or other regions. The regulatory environment applicable to the handling of personal data of EEA and UK residents, and our actions taken in response, may cause us to assume additional liabilities or incur additional costs and could result in our business, operating results and financial condition being harmed. Additionally, we and our customers may face a risk of enforcement actions by data protection authorities relating to personal data [removed] transfers to us and by us from the EEA, UK, or other regions. Any such enforcement actions could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources, distract management and technical personnel and negatively affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.

Among other emerging laws relating to privacy and data protection globally, India has released its Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology [removed] has published Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules [removed] for public comment on January 3, 2025, addressing various matters under this law, but the full scope of the implementation remains [removed] uncertain. We maintain an employee and operational presence in India, and this act may require us to modify our policies and practices and incur increased costs in our efforts to comply.

We anticipate increasing our sales efforts to U.S. and foreign, federal, state and local governmental customers in the future. Sales to government entities are subject to a number of risks. Selling to government entities can be highly competitive, expensive and time consuming, often requiring significant upfront time and expense without any assurance that these efforts will generate a sale. The substantial majority of our sales to date to government entities have been made indirectly through our channel partners. Government certification requirements for products like ours may change and, in doing so, restrict our ability to sell into the government sector until we have attained revised certifications. Government demand and payment for our products and services may be affected by public sector budgetary cycles and funding authorizations, with funding reductions or delays adversely affecting public sector demand for our products and services. Government entities may have statutory, contractual or other legal rights to terminate contracts with our distributors and resellers for convenience or due to a default.[removed] Selling to government entities requires us to comply with various regulations that are not applicable to sales to non-government entities, including regulations that may relate to pricing, prohibitions against use of certain foreign components in our products and services, anti-corruption and other matters. The U.S. government may require certain products that it purchases to be manufactured in, or may require that products it purchases contain a certain threshold of "domestic origin" components from, the U.S. and other relatively high-cost manufacturing locations, and we may not manufacture all products in locations that meet these requirements.

Most of our contracts with customers are on an open credit basis, with standard payment terms [removed] payment terms of 30 to 90 days. We monitor individual end-customer payment capability in granting such open credit arrangements, seek to limit such open credit to amounts we believe the customers can pay and maintain reserves we believe are adequate to cover exposure for doubtful accounts. We are unable to recognize revenue from shipments until the collection of those amounts becomes reasonably assured. Any significant delay or default in the collection of significant accounts receivable could result in an increased need for us to obtain working capital from other sources, possibly on worse terms than we could have negotiated if we had established such working capital resources prior to such delays or defaults. Any significant default could adversely affect our results of [removed] operations and delay our ability to recognize revenue.

Our revenue growth rates in previous periods may not be indicative of our future performance. We have experienced annual revenue growth rates of 19.5%, 33.8%, 48.6%, and 27.2% in 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively. In the future, our revenue growth rates will continue to be volatile due to cyclical trends in our business, and as we become more penetrated in our existing customer base and product markets and look to enter and expand into new markets. In addition, we have experienced supply constraints that have resulted in manufacturing and shipment delays, which have negatively affected the timing of revenue recognition. If these manufacturing and supply chain disruptions recur and/or if we are unable to reduce our lead times it could also result in the cancellation of orders by customers, reduce demand from existing customers in future periods, and increase difficulty in adding new customers. Other factors may also contribute to declines in our growth rates, including changes in demand for our products and services, particularly from our large customers, the deterioration of the financial performance, condition or prospects of our large customers, changes in capital spending by our large customers, increased competition, price sensitivities from our customers to increases in our pricing, our ability to successfully manage our expansion or continue to capitalize on growth opportunities, the maturation of our business, geopolitical pressures, recession risks and monetary policy shifts, and our ability to be successful in the AI market and adjacent markets, such as campus switching, Wi-Fi networking markets and network security markets. Recent technologies, such as generative AI models, have emerged, and while they have driven increased demand for networking, the long-term trajectory is unknown and it is difficult for us to predict the demand for such new technologies. Customers may overestimate demand for their AI build outs and cancel, delay, reduce or otherwise modify their purchase commitments with little or no notice to us. [removed] In addition, customer may implement changes to their network architecture to improve efficiencies and reduce demand for our products. As such, demand estimates for our new products are difficult to forecast and create volatility in our revenue. In addition, given the timing and prioritization of customer orders and shipment patterns, [removed] near term revenue trends may not be reflective of current demand levels. Furthermore, any prolonged economic disruptions or deterioration in the global economy could have a negative impact on demand from our customers in future periods, particularly in the enterprise market where we are continuing to expand our penetration. which may result in reductions in overall demand from these customers in future periods and negatively impact our revenue, financial condition, business or prospects.[removed] You should not rely on our revenue for any prior quarterly or annual period as an indication of our future revenue or revenue growth. If we are unable to maintain consistent revenue or revenue growth, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially adversely affected, and our stock price could be volatile.

We also face competition from other companies and new market entrants, including current technology partners, suppliers and customers or other cloud service providers who may acquire or develop network switches and cloud service solutions for internal use and/or to broaden their portfolio of products to market and sell to customers. Some of these competitors are developing "white box" networking products based on open-source network operating systems that may be provided for free and off-the-shelf or commoditized hardware technology, or "white box" hardware, while other competitors may adopt a disaggregated approach to the procurement of hardware and their proprietary software. Customers may also increase their adoption of networking solutions based upon open-source network operating systems that may be provided for free and used either on "white box" or proprietary hardware. As new markets emerge like AI, we expect the field to remain intensely [removed] competitive. In addition, we have not established broad market awareness or acceptance of our AI Ethernet products that will compete against more established InfiniBand products or against the AI Ethernet products of other competitors. Furthermore, the entrance of new competitors into[removed] our markets or the increased adoption of these new technology solutions or consumption models may cause downward pricing pressures, result in lost sales or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.

Our products contain software modules licensed to us by third-party authors under "open source" licenses. Use and distribution of open source software may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or other contractual protections regarding intellectual property rights infringement, misappropriation or violation claims or the quality of the code. Some open source licenses contain requirements that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon the type of open source software that we use. If we combine our software with open source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain open source licenses, be required to release portions of the source code of our software to our customers or the public more generally.[removed] This would allow our competitors to create similar products with lower development effort and time and ultimately could result in a loss of product sales for us.

In addition to laws aimed directly at trade, failure of our products to comply with a broader set of evolving industry standards and government regulations may adversely impact our business and in particular our ability to market in particular countries. Our products must comply with various U.S. federal government regulations and standards defined by agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission, standards established by governmental authorities in various foreign countries and recommendations of the International Telecommunication Union. In some circumstances, we must obtain regulatory approvals or certificates of compliance before we can offer or distribute our products in certain jurisdictions or to certain customers. In recent years, certain jurisdictions have tied these approvals to concerns about international relationships, including, e.g., concerns about entities with components sourced from China. Complying with new regulations or obtaining certifications, especially as standards evolve, may be costly and disruptive to our business and also may affect our ability to sell[removed] our products where these standards or regulations apply, which in turn may prevent us from sustaining our net revenues or achieving profitability.

The timing of our sales and revenue recognition is difficult to predict because of the length and unpredictability of our products' sales cycles. A sales cycle is the period between initial contact with a prospective customer and any sale of our[removed] products. End-customer orders often involve the purchase of multiple products. These orders are complex and difficult to complete because prospective customers generally consider a number of factors over an extended period of time before committing to purchase the products and solutions we sell. Customers, especially our large customers, often view the purchase of our products as a significant and strategic decision and require considerable time to evaluate, test and qualify our products prior to making a purchase decision and placing an order. The length of time that customers devote to their evaluation, contract negotiation and budgeting processes varies significantly. In addition, customers may delay upgrades to their network infrastructure which extends the upgrade and sales cycle. Our products' sales cycles are lengthy in certain cases, especially with respect to our prospective large customers and certain markets including the enterprise, campus and AI markets. During the sales cycle, we expend significant time and money on sales and marketing activities and make investments in evaluation equipment, all of which lower our operating margins, particularly if no sale occurs. Even if a customer decides to purchase our products, there are many factors affecting the timing of our recognition of revenue, which makes our revenue difficult to forecast.[removed] For example, there may be unexpected delays in a customer's internal procurement processes, particularly for some of our larger customers for which our products represent a very small percentage of their total procurement activity. In addition, due to macroeconomic uncertainties, the sales cycle may be extended and there may be delays and reductions of expenditures and cancellations by customers. There are many other factors specific to customers that contribute to the timing of their purchases and the variability of our revenue recognition, including the strategic importance of a particular project to a customer, budgetary constraints and changes in their personnel.

[removed] Purchase obligations not recorded on our balance sheet represent an estimate of all non-cancellable open purchase orders and contractual obligations, made either directly by Arista or by our contract manufacturers on our behalf, in the ordinary course of business for which we have not received the goods or services. As of December 31, [removed] 2024, we had [removed] $3.1 billion of such purchase obligations, of which [removed] $2.8 billion are expected to be received within 12 months, and [removed] $0.3 billion are expected to be received after one year. These open purchase orders are considered enforceable and legally binding, and while we may have some limited ability to reschedule and adjust our requirements based on our business needs prior to the delivery of goods or performance of services, this can only occur with the agreement of the related supplier.

Our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities are held for general business purposes, including the funding of working capital. Our marketable securities investment portfolio is primarily invested in highly-rated securities, with the primary objective of minimizing the potential risk of principal loss. We plan to continue to invest for long-term growth. We believe that our existing balances of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, together with cash generated from operations, will be sufficient to meet our working capital requirements and our growth strategies for at least the next 12 months. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our growth rate, the timing and extent of our spending to support research and development activities, the timing and cost of establishing additional sales and marketing capabilities, the introduction of new and enhanced product and service offerings, our costs associated with supply chain activities, including access to outsourced manufacturing, our costs related to investing in or acquiring complementary or strategic businesses and technologies, the continued market acceptance of our products, stock repurchases, and capital expenditures, including the construction of a new building in Santa Clara, California. In addition, although the global supply chain has shown improvement, we have had to invest in inventory to address forecast uncertainty and expect that our inventory and purchase commitments will remain volatile as we ramp new product introductions. In particular, we have increased our purchase commitments to respond to the rapid deployment of AI networks and reduce overall lead times which will increase our working capital requirements. If we require or elect to seek additional capital through debt or equity financing in the future, we may not be able to raise capital on terms acceptable to us or at all. If we are required and unable to raise additional capital when desired, our business, operating results and financial condition may be adversely affected.