Global – October 31, 2026 -- Net revenue retention (NRR) in SaaS has not improved in three years, even though 81% of customer success (CS) leaders say AI cuts the time their teams spend on manual tasks, according to ChurnZero's 2026 Customer Success Leadership Study.

The survey polled almost 580 CS leaders. Respondents named logging tasks, summarizing leads and calls, and account research as the main workloads AI now handles. NRR remained flat from 2024 through 2026.

Global – October 31, 2026 -- Only 21% of customer success (CS) leaders can tie AI to revenue outcomes, versus 57% of sales leaders, according to ChurnZero's 2026 Customer Success Leadership Study of 580 CS and revenue leaders.

Sales teams reach for AI first and measure it more consistently

Some 48% of sales teams turn to AI first when solving a problem, compared with 32% of CS teams. CS leaders also trail sales on measuring AI by function, including time saved and team efficiency.

San Francisco – October 31, 2026 -- Merchant-built server-class Ethernet NIC revenue rose 40% year-over-year in calendar Q2 2024, reaching an annualized run-rate close to $5 billion, according to Crehan Research. The figures cover adapters, controllers and LOMs.

SmartNICs grow over 50% while mainstream NICs gain over 30%

Foundational/Performance Ethernet NIC revenue increased more than 30% year-over-year. DPU/IPU Ethernet SmartNIC revenue grew more than 50%. Crehan attributes the growth largely to numerous concurrent Ethernet speed and technology upgrades.

SAN FRANCISCO – October 31, 2026 -- Branded data center Ethernet switch revenue rose 7% year-over-year in calendar Q3 2024 to the highest quarterly level on record, according to Crehan Research. The result ends two consecutive quarters of decline.

SAN FRANCISCO – October 31, 2026 -- The data center Ethernet switch market exceeded $20 billion in revenue and 100 million port shipments in 2024, a record year for both measures, according to Crehan Research.

Branded and ODM-direct segments both grow as late-year branded sales accelerate

A late-year acceleration in branded switch sales lifted the full-year total. Both branded and ODM-direct data center Ethernet switching posted annual growth.

San Francisco – October 31, 2026 -- The DPU/SmartNIC Ethernet market grew revenues and shipments by nearly 30% in 2024, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure accounting for most deployments, according to a Crehan Research report.

Two hyperscalers take most of the volume

Cloud service providers remained the main growth driver. Alibaba, CoreWeave, Google, IBM, Oracle and xAI made up most of the remaining shipments after AWS and Azure.

San Francisco – October 31, 2026 -- Data center Ethernet switch revenues and shipments each grew 25% year-over-year in the first half of 2025, with generative AI a key growth driver, according to Crehan Research.

General data center compute networking demand was also solid. The AI build-out is changing how quickly new port speeds ramp, however.

SAN FRANCISCO – October 31, 2026 -- Server-class Ethernet NIC revenues more than doubled in two years, rising from less than $6 billion in 2023 to more than $13 billion in 2025, according to Crehan Research.

2025 delivers record revenue and record growth

The report says 2025 produced both the highest revenue and the fastest revenue growth the market has recorded. Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research, said the market has followed "nearly a vertical straight line" since the initial release of ChatGPT.

San Francisco – October 31, 2026 -- Fibre Channel networking sales grew 6% in calendar-year 2025, according to Crehan Research, extending a strong 2024 and lifting cumulative sales by more than 20% over two years. Both switches and Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) contributed to the increase.

Crehan Research said the 2025 results exceeded its own forecast for a growth year. Seamus Crehan, the firm's president, said enterprises continue to rely on the products for their most important applications.

WASHINGTON – October 30, 2026 -- Fifty-seven percent of U.S. consumers report a negative consequence for merchants that do not accept their preferred payment method, according to the seventh annual Consumer Holiday Spending Study from the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) and TSG (The Strawhecker Group). The study of 1,099 U.S. consumers, conducted September 8-13, 2026, also found that 44% feel more financially stressed than last year, up from 27% in 2025.