Thousands of Cisco employees will be affected by a new layoff round, which could be announced next week, according to a Reuters report.

Cisco will reportedly lay off around 4,000 employees in its second round of job cuts this year as the world’s largest networking company doubles down on artificial intelligence.

According to a report from Reuters, Cisco’s new layoff round could affect around 4,000 employees or slightly more, which would be around the same number of employees Cisco laid off in February.

Reuters, which cited sources familiar with the matter, said the layoffs could be announced next week. Cisco is set to deliver its fourth quarter 2024 financial earnings results on Aug. 14.

[Related: Cisco COO Maria Martinez Suddenly Departs In Wake Of Widespread Layoffs]

Cisco did not respond to comment on the matter by press time.

The San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant employed about 85,000 people in July 2023. Following February’s cut of about 4,250 employees, this would leave Cisco with just over 80,000 employees worldwide.

Cisco Layoffs In 2024

In February, Cisco announced that it would conduct a companywide layoff round that would impact about 5 percent of its workforce, totaling about 4,250 employees.

This was due to Cisco seeing “greater degrees of caution” related to product ordering during its fiscal Q2 in 2024, which lowered product revenues.

The tech giant confirmed that it would be cutting jobs globally to adjust expenses and investments to reflect the current macro environment. Cisco at the time said it expects to recognize about $800 million in charges associated with the restructuring, which was largely related to severance and other one-time termination benefits.

Cisco has been implementing many AI products into its portfolio with plans to drive $1 billion worth of AI products orders in 2025.

Cisco launched a $1-billion fund to make investments in AI startups such as Cohere, Mistral AI and Scale AI.

Just this week, Dell Technologies said it would be laying off employees in a restructuring efforts to become a “learner company” for the AI era.