Artificial Intelligence · Profile from AI Research Companion
Broadcom
The semiconductor and infrastructure-software conglomerate that Hock Tan built by acquisition from Avago Technologies, and which became the second great winner of the AI chip boom after Nvidia. It does not sell a general-purpose AI chip. Instead it co-designs custom accelerators ("XPUs") with the largest buyers — Google's TPUs above all, plus Meta, ByteDance (reported), OpenAI and, through Google's TPUs, Anthropic — and sells the Ethernet switching chips that wire AI clusters together. AI semiconductor revenue was ~$20bn in fiscal 2025 (year to November 2, 2025, +65%) and reached ~$16.7bn in the single quarter to August 2, 2026 (company). The same company owns VMware, bought for ~$69bn in November 2023 and turned into a cash machine through a subscription shift that customers and European cloud providers called price gouging. Its market value passed $1tn in December 2024 and ~$2tn in April 2026 (reported).
At a glance
- Founded
- As Avago Technologies in 2005, when KKR and Silver Lake bought Agilent's semiconductor unit (itself descended from Hewlett-Packard's chip division, 1961); took the Broadcom name after buying Broadcom Corporation (founded 1991 by Henry Samueli and Henry Nicholas) in February 2016
- Founders / builders
- Hock Tan (CEO of Avago from March 2006, CEO of Broadcom since); Henry Samueli (Broadcom Corporation co-founder, chairman of the combined company)
- Headquarters
- Palo Alto, California (re-domiciled from Singapore to the US in April 2018, verify date); large operations in San Jose, Irvine, Singapore, Malaysia and Israel
- Ownership / structure
- Public (Nasdaq: AVGO); widely held by index and mutual funds; Hock Tan holds a small personal stake (reported)
- Leadership (2026)
- Hock Tan (president and CEO; agreed in September 2025 to stay at least through 2030); Henry Samueli (chairman); Kirsten Spears (CFO); Charlie Kawwas (president, semiconductor solutions group); Hasan Siraj and others run the infrastructure-software side (verify)
- Products
- Custom AI accelerators (XPUs) co-designed with hyperscalers; Ethernet switch silicon (Tomahawk, Jericho, Trident); network interface chips, optical components (DSPs, lasers), PCIe switches; broadband, wireless (Wi-Fi, RF filters for Apple iPhones), storage and industrial chips; VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) private-cloud software, CA mainframe and enterprise software, Symantec enterprise security, Brocade Fibre Channel
- Scale
- Fiscal 2025 revenue ~$64bn (+24%): semiconductors ~$36.9bn, infrastructure software ~$27bn; adjusted EBITDA ~$43bn; free cash flow ~$26.9bn (company, December 11, 2025). Q3 fiscal 2026 (to August 2, 2026): revenue ~$29.6bn (+86%), AI semiconductors ~$16.7bn (+221%), free cash flow ~$13.7bn (company, September 2026)
- Customers
- Alphabet/Google (TPUs and networking, multi-generation agreement to 2031, reported April 2026); Meta (MTIA, reported); ByteDance (reported); OpenAI (10 GW programme announced October 13, 2025); Anthropic (TPU racks, ~$21bn orders disclosed December 2025); Apple (RF and wireless); hyperscalers and enterprises for networking; ~thousands of enterprises for VMware
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Avago buys Broadcom (2016); Google TPU partnership (from ~2015, verify); the blocked hostile bid for Qualcomm (2018); the software pivot via CA and Symantec (2018–19); VMware (2023); the VMware licensing backlash (2024–26); AI networking and the $1tn valuation (2024); the OpenAI 10 GW deal (2025); Anthropic's TPU orders and the Google supply agreement (2025–26)
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2015
Google TPU Partnership
Partnership (custom-silicon co-design and supply)
2016
Avago Acquires Broadcom
Acquisition
2018
CA Symantec and the Software Pivot
Acquisition (two deals)
2018
Qualcomm Bid Blocked
Acquisition (hostile, blocked) / regulatory action
2023
VMware Acquisition
Acquisition
2024
AI Networking and the Trillion Dollar Valuation
Launch / market milestone
2024
VMware Licensing Backlash
Pricing / restructuring / lawsuit
2025
Anthropic TPU Orders and Google Supply Deal
Compute deal / partnership
2025
OpenAI 10GW Custom Accelerator Deal
Compute deal / partnership