What is Broadcom?

What is Broadcom?

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO) is one of the world's largest semiconductor and infrastructure software companies, designing custom AI accelerators, networking ASICs, storage controllers, and wireless chips for hyperscalers, enterprises, and telecom carriers — while also operating a massive enterprise software platform built on VMware, CA Technologies, and Symantec's enterprise security assets.

Founded in 1991 by UCLA professor Henry Samueli and his doctoral student Henry Nicholas III, Broadcom grew from a broadband chip startup into a roughly $1.9 trillion market-cap titan through an aggressive acquisition-led strategy under CEO Hock Tan. In its second fiscal quarter of 2026 (ending May 4, 2026), Broadcom reported record revenue of $22.2 billion, growing 48% year-over-year — and guided Q3 FY2026 revenue to $29.4 billion, an 84% year-over-year jump. Trailing-twelve-month revenue through April 2026 reached approximately $75.5 billion.

Broadcom operates two major segments: Semiconductor Solutions and Infrastructure Software. The semiconductor segment designs application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), networking ASICs, Fibre Channel controllers, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth SoCs, and — most critically for its growth story — custom AI accelerators (XPUs) co-designed with cloud hyperscalers. AI chip revenue hit $10.8 billion in Q2 FY2026 alone, up 143% year-over-year, and is guided to $16 billion in Q3 FY2026 (up over 200% YoY). CEO Hock Tan has raised full-year FY2026 AI semiconductor revenue guidance to $56 billion and reiterated a target of more than $100 billion in AI chip revenue for FY2027.

The infrastructure software segment — anchored by VMware Cloud Foundation, CA mainframe tools, and Symantec enterprise security — contributed $7.18 billion in Q2 FY2026 revenue, up 9% year-over-year, serving the world's largest banks, governments, and enterprises. Broadcom holds a near-unique position in the AI supply chain: unlike Nvidia, which sells general-purpose GPUs on the open market, Broadcom co-designs custom XPUs directly into hyperscalers' training and inference architectures, with six confirmed XPU customers including Google (seven generations of TPUs since 2014), Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, ByteDance, and Fujitsu — backed by a disclosed $73 billion AI revenue backlog.

Sources:Broadcom Q2 FY2026 Earnings ReleaseBroadcom Q2 FY2026 Earnings — CNBCBroadcom Company History

What does Broadcom offer?

Broadcom's portfolio spans custom AI accelerators, networking ASICs, enterprise storage controllers, wireless chips, virtualization software, mainframe tools, and enterprise security — covering both silicon and the software layer that runs on top of it across every major cloud and on-premises environment.

Sources:Broadcom Products OverviewVMware by Broadcom Portfolio

How does Broadcom make money?

Broadcom earns revenue through two high-margin segments: selling proprietary semiconductor chips (ASICs, networking chips, custom AI XPUs) to hyperscalers and OEMs under long-term co-design relationships, and selling annual subscription licenses for enterprise infrastructure software (VMware, CA, Symantec) to large enterprises that have few practical alternatives in the short term.

The Semiconductor Solutions segment contributes roughly 65% of Q2 FY2026 revenue and operates on long-term co-design partnerships with hyperscalers. Broadcom does not sell chips on the open commodity market; it co-develops custom XPUs directly with customers like Google (seven generations of TPU since 2014), Meta (MTIA accelerator), OpenAI, Anthropic, ByteDance, and Fujitsu, then earns per-chip revenue at hyperscale volume. Networking ASICs like the Tomahawk and Jericho series are effectively must-have components in every large data center switching fabric, giving Broadcom quasi-monopoly pricing power in that segment. Gross margins across the semiconductor division exceed 65%, and AI chip revenue grew 143% year-over-year to $10.8 billion in Q2 FY2026.

The Infrastructure Software segment (~35% of Q2 FY2026 revenue at $7.18 billion) monetizes through annual subscription contracts with the world's largest enterprises, financial institutions, and governments — customers with essentially no near-term ability to rip-and-replace. After acquiring VMware for $69 billion in November 2023, Broadcom eliminated perpetual licensing and moved all VMware customers to subscription-only bundles. The flagship VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) was initially listed at approximately $700 per core per year before Broadcom cut list prices to around $350/core/year in 2024, and further revisions in 2025 brought published pricing closer to $130–150/core/year — though actual negotiated enterprise pricing varies widely and many legacy perpetual customers still reported effective cost increases of 200–1,500% after conversion. VMware infrastructure software revenue grew 9% year-over-year in Q2 FY2026, an acceleration from near-flat growth in Q1.

Broadcom's overall economics are exceptional: Q2 FY2026 adjusted EBITDA hit a record $15.2 billion at a 69% margin. FY2025 free cash flow reached $26.9 billion on $63.9 billion in annual revenue. The company pays a growing quarterly dividend (yield approximately 1.5% at mid-June 2026 share prices) and has used cash flow to rapidly delever following the VMware acquisition while continuing to return capital to shareholders.

Sources:Broadcom Q2 FY2026 Earnings ReleaseBroadcom VMware Licensing Changes 2025–2026VMware Pricing After Broadcom — Software Pricing Guide

Who leads Broadcom?

Broadcom is led by long-tenured CEO Hock Tan, who has run the company since 2006 and personally drove every major acquisition. A new CFO, Amie Thuener, joined from Alphabet effective June 12, 2026, replacing retiring Kirsten Spears. Co-founder Henry Samueli served as Board Chairman from 2018 through June 2026, then transitioned to a non-executive board director role.

Sources:Broadcom Executives PageBroadcom CFO Transition AnnouncementBroadcom Board of Directors

How do you contact Broadcom's leadership?

Broadcom's verified corporate email format is first initial + last name @broadcom.com (e.g. htan@broadcom.com). Direct executive emails are not publicly disclosed; the addresses below follow the confirmed company pattern. Investor relations can be reached at ir@broadcom.com.

• Hock E. TanPresident & CEOhtan@broadcom.com
• Amie ThuenerCFOathuener@broadcom.com
• Mark BrazealChief Legal & Corporate Affairs Officermbrazeal@broadcom.com
• Investor RelationsInvestor Relationsir@broadcom.com

Sources:Broadcom Investor Relations ContactBroadcom Email Format — ScaleList

How much funding has Broadcom raised?

Broadcom Inc. is publicly traded on NASDAQ (AVGO) with a market capitalization of approximately $1.9 trillion as of mid-June 2026. The modern Broadcom was built through a sequence of debt-financed acquisitions totaling roughly $136 billion across four transformational deals between 2016 and 2023 — not through traditional VC fundraising rounds.

The original Broadcom Corporation (founded 1991) raised angel and early VC funding before its NASDAQ IPO in April 1998 (ticker: BRCM), when shares more than doubled on the first day. The predecessor entity, Avago Technologies, was created when KKR and Silver Lake Partners acquired Agilent's semiconductor division for $2.66 billion in 2005. Avago then went public on NASDAQ (ticker: AVGO) in August 2009, raising $648 million in the second-largest US IPO that year, pricing at $15 per share.

The modern Broadcom took shape when Avago acquired Broadcom Corporation in a $37 billion cash-and-stock deal (announced May 2015, closed February 1, 2016) — the largest semiconductor merger in history at the time — and retained the Broadcom name and AVGO ticker under CEO Hock Tan. Three further transformational acquisitions followed: CA Technologies for $18.9 billion in cash (November 2018, financed via an $18 billion bridge loan later refinanced into term loans and bonds); Symantec's enterprise security division for $10.7 billion in cash (November 2019); and VMware for approximately $69 billion in cash, stock, and assumed debt (November 2023) — the largest enterprise software deal in history, funded partly by approximately $32 billion in new long-term debt. Broadcom's $26.9 billion in annual free cash flow (FY2025) enables rapid deleveraging.

Broadcom's market cap has compounded dramatically: it entered the $1 trillion club in 2024 and surged toward $2.3 trillion at the Q2 FY2026 earnings report on June 3, 2026 (driven by 143% AI chip revenue growth), before settling to approximately $1.9 trillion at mid-June after a broader market pullback. Revenue has grown from roughly $6.8 billion in FY2016 to approximately $75.5 billion TTM through April 2026 — more than a 10x increase driven by M&A synergies and AI semiconductor tailwinds.

Sources:Broadcom VMware Acquisition CompletionAvago Technologies IPO PricingBroadcom Market Cap History

How did Broadcom get here?

Broadcom evolved from a two-person UCLA spinout in 1991 into one of the world's most valuable companies through deep technical innovation, transformational acquisitions, and capital-allocation discipline rare in the semiconductor industry.

Sources:Broadcom Company HistoryBroadcom Q2 FY2026 Earnings ReleaseBritannica: Broadcom History

Who are Broadcom's competitors?

Broadcom competes across two distinct arenas — semiconductor chips and enterprise infrastructure software — each with its own rival set. No single company matches its combined semiconductor and software scale, which is a key part of Broadcom's competitive moat.

Sources:Broadcom vs Marvell: Custom AI Silicon 2026Broadcom Competitors Analysis