Broadcom is a semiconductor and infrastructure software company with two distinct roles in the AI supply chain. The first is custom AI silicon: Broadcom co-designs application-specific integrated circuits with cloud hyperscalers who want AI accelerators optimized for their specific workloads rather than general-purpose GPUs. Google's Tensor Processing Units are the most prominent example, designed in partnership with Broadcom. The second role is AI networking: Broadcom's Tomahawk Ethernet switches and Jericho routers connect the thousands of GPUs in large AI clusters.

The economics of AI compute at hyperscale have driven growing demand for both product lines. Custom ASICs can be more efficient than general-purpose GPUs for specific inference workloads, and hyperscalers willing to invest in chip design have used Broadcom's manufacturing expertise to build them. At the same time, Ethernet-based AI networking has expanded as hyperscalers have moved away from InfiniBand for large cluster deployments, increasing demand for Broadcom's switching and routing products.

AI revenue jumped 106% year-over-year to $8.4 billion in Q1 FY2026, driven by robust demand for both custom AI accelerators and AI networking. The custom silicon pipeline has expanded well beyond Google: CEO Hock Tan confirmed Meta's MTIA accelerator program is active and targeting multiple gigawatts of capacity, OpenAI is deploying its first-generation custom chip at scale in 2027, and Google is targeting over three gigawatts of TPU capacity for Anthropic in 2027 alone.