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LivestreamMenuBroadcom ‘s stock has caught fire into Wednesday’s earnings report, raising the bar to keep the flame alive. The chipmaker’s stock raced to fresh record highs yet again Tuesday, climbing 4.7% to $481.57. The latest source of fuel: Google parent Alphabet, which is Broadcom’s most important AI customer, plans to raise $80 billion through equity sales to primarily support its AI buildout. A sizable chunk of that figures to flow into Broadcom’s coffers as the co-designer of Google’s in-house Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). Investor excitement around rival Marvell in Tuesday’s session could also have spilled over into Broadcom shares. Broadcom has registered three record closes in a row and has now rallied 16% over the past six sessions. The rekindled momentum comes after the stock was stuck in neutral for a good part of May, at least compared with other semiconductor peers riding the artificial intelligence wave. Broadcom rose only 7% in May, compared with a 22% gain for the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index , known as the SOX. In April, as the market surged off its Iran wartime bottom, Broadcom largely kept pace with the SOX, up 35% versus its 38%. Broadcom’s resurgence creates a more difficult chipmaker’s fiscal 2026 second-quarter release — and to protect our profits, we trimmed our position Tuesday. The sale is not motivated by fundamental concerns, but rather Jim Cramer’s belief that giving back profits “is the real sin” in investing. There’s no doubt Broadcom remains an integral part of the AI data center buildout , thanks to its leadership role in co-designing custom accelerators for the likes of Google and Meta, and its networking business that helps stitch together various parts of the center and ensure data travels fast and efficiently. On Wednesday night, Broadcom has to prove that its custom semiconductor business is still set to grow rapidly, especially with mounting concerns over competition from Marvell, which works with Amazon and Microsoft on their in-house silicon. Back in April, Broadcom entered a long-term agreement with Google through 2031 to continue producing future generations of its custom tensor processing units (TPUs). Broadcom also said it will give Claude creator Anthropic around 3.5 gigawatts of computing capacity through Google’s chips. A few days later, Meta extended its partnership with Broadcom to co-develop later versions of its custom silicon, committing to an initial deployment of 1 gigawatt worth of computing power. It’s no wonder Broadcom CEO Hock Tan is confident about the growing appetite for its custom silicon. At the same time, investors want to know whether Broadcom secured any new customers during the quarter, beyond just expanded partnerships with its existing clientele. Broadcom guided for semiconductor revenue to be $14.8 billion in the second quarter, implying 76% year over year growth. The company projected its AI revenue, in particular, to soar 140% to $10.7 billion. In the first quarter, Broadcom’s AI revenue revenue doubled from the year-ago period to $8.4 billion, well above its prior outlook. “While we are not convinced this is a major beat-and-raise quarter, we believe the stock can work as long as management reinforces the long-term demand outlook,” analysts at Morgan Stanley wrote Monday. “The bigger story remains 2027,” when analysts expect additional market-share gains for Broadcom’s custom chips. They reiterated their buy-equivalent rating and increased their price target on the stock to $485 from $470. Broadcom’s networking business will be just as significant. Cisco’s recent blowout quarter was encouraging for Broadcom investors as the company said it saw over 50% growth in networking product orders. On Tuesday, HP Enterprise also reported strength in its networking unit. Last quarter, Broadcom reported networking revenue growth of more than 60%, making up about one-third of its fiscal first-quarter AI revenue. Broadcom forecasted that its AI networking business would hit 40% of total AI revenues for its second quarter. JPMorgan is enthused about Broadcom going into the quarter. In a note to clients Sunday, analysts said they believe the company’s AI backlog for fiscal 2027 is now north of $150 billion, up from their old estimate of $120 billion. The upside, they said, is driven by strong demand from clients like Google, Meta and OpenAI. Customer interest in Broadcom’s next-generation Tomahawk 6 switch chip, which is part of its networking business, is also booming and the product is “almost completely sold out for next year,” according to JPMorgan. A beat on the quarterly numbers is the bare minimum for a stock that’s run as much as Broadcom. Investors will want to see Broadcom issue guidance above the Street’s forecast for this current quarter. Wall Street expects Broadcom to forecast total revenue for the ongoing fiscal third quarter of $28.5 billion, according to LSEG. Going into Wednesday’s report, the Street remains exceptionally bullish on Broadcom, with 93% of analysts issuing a buy-equivalent rating on the stock. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long AVGO. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . 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