Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) topped estimates with infrastructure solutions revenue but came short on the semiconductor solutions front. With its latest results, the supplier of Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) showed positive revenue growth and perhaps more importantly, proved that the transformation of the acquired VMware around private cloud is well grounded.
Fiscal Third Quarter Highlights
For the quarter ended on August 4, Broadcom reported revenue grew 47% YoY to $13.07 billion, surpassing FactSet's and LSEG's consensus estimate of $12.98 billion. When excluding the contributions from VMware deal that closed in November, revenue only grew 4%. Semiconductor solutions brought in $7.27 billion with revenue growing 5% YoY, but still short of FactSet's estimate of $7.42 billion. Strengthened by the VMware deal, infrastructure-solutions reported revenue grew as much as 200%, topping FactSet's consensus estimate of $5.52 billion.
But, Broadcom ended up with a net loss of $1.88 billion, or 40 cents a share.
Adjusted earnings amounted to $1.24, surpassing LSEG's consensus estimate of $1.20.
Guidance In-Line with Expectations
For the current quarter, Broadcom guided for revenue of $14 billion.
Fueled by ethernet networking and custom accelerators for AI data centers, Broadcom lifted its prior forecast as it now expects $12 billion in full-year AI revenue from sold AI parts and custom chips. It previously expected $11 billion. For the full year, Broadcom expects adjusted EBITDA to be 64% of revenue.
Broadcom's Contribution is Not Going Unnoticed
Over the past year, Broadcom stock rose as much as 75%, underlying the fact that the market is seeing the company as a noteworthy contributor to the AI infrastructure in the making. Some example of Broadcom's work is on the Google-made (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) TPU chip, the custom chip that even Apple used in its AI training work.
With this decision, Apple also showed its focus to reduce reliance on the dominating chip player, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), as when it comes to AI training, Nvidia makes the rules with its graphics processing units. Unsurprisingly, Nvidia put a hefty price tag on these highly wanted chips that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Open AI and Anthropic use for their current models, while Google is among those using them to make its AI offerings and build its system.
Therefore, the Apple supplier seems to have a less-obvious but still noteworthy role in the AI dynamics and new era that is in the making and Broadcom is clearly somewhat receiving the acknowledgement for its contribution.