Broadcom Just Quietly Became OpenAI’s Preferred Choice for AI Inference. Here’s What That Means for AVGO Stock.

In the second half of last year, OpenAI and Broadcom (AVGO) announced a deal for 10 gigawatts worth of compute capacity. Just nine months later, the chipmaker has unveiled a purpose-built chip that will run inference workloads for large language models (LLM). The chip, named Jalapeno, was designed by OpenAI and implemented on silicon by Broadcom, along with the networking. Celestica (CLS) handled the board, rack, and system integration. It was this collaboration that helped achieve targets in such a short span of time.

As AI inference takes center stage, Broadcom’s early entry into inference-specific chips is a positive development for shareholders. The chip is optimized around memory movement, kernels, and serving patterns that are unique to frontier LLM inference rather than general AI workloads. The reason this matters is that inference-specific chips can be fine-tuned to work efficiently with AI models, getting as close to theoretical limits as possible. The resulting higher throughput per chip lowers the costs in the long run, which eventually helps companies like OpenAI deliver their services at a lower cost than the competition. 

This may look like just another technical advancement for a chipmaker, but considering the fact that Broadcom already has deals with Anthropic, Meta (META), Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), and ByteDance, similar announcements can be expected in the future. The company’s Rack deployment also puts it in direct competition with Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which are also fighting hard to take a share of OpenAI’s spending. However, as previously pointed out, Broadcom has similar deals with other hyperscalers, and success with one could easily translate to success across the board, making it a crucial player in AI-inference chipmaking and rack deployment. 

About Broadcom Stock

Broadcom is a technology company that designs and develops semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions. Its product portfolio includes AI accelerators, networking chips, broadband and wireless connectivity solutions, and enterprise software following the VMware acquisition. The company serves cloud providers, enterprise customers, and telecommunication firms globally. Founded in 1961, Broadcom is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and is led by CEO Hock Tan.

Over the last 12 months, AVGO stock has increased nearly 40%, easily outperforming the S&P 500 ($SPX), which rose approximately 22% during the same period. The rise has been driven primarily by the growing demand for custom AI accelerators and the successful VMware integration.

Broadcom’s valuation looks more reasonable than its AI peers by most measures. The forward GAAP P/E is 45.52x, slightly below its 5-year average of 48.00x, indicating that the stock is currently trading at a discount on an earnings basis. The forward price-to-sales of 18.49x is significantly above the sector median of 3.32x and the company’s 5-year average of 12.48x, suggesting that investors are paying a premium for Broadcom’s revenue. 

However, the EPS growth trajectory offers justification for this premium. The firm is estimated to have a significant EPS growth of 70% and 67% in 2026 and 2027, respectively. Unlike many tech firms, Broadcom shows no signs of a dramatic decline, with continued growth through at least 2029. One concern for investors is the company’s net debt of $45 billion, mainly due to the $69 billion VMware acquisition in 2023. With the company’s enterprise value of $2 trillion and booming AI demand, the debt looks pretty manageable for the firm.

Broadcom Reports Record Quarterly Revenue

Broadcom reported its second-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings on June 3. The firm reported a record revenue of $22.2 billion, up 48% year-on-year (YoY), exceeding management’s own guidance. The non-GAAP EPS of $2.44 surpassed the analyst consensus of $2.40. The key driver for the firm’s strong quarter was its AI semiconductors. CEO Hock Tan stated that custom AI accelerators and AI networking drove AI semiconductors to a record $10.8 billion in revenue, growing a massive 143% YoY. The increased demand also helped the firm set records in operating profit and free cash flow.

For the next quarter, Broadcom’s revenue guidance is $29.4 billion, an 84% increase and above the analyst consensus of $28.5 billion. The firm expects the AI semiconductor momentum to continue, with an estimated revenue of $16 billion, a growth of over 200% YoY. The CEO believes that the increased demand will help the firm gain revenue exceeding $100 billion in fiscal year 2027. When asked about the long-term agreement with Google, the CEO stated that while they expect Google to diversify some orders to other suppliers, the agreement is still a substantial financial commitment for Broadcom.  

What Analysts Are Saying About AVGO Stock

JP Morgan analyst Harlan Sur increased his AVGO stock price target from $500 to $580 while maintaining an “Overweight” rating. The analyst believes that investors are underestimating Broadcom’s advanced packaging design, intellectual property portfolio, and track record of execution. Sur also stated that, contrary to market concerns, the next-generation Google TPU v9 program has not been delayed or canceled. Analysts from Oppenheimer and UBS also maintained a “Buy” rating with price targets of $535 and $485, respectively.

Based on the 42 Wall Street analysts, AVGO stock holds a “Strong Buy” rating. The mean price is $516.59, indicating a 40% upside. This suggests that analysts believe the sharp stock drop due to conservative forward guidance was an overreaction by investors and that the company’s actual value is higher than its current stock price.