Nvidia and Broadcom Narratives Define the AI Chip Landscape

Within a week of each other, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) reported, and the two calls made opposing cases. NVIDIA posted $96.22 billion in revenue, which more than doubled year over year. Broadcom grew AI semiconductor revenue 221% by building custom chips for frontier labs. NVIDIA sells the whole AI factory. Broadcom designs chips meant to replace the factory’s core.

Full Racks Carry NVIDIA. Custom Silicon Carries Broadcom.

NVIDIA’s Data Center revenue reached $89.02 billion, up 117%. Networking grew even faster, at 138%, which tells me customers want complete systems connected together. Jensen Huang summed it up: “Now, compute is revenue.” Vera Rubin orders came from “every major hyperscaler, AI cloud, and system OEM.”

Broadcom’s pitch is narrower. XPUs made up 73% of AI revenue, and Hock Tan argued that a co-developed chip “will outperform any GPU.” Management claims custom XPUs match GPU performance at half the cost. Since that claim comes from the supplier, I discount it somewhat. VMware adds stability: Infrastructure Software grew 29% to $8.75 billion, a recurring revenue stream NVIDIA lacks.