Broadcom Earnings in Focus as Analysts Bet on Custom AI Chip Demand

CNBC reported Wednesday that Wall Street is looking to Broadcom’s post-close earnings release to determine whether the semiconductor sector’s strong 2026 run still has legs.

Custom Chip Deals Put Broadcom in the Spotlight

Broadcom’s dominant position in application-specific integrated circuits makes it a bellwether for AI infrastructure spending. Major hyperscalers depend on the company’s custom silicon, and recently signed partnerships with Anthropic and Alphabet have lifted its profile further.

Consensus forecasts compiled by FactSet point to second-quarter earnings per share of $2.40 on revenue of roughly $22.13 billion. UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri holds a buy rating on the stock with a price target of $490. He wrote in a May preview that Street estimates look “very beatable” and that the company will likely guide revenue well above the consensus figure.

Broadcom shares traded near $487 on Wednesday afternoon, up about 1% on the day.

What the Alphabet and Anthropic Deals Mean for Revenue

The company signed an agreement with Alphabet in April to assist in developing tensor processing units, the search giant’s proprietary AI accelerators. A separate arrangement with Anthropic provides that startup with access to computing capacity.

Arcuri flagged that revenues from those two deals are expected to track each other closely, reflecting the tight capital linkages running through the AI buildout. Morgan Stanley projected that Broadcom’s AI-related revenues could reach between $150 billion and $200 billion by 2027, with roughly $105 billion attributable to ASIC contracts.

Wells Fargo described itself as broadly bullish on semiconductors and specifically positive on the TPU-related supply chain, naming Broadcom among its preferred names.

A Strong Year but a Cautious Near-Term Backdrop

Broadcom’s stock has climbed roughly 40% so far in 2026, comfortably outpacing Nvidia’s approximate 15% gain over the same stretch. The CNBC Magnificent 7 index has advanced just under 4% year to date.

Not all analysts are uniformly upbeat heading into the print. CLSA analyst Bhavtosh Vajpayee cautioned in a Tuesday note that AI-related equities face a potentially bumpy summer as a memory-component shortage creates supply pressure across the sector. He still placed Broadcom, alongside Nvidia and TSMC, among the names better positioned to weather that turbulence than smaller, newer AI-theme beneficiaries.

Options pricing implies a post-earnings move of as much as 8% in either direction for Broadcom shares. The broader PHLX Semiconductor index rose nearly 2% Wednesday even as Nvidia slipped just over 3%.

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