Broadcom: the US maker of AI chips and VMware infrastructure software

Broadcom Inc. is an American technology company that designs, develops and supplies semiconductors and infrastructure software. It is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and its shares trade on Nasdaq under the symbol AVGO.

The company has become a major supplier of custom chips and networking parts for artificial intelligence. In its 2025 fiscal year it reported revenue of $63.9 billion, up 24 percent, and AI semiconductor revenue rose 74 percent in the fourth quarter.

Overview and Founding

Today’s Broadcom grew out of Avago Technologies, which became a standalone company on December 1, 2005, when the investment firms KKR and Silver Lake bought the former semiconductor products group of Agilent Technologies. That group traced its customer base back to the years before 1999, when it was part of Hewlett-Packard. The buyers had offered $2.66 billion for the unit, which had net revenue of about $1.8 billion in 2005.

Hock Tan became Avago’s president and chief executive in March 2006. On February 1, 2016, a new parent, Broadcom Limited, completed the combination of Avago and Broadcom Corporation, and the group took the Broadcom name. Broadcom Corporation had reported net revenue of $8.39 billion for 2015.

In April 2018 the parent company moved its legal home from Singapore to Delaware and became Broadcom Inc. Shareholders had approved the plan in March 2018, and each Broadcom Limited share was swapped one for one into the new stock.

Key Milestones

• 2005: Agilent’s former semiconductor products group becomes Avago Technologies on December 1.
• 2006: Hock Tan becomes president and chief executive in March.
• 2016: Avago and Broadcom Corporation combine under Broadcom Limited on February 1.
• 2018: The parent company completes its move to Delaware and becomes Broadcom Inc. on April 4.
• 2018: Broadcom completes its acquisition of CA Technologies on November 5.
• 2023: Broadcom completes its acquisition of VMware on November 22.
• 2025: Broadcom reports fiscal 2025 revenue of $63.9 billion on December 11.

What It Does

Broadcom has two reporting segments. Semiconductor solutions covers a broad range of digital and mixed-signal chips, network interface cards, switches and related modules. Infrastructure software, built largely on the CA Technologies and VMware purchases, sells infrastructure and security software that companies use to run private cloud, hybrid cloud and edge systems, along with fibre channel storage networking products.

Its chips go into AI and enterprise data centres, servers, networking gear, storage systems, broadband and set-top boxes, wireless devices and base stations, factory automation and power systems. In AI, Broadcom designs custom accelerators and Ethernet switches for very large cloud and AI customers.

VMware was bought in November 2023 for about $69 billion, paid partly in cash, about $30.8 billion, and partly in 544 million Broadcom shares. Broadcom said it would focus its investment on VMware Cloud Foundation, the software stack used to build private and hybrid clouds.

The VMware deal changed choices for some customers. A 2024 article in The Saudi Times noted that some organisations had begun looking at alternatives such as Nutanix after the acquisition.

Broadcom also works with Google on its custom tensor processing units. In October 2026 the Financial Times reported that Broadcom would guarantee about $42 billion of senior debt in a financing package tied to Anthropic’s use of those chips.

The company describes itself as a global technology leader in semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions. It uses a 52-week fiscal year that ended on November 2 in 2025. For the first quarter of fiscal 2026 it forecast revenue of about $19.1 billion, up 28 percent, and it raised its quarterly dividend to $0.65 a share, the fifteenth yearly increase in a row.

In Numbers

• Revenue: $63.9 billion in fiscal 2025, up 24 percent.
• Segment revenue, fiscal 2025: semiconductor solutions $36.9 billion, infrastructure software $27.0 billion.
• Adjusted EBITDA: a record $43.0 billion in fiscal 2025.
• Free cash flow: $26.9 billion in fiscal 2025.
• Employees: about 33,000 as of November 2, 2025, with about 57 percent in research and development.

Leadership

Broadcom’s investor site lists Hock Tan as president and chief executive officer, a post he has held since March 2006. Kirsten Spears is chief financial officer.