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Benzinga
Benzinga
Surbhi Jain

Broadcom's $120B AI Bet: Can Hock Tan Outpace Nvidia With Next-Gen Chips?

Konskie,,Poland,-,January,03,,2024:,Broadcom,Inc,Company,Logo

Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO) is no longer content to trail in NVIDIA Corp.'s (NASDAQ:NVDA) shadow. Armed with a $120 billion AI revenue target by 2030 — and CEO Hock Tan whose bonus depends on hitting it — the semiconductor giant is positioning itself to challenge Nvidia's dominance.

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JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur argues Broadcom's roadmap, from its next-gen 2nm chip innovation to rack-scale deployments, could vault the company into direct competition with the GPU leader.

2nm Leapfrog: The XPU Gambit

According to Sur, Broadcom's edge lies in its custom AI XPU program, which is on track to tape-out the industry's first 2nm, 3.5D packaged AI accelerator later this year. If successful, that milestone would put Broadcom technologically ahead of merchant GPU peers — including Nvidia — at a moment when hyperscalers are clamoring for alternatives.

Three customers are already ramping, a fourth is expected by mid-next year, and three more are in waiting. With each engagement designed to eventually scale toward million-cluster AI infrastructures, Sur sees Broadcom firmly embedding itself in the same rarefied tier Nvidia occupies today.

Read Also: Broadcom Vs. Nvidia: The AI Chip War You’re Not Watching

Beyond Chips: Capturing The Stack

Sur also highlights Broadcom's push beyond chips into full rack-scale AI systems, combining its XPUs with high-performance networking. While rack deployments carry lower margins due to pass-through costs, they add higher absolute profit dollars and cement Broadcom's role as more than a component supplier.

On the networking front, its Tomahawk6 switch — doubling bandwidth to 102Tbps — positions Ethernet, not Nvidia-favored InfiniBand, as the backbone of hyperscale AI clusters.

Sur argues this is where Broadcom could erode one of Nvidia's structural advantages.

Investor Takeaway

While Broadcom is also seeing green shoots in broadband, storage and VMware, Sur makes it clear: the long-term story is AI. With CEO Tan incentivized to deliver $120 billion in AI revenues by 2030, Broadcom is building both the chips and infrastructure to put pressure on Nvidia's empire.

If execution on its next-generation designs stays on track, Broadcom investors could be looking at a genuine challenge to Nvidia's dominance by the end of the decade.

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Photo: Shutterstock

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