Broadcom

Broadcom Inc. is one of the world's largest semiconductor and infrastructure software companies, with a market capitalization that surpassed $1 trillion in 2024. The company was originally founded in 1991 by UCLA professor Henry Samueli and his former PhD student Henry Nicholas as Broadcom Corporation, focusing on chips for cable set-top boxes and modems. That original company grew through acquisitions and became a communications chip powerhouse, but the modern Broadcom Inc. is actually the result of a 2016 merger where Avago Technologies, led by CEO Hock Tan, bought Broadcom Corporation for $37 billion and took its name. Avago's management team, with Tan at the helm, has since transformed the company through a string of massive acquisitions including CA Technologies ($18.9 billion in 2018), Symantec's enterprise security business ($10.7 billion in 2019), and most notably VMware ($69 billion in 2023).

Broadcom's product portfolio splits into two main segments. On the semiconductor side, it dominates wired infrastructure with Ethernet switching chips, broadband access processors, and custom ASICs for data centers. Its wireless chips are inside billions of devices, including Apple iPhones, though the company doesn't sell directly to consumers. The software side now includes VMware for cloud infrastructure, CA for mainframe and enterprise software, and Symantec for cybersecurity. Under Hock Tan, Broadcom has become known for buying companies with strong market positions, then aggressively cutting R&D and sales costs to boost profitability, a strategy that has drawn criticism from customers and former employees.

For fiscal year 2024, Broadcom reported revenue of $51.6 billion, up 44% year-over-year, driven by AI chip sales and the VMware acquisition. The company's custom AI accelerators for Google (TPUs) and networking chips for AI data centers have become major growth drivers. Broadcom is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with major offices in San Jose, Irvine, and Fort Collins. Its primary competitors include Qualcomm in wireless, Marvell in networking, and Intel in data center chips. Despite its low consumer profile, Broadcom's components are essential to global internet infrastructure, from cable modems to cloud data centers.[edit]