AVGO

Broadcom (AVGO) is going to release its quarterly earnings today after the closing bell. In the meantime, I suppose its product offering in the market is as strong as it has ever been. Its capitalization is well progressing on the road towards $1 trillion, achieving interim goals around $835 billion now when its share price is pressed closer to all-time highs once again. Thus, I feel reasonable just to hold my existing bullish positions in Broadcom, regardless of a direct market response to this particular earnings report, and maybe even add more shares of Broadcom to my personal portfolio in case of any noticeable retracement or simply enjoy the further growth in case of a stronger bullish momentum in after-hours trading.

For me, it is not at all a question of whether the record sales (widely expected above $14 billion) will exceed previous sales (at $13.07 billion in Q2) by another billion dollars or so. If this doesn’t happen right now, it will happen later anyway, as more important positive signals are coming. For me, and I think for many in the Wall Street crowd, a greater call came when Apple suddenly said a day before that it was collaborating with Broadcom on developing Apple's first server chip tailored for artificial intelligence. Following the news, Broadcom shares jumped by more than 5% on December 11, even though the stock stepped about 3% back the next day due to the natural wave of profit-taking before earnings. According to sources familiar with the matter, Reuters said, the chip is internally code-named "Baltra", and it would be ready for mass production by 2026. A cooperative work will further cement Apple's efforts to expand into the field of AI-driven hardware. Broadcom typically sells its production directly to customers rather than licensing it as an intellectual property, but now it reportedly decided to provide Apple with a more limited range of design services while still supplying its networking technology.

Broadcom's chips and digital connectivity solutions serve to develop advanced algorithms for AI data centers, with the company being a real leader in its niche, especially after one of its former rivals VMware became a part of Broadcom in November 2023. Some business-critical technologies of flagship corporations like Apple, Samsung, Huawei or Cisco are now nearly impossible to imagine without delivery of components and close cooperation with Broadcom. For nearly two decades, as an example, Broadcom-originated chips used for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and global navigation have been indispensable for the Samsung Galaxy series of devices. Broadcom sales to Samsung represent more than 20% of the overall Broadcom sales, while its sales to Apple were about 13.3% until recently. Now Apple's share of Broadcom's shipments, and therefore Broadcom's profits, will obviously increase, which will further strengthen the fundamental basis for the almost 3-fold increase in AVGO share price over the past 18 months.