Broadcom rallies on forecast for booming AI chip demand

(Reuters) - Shares of Broadcom soared 14% on Friday, with the chipmaker moving closer to $1 trillion in market value after it forecast that demand for its custom AI chips would keep rising in the coming years.

The company was on track to add around $120 billion to its market value of $843 billion, based on premarket share movements, as it also forecast revenue for the first quarter above Wall Street estimates on Thursday. Rival Marvell Technology's shares gained 5.3%.

Broadcom has become a go-to supplier for big technology companies looking to reduce their dependence on pricey, supply-constrained AI processors made by front-runner Nvidia by developing their own advanced custom chips. That has pushed Broadcom's shares up more than 62% so far this year.

CEO Hock Tan said on Thursday he expected the AI market to present a revenue opportunity between $60 billion and $90 billion for fiscal 2027, adding that Broadcom had won two major hyperscaler customers, which refers to large cloud firms.

The company said it captured more than $12 billion of the total serviceable AI revenue of between $15 billion and $20 billion in fiscal 2024. This includes both its custom AI chips as well as the networking equipment used in data centers.

"Extrapolating this ~70% market share to FY 2027 would imply AI revenue exceeding $50 billion," TD Cowen analysts estimated.

The $60 billion to $90 billion revenue opportunity "is difficult to prove/disprove, but is huge", they added.

At least 16 brokerages raised their price targets on Broadcom's shares, pushing the median view to $210, according to data compiled by LSEG. That represents an upside of 16% to the stock's last closing price.

Broadcom's 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio is 29.8, compared with Nvidia's 31.03 and Marvell's 41.14.

"They went out of their way to give investors a reason to dream, painting a three-year picture with potential $60 billion to $90 billion AI revenue opportunity from current customers, and with more possible given two new potential customers currently engaged," Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon said.

"The AI story seems to really be coming into its own, perhaps Hock might think about shopping for a leather jacket," Rasgon added, referring to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's signature style.

(Reporting by Siddarth S and Joel Jose in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)