Broadcom (AVGO) investors should have known it was going to be a Black Thursday when sharp-tongued CEO Hock Tan started his earnings call by reading last year’s numbers off a piece of paper. “Well, in Q2, revenue was a record $15 billion as we grew 79% year-on-year.
Driving this growth was AI semiconductor revenue at a record $10.8 billion, up 143% — well, let me restart, guys,” Tan said to begin the call on Wednesday afternoon. “Thank you, Ji
Thank you, everyone, for joining today. In our fiscal Q2 2026, total revenue reached a record $22.2 billion, up 48% year-on-year, above our guidance on strength in AI semiconductors.” Oops! The artificial intelligence stock, which had run up close to 40% year to date ahead of the results, had the same vibe.
The analysis: Broadcom faced high expectations for its earnings after strong upside surprises from other AI plays in recent weeks, like Dell (DELL), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Cisco (CSCO), and Snowflake (SNOW). The company had a mixed report compared to the Street’s jacked-up estimates, however. Broadcom reported revenue of $22.19 billion, modestly exceeding the consensus estimate of $22.13 billion.