Broadcom reports 86% revenue growth amid AI boom as Intel shows signs of recovery

Broadcom just posted a quarter that makes most of the chip industry look like it’s standing still. Consolidated revenue for fiscal Q3 2026 hit $29.6 billion, up 86% from a year earlier.

Intel had good news too. Its Q2 2026 revenue climbed 25% to $16.1 billion.

Broadcom’s AI engine runs hot

The core of Broadcom’s quarter was AI semiconductors. That business brought in $16.7 billion, a 221% jump year over year.

AI chips made up 56% of total revenue, so more than half of every dollar the company booked came from AI hardware.

Profitability kept pace with the top line. Non-GAAP operating income reached $20.1 billion, up 92% year over year. Free cash flow came in at $13.7 billion, or 46% of revenue.

Management also signaled that the next quarter should be even bigger. Broadcom guided Q4 fiscal 2026 revenue to approximately $34.8 billion, which would represent 93% growth from the prior year.

The company raised its full-year fiscal 2026 AI revenue forecast to $58 billion. Its longer-range outlook calls for AI revenue of approximately $115 billion in fiscal 2027 and approximately $230 billion in fiscal 2028.

Who’s buying all those chips

Broadcom’s confidence rests on supply agreements with some of the biggest names in AI. The customer list includes Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

Anthropic is expected to become the largest customer for Broadcom’s custom AI accelerators, known as XPUs, by 2027.

An XPU is a chip designed for one customer’s specific AI workloads, rather than a general-purpose processor sold off the shelf. Custom silicon built around a customer’s own software tends to create long relationships, which helps explain why Broadcom feels comfortable publishing forecasts two fiscal years out.

Intel’s slower comeback

Intel’s quarter told a recovery story rather than a boom story. Revenue of $16.1 billion was up 25% from the prior year.

The brightest spot was the Data Center and AI segment, or DCAI. That unit grew 59% to $6.3 billion.

Intel’s non-GAAP gross margin improved to approximately 41.8%, and losses in its foundry business narrowed.

CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s leadership appears to be having a positive effect on results. Still, Intel faces significant execution risk as it pushes its turnaround forward in a crowded, highly competitive market.

Two chipmakers, two different scoreboards

Broadcom’s AI semiconductor revenue alone, at $16.7 billion, edged past Intel’s entire quarterly revenue of $16.1 billion.

Broadcom’s AI segment grew 221%, while Intel’s DCAI unit grew 59%.

What this means for investors and the chip sector

Broadcom has turned AI demand into contracted, multi-year business with the industry’s largest buyers. Forecasts of approximately $230 billion in AI revenue by fiscal 2028 are still forecasts, not booked sales.

When more than half of revenue comes from AI chips sold to a relatively small group of hyperscalers and AI labs, any slowdown in their spending plans would show up quickly in the numbers. Anthropic’s expected rise to the top of the XPU customer list ties part of Broadcom’s future to how fast AI labs keep scaling their compute budgets.

Watch Broadcom’s Q4 results against its approximately $34.8 billion guidance, and watch whether Intel’s margin gains and foundry improvements hold over the next few quarters.