Broadcom’s sales from AI chips jumped 221% in its latest quarter, helping drive the company’s total revenue up 86% from a year earlier.
The company reported fiscal third-quarter 2026 results on September 2, 2026, for the three months that ended August 2. Total revenue came in at $29.591 billion, up from $15.952 billion in the same quarter last year. Broadcom said the quarter set company records for revenue, operating profit and free cash flow. That was above the average analyst estimate of roughly $29.36 billion reported before the release. Adjusted earnings per share — a non-GAAP figure that strips out certain acquisition and stock-compensation costs — were $3.32, also ahead of the roughly $3.24 analysts had expected. On a strict accounting (GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)) basis, which includes those costs, diluted earnings per share were $2.68.
Key facts
- Revenue (fiscal Q3 2026): $29.591 billion, up 86% from $15.952 billion a year earlier
- AI chip revenue (fiscal Q3 2026): $16.7 billion, up 221% year-over-year, about 56% of total revenue
- Earnings per share (fiscal Q3 2026): $3.32 adjusted (non-GAAP); $2.68 diluted (GAAP)
- Fiscal Q4 2026 guidance: Broadcom expects total revenue of about $34.8 billion and AI semiconductor revenue of about $21.7 billion
- Quarterly dividend: $0.65 per share, payable September 30, 2026
- Stock buyback: no new program announced; a $10 billion authorization from March 2026 remains in place
- CEO’s outlook (not formal guidance): Hock Tan cites about $115 billion in AI revenue for fiscal 2027 and about $230 billion for fiscal 2028 — annual figures from his own earnings-call comments, not quarterly guidance
AI chips are now driving most of the growth
Sales of Broadcom’s AI-related semiconductors — custom chips it designs for large technology companies, plus the networking gear that connects them — reached $16.7 billion for the quarter. That was up 221% from a year earlier and up 54% from the previous quarter. That is now 56% of everything Broadcom sold. The company’s custom AI accelerator chips are known as XPUs, built to each customer’s own specifications rather than off-the-shelf. Broadcom said shipments of them were up more than 3.5 times year-over-year and made up about 73% of that AI revenue. The $16.7 billion also came in above the $16 billion Broadcom itself had guided investors to expect for the quarter.
CEO Hock Tan told investors on the earnings call that Broadcom has “secured the supply to again double AI revenue” to roughly $115 billion for all of fiscal 2027 — a full-year figure, not a quarterly one, so it is not a straight doubling of the $16.7 billion in AI chip sales reported above for this single quarter. He also said the company has “line of sight” to AI semiconductor revenue doubling again to about $230 billion for fiscal 2028. Those are directional comments from the call, not formal financial guidance, and Tan tied them to multi-year custom-chip commitments from customers including Google, , and Meta.
Where the rest of the revenue came from
Broadcom’s chip business, which the company calls Semiconductor Solutions, brought in $20.839 billion, up 127% from a year ago and about 70% of total revenue. Its software business, Infrastructure Software — built around the VMware acquisition — brought in $8.752 billion, up 29%, or about 30% of the total. GAAP operating income was $15.955 billion. Non-GAAP operating income came in at $20.095 billion, up 92% from a year earlier.
How fast this is moving
The scale of the jump becomes clearer next to the prior quarter. In fiscal Q2 2026, reported in June, Broadcom’s total revenue was $22.187 billion and its AI chip revenue was $10.8 billion. Three months later, AI chip revenue alone had grown by more than 50%, and total company revenue had climbed by nearly a third — in a single quarter.
What Broadcom expects next, and how the stock reacted
For the current quarter, fiscal Q4 2026, Broadcom guided investors to expect total revenue of about $34.8 billion, up roughly 93% from a year earlier. It also guided for AI semiconductor revenue of about $21.7 billion, up roughly 236%. Broadcom also guided to a non-GAAP operating margin of about 66% of projected revenue. That revenue guidance came in below the roughly $35 billion analysts had penciled in.
Shares of Broadcom fell in after-hours trading after the report, and outlets covering the move tied the decline to that Q4 guidance falling short of what Wall Street had expected, rather than to the quarter Broadcom had just reported, which beat the cited revenue and adjusted-EPS estimates. The exact size of the after-hours move was reported inconsistently across outlets and changed over the course of the evening as Tan’s comments on the earnings call reached investors, so no single figure is reported here.
The dividend, and no new buyback
Broadcom declared its regular quarterly dividend of $0.65 per share, payable September 30, 2026. Free cash flow for the quarter reached $13.665 billion, or 46% of revenue. The company did not announce any new stock buyback program alongside these results. An existing $10 billion repurchase authorization, approved by Broadcom’s board in March 2026 and running through the end of this year, remains in place from before this report.
Sources and further reading
- Broadcom Inc. Form 10-Q (fiscal Q2 2026)
- Broadcom Inc. 8-K Exhibit 99.1 — Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Financial Results
- Broadcom Inc. Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1 — Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 results
- Broadcom Inc. 8-K Exhibit 99.1 — Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Financial Results
- sec.gov
- Broadcom Inc. Announces Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Financial Results and Quarterly Dividend
- Broadcom Inc. Announces Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Financial Results (investor relations page)