( BroadcomNASDAQ:AVGO) has been a standout performer, soaring 120% from its April lows and delivering an astonishing 500% return over the past three years. This meteoric rise is fueled by Broadcom's strategic pivot into artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in data centers, where its custom AI chips and networking solutions are in high demand. The company reportedly ( controls around 70% of the custom AI chip market , serving hyperscale clients like major tech giants Google and Meta PlatformsNASDAQ:META) building AI infrastructure.
Nvidia is virtually unbeatable as a supplier of AI chips. Its Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) are by far the most powerful, scalable, and easy to use, especially for training large language models. This has propelled Nvidia to a market value of over $4 trillion. Although AMD in particular touts a cheaper yet mostly similar equivalent, Nvidia's ecosystem of software layers and partners forms an impregnable fortress.
For the three months ended July 28, Nvidia beat analysts' already Brobdingnagian forecasts for sales, revenue, and guidance, though a shortfall in data-center sales proved a slight disappointment that sent shares around 1% lower in midmorning trading on Aug. 28. Some Wall Street analysts also expressed concerns over a disclosure in Nvidia's 10-Q that for its trademark franchise-chip sales to data centers-it's collecting 44% of its revenues from just two hyperscalers, assumed to be Microsoft and Meta Platforms.
Cambricon Technologies Corp. swung to a record profit in the first half, reflecting a wave of demand for Chinese chips after Beijing encouraged the use of homegrown technology in a post-DeepSeek AI boom. The Chinese AI chip designer, which competes with Huawei Technologies Co. to provide accelerators for developing and hosting AI models, posted a 1.03 billion yuan profit ($144 million) versus a year-earlier loss of 533 million yuan. That's off a roughly 44-fold surge in revenue to 2.9 billion yuan. Its shares climbed more than 8% in Shanghai.
The pact, announced on Thursday, confirms that Brussels intends to buy at least $40 billion worth of US AI chips for its computing centers, guaranteeing business for American suppliers and giving the EU the silicon it needs for its AI and cloud ambitions. Both sides also promised to align technology security standards to prevent "leakage to destinations of concern," with Washington pledging easier export approvals once safeguards are in place.
