(Bloomberg) — Broadcom Inc., a chip supplier for Apple Inc. and other big tech companies, fell in late trading after delivering a disappointing sales forecast, hurt by the portion of its business that isn’t tied to artificial intelligence.
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Sales will be roughly $14 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter, which runs through October, the company said in a statement Thursday. Analysts had projected about $14.1 billion.
The forecast suggests that Broadcom’s non-AI operations are growing more slowly than anticipated. Though the company has benefited from a surge in artificial intelligence spending, its other divisions aren’t as connected to this bonanza. The company has a wide variety of offerings, including mainframe products, security and data center software, mobile-phone chips and data storage gear.
Broadcom shares declined about 6% in extended trading following the announcement. The stock closed at $152.82 in regular New York trading, leaving it up 37% for the year.
The company is projecting $12 billion of revenue from AI-related products for the full year, beating the average analyst projection of $11.8 billion. That suggests that the shortfall in the total quarterly sales forecast came from other areas.
Chief Executive Officer Hock Tan said that most of his non-AI chip businesses are at or through their worst point. Revenue in some of those markets has begun to grow again sequentially even though it remains well below where it was a year go. Bookings — an indicator of future sales — are up 20%, he said. There’s no reason why those markets can’t return to previously high levels, he said.
“In aggregate, we have reached bottom in our non-AI markets, and we’re expecting recovery in the fourth quarter,” he said on a conference call with analysts. “AI demand remains strong.”
Third-quarter profit was $1.24 a share, excluding some items. That compared with an average estimate of $1.22. Revenue rose to $13.07 billion, compared with a projection of $13.03 billion. The company is much larger than it was a year ago, partly because of its acquisition of VMware Inc., which it bought for roughly $69 billion.
Broadcom’s semiconductor division had revenue of $7.27 billion in the three months ended Aug. 4. Software sales were $5.8 billion.
For next year, Tan said he remains confident that AI will continue to be strong.
The CEO turned Broadcom into one of the largest players in the chip industry through a series of acquisitions. His strategy is to find businesses that are dominant in certain fields, purchase those companies, and then refocus them exclusively on those areas. Tan also has used that formula to expand into software.
The AI spending boom has turned Broadcom’s chip peer Nvidia Corp. into the biggest, most valuable company in the industry. Nvidia sells so-called AI accelerators that help develop tools such as ChatGPT, but Broadcom has benefited as well by supplying related components and software.
Data center providers rely on Broadcom’s custom-chip design and networking semiconductors to build their AI systems. The company also sells components for cars, smartphones and internet access gear. Its push into software, meanwhile, includes products for mainframe computers, cybersecurity and data center optimization.
Over the long term, Tan believes that the AI chip market will move to custom, in-house designs. That would mean shifting away from Nvidia components — a change that could benefit Broadcom, since it helps customers produce their own chips. He declined to provide a precise prediction of when this might happen and admitted it could take several years.
Apple is a top customer as well: Broadcom provides key components for the iPhone. During earnings calls, Tan typically gives updates on Broadcom’s often-contentious relationship with that company, which he refers to obliquely as his “North American customer.”
On that point, Tan said on Thursday’s call that he expects next-generation devices to help drive Broadcom’s wireless revenue up 20% sequentially in the fourth quarter — though it would still be flat compared with a year earlier.
Broadcom’s CEO — when asked what he called a “beautiful question” about whether he might look for a new acquisition in the semiconductor area — told his audience not to expect anything soon. The executive said he was focused on integrating VMware, a process that could take two years.
“Right now, I’m having my hands really full,” Tan said.
(Updates with more from conference call in final five paragraphs.)
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