The Circuit Ep 155: Broadcom/Marvell Earnings, Copper to Fiber, and Apple News!
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Mar 10, 2026 Analysis of Broadcom and Marvell earnings and what their guidance signals for AI semiconductor demand. A deep dive into the copper versus fiber debate for data center interconnects and when optics become necessary. Discussion of hyperscalers' varied networking strategies and the supply chain pressures shaping compute availability. Recap of Apple's new affordable Neo and M5 product moves and their market implications.
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Broadcom Predicts Massive ASIC And Networking Ramp
- Broadcom forecasts $100B AI-related revenue in 2027 driven by custom ASICs and AI networking, implying a near doubling from ~50B this year.
- Hawk Tan emphasized few large customers (Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta) and high-margin growth, framing the ramp as capacity-driven per-gigawatt economics.
Compute Shortage Forces Hyperscalers To Diversify Suppliers
- Hyperscalers face a compute shortage, pushing them to diversify suppliers (Broadcom, AMD, Intel Foundry) beyond NVIDIA and TSMC to meet massive CapEx needs.
- Broad demand for inference chips and packaging constraints at TSMC/Samsung/Intel drive this multi-supplier strategy.
Copper Versus Optical Is A Strategic Positioning Battle
- Broadcom publicly argued copper interconnects can be extended to 400G (and possibly 800G), while also having leading silicon photonics for optical solutions.
- Hawk Tan's copper defense came two days after NVIDIA's multi-billion investments in Lumentum and Coherent, highlighting competitive signaling.