In our fiscal 2025, consolidated revenue grew 24% year-over-year to a record $64 billion, and it's driven by AI semiconductors and VMware. AI revenue grew 65% year-over-year to $20 billion, driving the Semiconductor revenue for this company to a record $37 billion for the year. In our Infrastructure Software business, strong adoption of VMware Cloud Foundation, or VCF, as we call it, drove revenue growth of 26% year-on-year to $27 billion. Total revenue was a record $18 billion, up 28% year-on-year, and above our guidance on better-than-expected growth in AI Semiconductors, as well as Infrastructure Software.

Q4 consolidated adjusted EBITDA was a record $12.12 billion, up 34% year-on-year. In semiconductors, revenue was $11.1 billion, as year-on-year growth accelerated to 35%. And this robust growth was driven by the AI Semiconductor revenue of $6.5 billion, which was up 74% year-on-year. And this represents a growth trajectory exceeding 10x over the 11 quarters we have reported this line of business.

I'm pleased today to report that during this quarter, we acquired a fifth XPU customer through a $1 billion order placed for delivery in late 2026. Demand here has even been stronger as we see customers build out their data center infrastructure ahead of deploying AI accelerators. We expect these $73 billion in AI backlog to be delivered over the next 18 months, and in Q1, fiscal 2026, we expect our AI revenue to double year-on-year to $8.2 billion. Turning to non-AI semiconductors, Q4 revenue of $4.6 billion was up 2% year-on-year and up 16% sequentially based on favorable wireless seasonality.

What went well
  • Record fiscal 2025 revenue of $64 billion, up 24% year-on-year, driven by AI semiconductors and VMware.
  • Fiscal 2025 AI revenue grew 65% to $20 billion; semiconductor revenue reached a record ~$37 billion and software revenue $27 billion (+26%).
  • Record Q4 revenue of $18 billion, up 28% year-on-year and above guidance on stronger AI semiconductors and infrastructure software.
  • Record Q4 adjusted EBITDA of $12.2 billion, up 34% year-on-year, at 68% of revenue and above the 67% guidance.
  • Q4 AI semiconductor revenue of $6.5 billion, up 74% year-on-year; custom accelerator business more than doubled year-over-year.
  • Received an additional $11 billion Anthropic order (on top of the prior $10 billion) and acquired a fifth XPU customer via a $1 billion order, both for late 2026.
  • AI backlog of $73 billion to ship over 18 months, nearly half of the record $162 billion consolidated backlog; AI switch backlog alone exceeds $10 billion.
  • Infrastructure software revenue of $6.9 billion, up 19% and above outlook; software backlog grew to $73 billion from $49 billion a year ago on $10.4 billion of Q4 TCV.
  • Fiscal 2025 free cash flow grew 39% to $26.9 billion; raised the quarterly dividend 10% to $0.65 (15th consecutive annual increase).
What went wrong
  • Non-AI semiconductor recovery remained limited; all end markets except broadband were down year-over-year as enterprise spending showed limited signs of recovery.
  • Consolidated gross margin fell 50 basis points sequentially to 77.9% on semiconductor product mix.
  • Management flagged that AI gross margins are structurally lower and will dilute consolidated gross margin as system/rack sales ramp in 2H 2026 (offset by operating leverage).
  • Non-GAAP tax rate set to rise from 14% to ~16.5% in fiscal 2026 on global minimum tax and geographic income mix.

Guidance Changes

MetricPeriodCurrent guidance
Consolidated revenueQ1 FY2026$19.1B, up 28% YoY
Semiconductor revenueQ1 FY2026~$12.3B, up 50% YoY
AI semiconductor revenueQ1 FY2026$8.2B, up ~100% YoY (doubling)
Infrastructure software revenueQ1 FY2026~$6.8B, up 2% YoY
Non-AI semiconductor revenueQ1 FY2026~$4.1B, flat YoY, down sequentially on wireless seasonality
Adjusted EBITDA marginQ1 FY2026~67% of revenue
Consolidated gross marginQ1 FY2026down ~100 bps sequentially on higher AI mix
Non-GAAP tax rateQ1 / FY2026~16.5%
Infrastructure software revenueFY2026Low double-digit percentage growth

Performance Breakdown

MetricYoYNote
Total revenue +28% Better-than-expected AI semiconductors and infrastructure software.
AI semiconductor revenue +74% Custom accelerator (XPU) adoption more than doubled as customers train LLMs and monetize via inference.
Semiconductor revenue +35% Acceleration driven by AI; record $11.1 billion.
Infrastructure software revenue +19% Strong VCF adoption and bookings; $10.4 billion TCV vs $8.2 billion a year ago.
Adjusted EBITDA +34% Revenue growth and operating leverage; 68% of revenue.
Operating income +35% Record $11.9 billion; operating margin 66.2%, up 70 bps sequentially.
Semiconductor operating margin +250 bps Operating leverage on AI-led revenue growth; margin ~59%.
Free cash flow (FY2025) +39% Strong cash generation to $26.9 billion.

Earnings Call Themes & Trends

TopicPrevious mentionCurrent periodTrend
Custom XPU customer count4 customers5 customers after a new $1 billion order for late-2026 delivery
Anthropic orders$10 billion order (Q3)Additional $11 billion order for delivery in late 2026
AI backlog disclosure$110 billion total company backlog (Q3)$162 billion consolidated backlog; $73 billion AI backlog over 18 months
Sales modelChip-level salesSystem/rack sales for customer four (full-system responsibility), diluting gross margin but accretive to operating dollars
OpenAI relationshipNot a named customer10 GW agreement/alignment over 2027-2029; separate XPU program advancing, little revenue expected in 2026
TPU merchant extensionTPUs used internally by GoogleGoogle TPUs (Ironwood) also used externally by Apple, Cohere and SSI for AI cloud compute

Q&A Summary

Is $73 billion over 18 months roughly $50B+ of fiscal 2026 AI, and how does XPU share evolve amid customer-owned tooling?
Treat $73 billion as a minimum floor over the next six quarters, with more bookings expected. Custom-tooling fears are overblown; making a custom accelerator is a multi-year strategic commitment customers will not abandon.
Is TPUs going merchant a substitution for ASIC customers or a market expansion, and financial implications?
It mostly substitutes for merchant GPUs (a transactional move); investing in a custom accelerator is a long-term strategic decision that continues regardless.
Does Broadcom have 3nm/2nm wafer, CoWoS, substrate and HBM supply to meet the backlog?
Treat $73 billion as minimum revenue over six quarters with more to come; no silicon constraint at TSMC so far. Building a Singapore fab to partially insource advanced packaging for supply security.
How are the $10 billion follow-on and fifth-customer orders delivered - chip or rack?
Customer four is a full system (rack) sale with Broadcom fully responsible for the system, given the many Broadcom components involved.
How should we think about gross and operating margins as AI/system sales ramp?
AI has lower gross margin and system sales pass through more non-Broadcom components, so gross margin dollars rise while the percentage falls; operating leverage keeps operating-margin dollars growing (Hock Tan and Kirsten Spears).
Can you calibrate fiscal 2026 AI growth and confirm the fifth customer is OpenAI?
Not giving full-year AI guidance; Q1 doubles year-on-year and the trend is likely accelerating through 2026. Declined to confirm the fifth customer's identity.
Is the OpenAI 10 GW contract the fifth-customer order and when does it contribute?
The fifth customer is separate and real; the OpenAI 10 GW is an alignment over 2027-2029 (more 2027-2029 than 2026), with little expected in 2026 - distinct from the OpenAI XPU program.
What is the diversity of the ~$1.7 billion Q1 AI sequential growth, and view on photonic-fabric acquisitions?
Growth is a mixed bag across existing customers and XPUs plus very strong switch, DSP and optical demand; of the $73 billion AI backlog, ~$20 billion is non-XPU. Silicon photonics matters eventually but not soon - copper and pluggable optics persist first.

More on Broadcom Inc.

Reported 2025-12-11 · figures from the Broadcom Inc. Q4 2025 earnings call.

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