New York, February 12, 2026, 10:26 (EST) — Session underway
Broadcom Inc shares slipped roughly 1.1% to $338.84 in Thursday’s morning session, after hitting a high of $346.23 earlier. The stock had closed at $342.76 the previous day.
Investors are watching Broadcom closely as a gauge of customer spending on AI data centers and its impact on chip demand and pricing. After a recent jump in job growth and a drop in unemployment eased economic concerns, U.S. stocks opened a bit higher. Attention has now shifted back to corporate earnings.
On Tuesday, UBS reaffirmed its Buy rating on Broadcom, setting a $475 price target and highlighting what it sees as surging demand for the company’s TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) products. Analyst Timothy Arcuri forecasted shipments of roughly 3.7 million TPU units in 2026, climbing past 5 million in 2027. He also pegged AI-related revenue around $60 billion for fiscal 2026.
“Many have shifted to TPU as a middle ground between GPU and other options, and we see demand picking up fast,” Arcuri noted in a memo quoted by Barron’s. TPU demand is key because it could divert spending from GPUs — the go-to for AI training — since TPUs often cost less for “inference,” which means producing answers from trained models. Barron’s
Networking competition is heating up. Cisco rolled out a new switch chip and router this week designed to accelerate traffic within massive AI data centers—a space where Broadcom’s Tomahawk series dominates. According to Cisco exec Martin Lund, the chip features built-in “shock absorber” technology to prevent network slowdowns during traffic surges. Reuters
The custom-silicon arms race is expanding beyond just U.S. hyperscalers. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is reportedly designing its own AI chip and is in discussions with Samsung Electronics for manufacturing, according to two sources who spoke to Reuters. ByteDance, aiming to tighten control over its supply chain, denied the report, while Samsung declined to comment. Reuters also pointed out it had previously revealed ByteDance’s collaboration with Broadcom on a cutting-edge AI processor.
The usual tug-of-war is on: strong demand signals and fresh programs can boost confidence, but whispers of price pressure or market share losses quickly drag stocks down. Chip investors often skip waiting for quarterly reports if they sense the cycle is shifting.
But the downside risk remains. Back in December, Broadcom flagged that a shift toward lower-margin custom AI chips could hit profits, despite a $73 billion backlog slated for delivery over the next 18 months. “Hitting that panic button is premature,” said Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes at the time. Reuters
Broadcom offers a mix of semiconductor products and infrastructure software, spanning wireless connectivity, custom silicon, and cloud and security software, per its Reuters company profile. CEO Hock Tan has been driving a stronger focus on enterprise software to complement its chip business.
March 4 is the big date for Broadcom, which will release its fiscal 2026 first-quarter results after markets close, followed by a 5 p.m. Eastern conference call. Investors will be watching closely for updates on AI chip demand, networking deals, and how the company is balancing margins—these details could shape sentiment heading into next week.
