Broadcom joined the trillion-dollar club late last year, and its market value has continued to climb since. The software and chip company has been riding the AI wave as companies like Alphabet and Meta place orders for its custom AI chips.
The tech giant’s stock doubled in each of the past two years, climbing more than 350% from the start of 2023 to yesterday’s close. With a $1.2 trillion market cap, Broadcom is the S&P 500’s seventh-most-valuable company, worth more than either Walmart or Berkshire Hathaway.
Broadcom’s skyrocketing value has some Wall Streeters wondering whether it’s time for a shakeup of the Magnificent Seven, which currently includes Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.
Pulling into Tesla’s Parking Spot
Analysts expect Broadcom’s sales to soar 22% this fiscal year and 21% in 2026. Broadcom reported earnings earlier this month that topped analysts’ estimates after raking in $15 billion in revenue in its most recent quarter.
Nvidia is the only company in the Magnificent Seven whose sales growth surpasses Broadcom’s. In contrast, Tesla’s revenue has contracted 1% this year, and its shares have tanked. The automaker’s market cap is just above the $1 trillion mark. Four of the companies in the Magnificent Seven have seen their shares fall this year.
Meanwhile, Broadcom’s business is booming, especially its AI arm:
- Broadcom has a sprawling empire of technology that ranges from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips to cybersecurity software, but its custom AI chips now make up nearly a third of its revenue.
- The tech company made $4.4 billion of its revenue from AI in the second quarter (a 60% annual uptick) and expects $5.1 billion next quarter as cloud providers like Alphabet place more orders. The company predicts AI growth will continue next year.
Name Games: The Magnificent Seven is a way of grouping together some of the S&P 500’s most influential companies, similar to its predecessor FAANG (made up of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google before Facebook and Google changed their names). But some experts say the purpose of these groupings is to track trends, not just the most valuable companies. If the trend investors are eyeing now is AI, then swapping Tesla out for Broadcom may not make sense since Tesla is also leveraging AI (for robotaxis and humanoid robots). Another option might be to simply expand the Magnificent 7 to a Magnificent 8.
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