Broadcom's Last Two Years: From Digesting VMware to Becoming AI's Silent Partner

The story

Early 2024: still digesting VMware

In March 2024, on the Q1 FY2024 earnings call, Broadcom was a company just a few months removed from closing its roughly $84.2 billion VMware acquisition (Nov 2023). The tone was careful: management "reiterated" a $50 billion full-year revenue guide and spoke of VMware in future tense — "strong bookings will accelerate revenue growth." AI semiconductor revenue had already quadrupled year over year, but total company growth that quarter was only 34% — VMware wasn't yet fully integrated, and AI was still too small to lift the whole company on its own.

Two threads, running at once

Over the following two years, two things happened simultaneously. First, VMware integrated faster than expected: by the Q4 FY2024 call, full-year revenue closed at a "record $51.6 billion," beating the company's own $51B guide. Second — and more consequential — AI semiconductor growth decelerated once (from +150% YoY in FY2024 Q4 down to +46% by FY2025 Q2) before reaccelerating sharply: +63% → +74% → +106% → +143% through FY2026 Q2, nine consecutive quarters of acceleration by that point. Behind the reacceleration was a steadily growing customer count: "2 hyperscale customers" (early 2024) → "3 confirmed plus 2 more secured" (Q1 FY2025) → a "4th customer qualified" (Q3 FY2025) → "5 customers" (Q1 FY2026) → "6 core customers" (Q2 FY2026).

The company stopped naming its biggest customer

The most striking shift happened in the filings themselves. The FY2021–FY2023 10-Ks named "Apple Inc." and distributor "WT Microelectronics Co., Ltd." directly in the risk factors, each accounting for roughly 20% of revenue. Starting with the FY2024 10-K (filed December 2024), both names vanished completely — "Apple" doesn't appear a single time in the FY2025 10-K, down from 6 mentions in FY2023. In its place: "one semiconductor solutions customer, which is a distributor, accounted for 32%" — the relationship described, but never named.

Where it stands now

Total company backlog hit a "record $110 billion" on the Q3 FY2025 call, then jumped to $162 billion just one quarter later — a 47% increase in three months. Across the 8 confirmed guidance quarters from FY2024 Q4 through FY2026 Q2, the company beat its own guidance every single time, averaging about a 1.4% beat and peaking at 3.4% — a streak that never broke across two full years. The long-term "$100B+" AI semiconductor revenue target has been reaffirmed repeatedly, with FY2026 alone guided to roughly $56 billion in AI semiconductor revenue, up 180% year over year.

Guidance vs. actual, 8 quarters

8 of 8 quarters beaten (100%). The pattern of guiding slightly low and beating it never broke across two full years. The largest beat (+3.4%, FY2025 Q4) lines up with the point where AI semiconductor revenue growth was clearly reaccelerating — no guidance was ever cut or withdrawn across this entire stretch.

Source: FY2024 Q1–FY2026 Q2 earnings calls, each quarter's guidance checked against the following quarter's actual reported results.

Timeline — AI customer count & backlog

• FY2024 Q1"2 hyperscale customers" named (without naming them); AI revenue up 4x YoY but total company growth only 34%.
• FY2025 Q13 customers confirmed, plus 2 more secured — 5 total.
• FY2025 Q3A 4th customer "qualified"; total company backlog hits a record $110B.
• FY2025 Q4Backlog jumps to $162B, a 47% increase in a single quarter.
• FY2026 Q1"5 customers" formally confirmed.
• FY2026 Q2"6 core customers"; long-term $100B+ AI semiconductor revenue target reaffirmed.

Our read

The real story of these two years isn't "VMware integration worked out" — it's that Broadcom's identity, as told through its own filings, was rewritten. Through 2023, the company was legibly "the chip supplier that sells about a fifth of its output to Apple." Now that name is gone entirely, replaced by an unnamed circle of hyperscale customers that grew from 2 to 6 in under two years. Growing that customer count reads less like diversification for its own sake and more like several candidates lining up to become the next Apple-scale relationship — probably the real engine behind the reacceleration. The flip side is that the same filings, for the first time, admit that some of those AI customers might not be able to pay for what they're ordering — a tell that management knows how much of this growth rides on a small number of counterparties' financial health.

What we still don't know

• The specific identities of the "6 core customers" have never been disclosed by the company.
• The exact reason and timing behind dropping Apple's name from the filings — customer request or Broadcom's own choice — isn't explained anywhere in the public record.
• What specifically caused the Q2 FY2025 growth-rate trough — a simple base effect, or a particular customer pausing orders — can't be fully separated out from these filings alone.