Semiconductors are betting on AI labs whose spending commitments the stock market takes seriously, despite little visibility into what is happening at the labs. They selectively leaked good news for three years, but last week brought the opposite; Anthropic has also delayed an IPO originally slated for before Labor Day. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan warns that enterprise AI spending may yield little learning. x.com  x.com  x.com 

AI-exposed semiconductors face near-term demand risk as Anthropic's revenue growth slows. Monthly additions fell from $10B to ~$2-3B, though October may improve and one-off headwinds contributed. The AI selloff is not irrational amid rates, debt, politics and supply-chain risks. Despite long-term optimism, a short-term bull case needs an Anthropic IPO or OpenAI fundraise, calmer rates and debt funding, blowout cloud earnings with EPS upgrades, and new applications reviving token monetization. … Show more

Broadcom's stronger AI business looks cheap for its growth, making it one of the best buys in the market right now. AI chip revenue rose 221% to $16.7B last quarter, yet the stock trades at 19x forward earnings and a 0.35 PEG. Management sees AI revenue near $115B in fiscal 2027 and would raise that outlook if customers secure more land and power. Anthropic is on track to be its largest custom chip customer next year. Wall Street's $529 average target implies about 60% upside. x.com 

Broadcom has become an Anthropic name rather than a Google name, which hurts as Anthropic's growth slows. Yipit data shows Anthropic's ARR at $70 billion versus $65 billion a month earlier, with monthly growth down from $8 billion to $5 billion. OpenAI, meanwhile, is accelerating at $43 billion ARR and $5 billion a month, and its talent and AI capex moat should help it surpass Anthropic in enterprise soon. x.com 

Broadcom borrowing again signals a $1.8 trillion company running low on cash. Per @KobeissiLetter, citing the WSJ, Broadcom is seeking more than $50 billion of financing for OpenAI's custom AI chip, with Apollo and Blackstone among the lenders it has approached. x.com 

Broadcom's custom silicon business stands to turn Anthropic's IPO funding into chip orders. The cash raised for Anthropic's compute spending would flow down the stack into Broadcom's order book. x.com 

Broadcom's $30 billion guarantee on Anthropic's chip debt is a binary bet. Per @HedgieMarkets, Apollo and Blackstone closed a $35 billion private credit deal in which an SPV buys Google's custom AI chips and leases them to Anthropic, and Broadcom's residual value guarantee covers the shortfall if Anthropic misses a payment and the chips lose value. As @HedgieMarkets puts it, the company whose CEO said productivity hasn't shown up now guarantees the hardware meant to produce it. x.com 

Broadcom's AI business is smaller and growing slower than Nvidia's networking unit alone, yet Broadcom is valued at $2.269T against Nvidia's $5.201T. Broadcom's Q2 AI semiconductor revenue rose 143% to $10.8B, with Q3 guided to $16.0B, while Nvidia's data-center networking revenue rose 199% to $14.8B. Hock Tan also said Google is diversifying away from Broadcom, and a Fubon roadmap shows Google using MediaTek for some TPUs. x.com  x.com 

Broadcom's significant exposure to Anthropic's AI infrastructure spending and custom AI chips adds to its growth case. Annual EPS is projected to rise nearly fourfold from $8.06 LTM to $30.38 by FY2028, while the stock trades roughly 30% below its all-time high. x.com 

Nvidia and Broadcom could both go bankrupt if the AI bubble does not last forever, because together they now back about $180 billion of customers' debt obligations. Cisco faced the same setup after the internet buildout, when oversupply collapsed prices, its revenue fell back to pre-bubble levels and $2.2 billion of vendor debt it had backed defaulted. For scale, Nvidia's net income in 2021, before the bubble began, was $4.4 billion. x.com