CNBC’s Partsinevelos: ‘Broadcom Just Did What Nvidia Couldn’t Explain’

CNBC’s Kristina Partsinevelos put it plainly after Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO | AVGO Price Prediction) reported earnings this week: “Broadcom just did what Nvidia couldn’t explain.”

That’s the whole story. But let’s unpack why it matters.

The Nvidia Problem

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) reported what should have been a celebration. Revenue hit $68.13 billion, up 73% year-over-year. Data Center alone generated $62.31 billion. The stock still fell. Partsinevelos nailed the reason: “Every single person knows Nvidia now, and it takes more than a beat to just move the needle.”

When ownership saturation is this extreme, the bar isn’t “beat estimates.” The bar is “change the narrative.” Nvidia didn’t do that. Broadcom did.

What Hock Tan Actually Said

Broadcom’s CEO delivered something investors rarely get: a concrete number with a timeline. Hock Tan gave investors a clear line of sight to more than $100 billion in AI chip revenue by 2027. He also confirmed OpenAI as a customer and told the market that the software business won’t be hurt by AI.

That last point is underappreciated. Broadcom’s VMware-driven software segment is a recurring revenue machine. The bear case was always that AI disruption could cannibalize it. Tan killed that concern directly.

The numbers backed him up. AI revenue hit $8.4 billion in Q1, up 106% year-over-year, above forecast. Then Tan guided Q2 AI semiconductor revenue to $10.7 billion against total Q2 revenue guidance of approximately $22 billion, up 47% year-over-year.

The Custom Silicon Advantage

Here’s the one-layer-deeper insight most coverage misses. Broadcom doesn’t compete with Nvidia head-to-head. It builds custom AI accelerators, called XPUs, specifically designed for individual hyperscalers. Think of it this way: Nvidia sells the same GPU to everyone, like a hardware store selling hammers. Broadcom builds a custom tool for each contractor’s exact job. Google, Meta, and now OpenAI don’t want off-the-shelf silicon when they’re running trillion-parameter models at scale. They want purpose-built chips that maximize efficiency for their specific workloads. That’s Broadcom’s moat.

The Stock’s Response

AVGO shares are up about 3.44% over the past week, trading near $332.77. Analyst consensus sits at a $465.56 price target with 48 buy ratings and zero sell ratings.

February also set up this trade nicely. February finished as the third largest dip-buying month on record, with Broadcom among the names retail investors accumulated heading into the print. Those buyers look smart right now.

The bottom line is this: Nvidia is the infrastructure of the AI era, but at its size, it needs to reshape expectations to move. Broadcom, with a focused custom silicon strategy, a credible $100 billion revenue roadmap, and a CEO willing to put specific numbers on the table, gave investors exactly what they needed to act. That’s what moved the stock. That’s what Nvidia couldn’t explain.