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AVGO · Forward model · Hock case

The Hock case, 20 quarters out

Model as of

Each segment is projected from its own operating driver, rolled up into consolidated cash flow, and discounted back to a fair value per share. The assumptions below are editable — change them and every number on this page moves with them.

Quarters are labelled by the calendar year the fiscal quarter ENDS in, matching the rest of r40: 2026 Q3 is Broadcom's third fiscal quarter, ended 2 August 2026. Broadcom reports two segments and this model carries three verticals, because the segment that matters splits into two businesses with almost nothing in common. Infrastructure Software ($8,752M in the basis quarter) is reported on the face of the release. AI semiconductor revenue ($16.7B) is management prose - stated in the release headline and again on the call - and is NOT a reportable segment: there is no reconciliation table and no prior-period series in the exhibit. Non-AI semiconductors is the arithmetic remainder of Semiconductor Solutions ($20,839M) less AI, so the three verticals sum to reported consolidated revenue ($29,591M) to the dollar. Nothing is apportioned. On the call Tan gives the non-AI line as approximately $4.2B; the $61M against the $4,139M remainder here is rounding inside the $16.7B AI figure. What the Q3 call changed: management stopped quoting a single fiscal-year AI target and started describing demand in gigawatts, customer by customer, and for the first time gave its own content per gigawatt - '$20 billion-$30 billion per gigawatt'. The capacity driver is built on that disclosure. The 759 MW basis figure is $16.7B at the $25M per MW midpoint and 88% utilisation, and is DERIVED: Broadcom has never disclosed gigawatts shipped. What is assumed rather than reported: the segment margin and capex splits. Broadcom discloses consolidated non-GAAP operating margin (67.9%) and consolidated capex ($532M) but neither by segment, so the three margin inputs are the author's and are calibrated to reproduce the consolidated figure. The arithmetic worth stating plainly. Management gave three AI numbers: $58B for fiscal 2026, approximately $115B for fiscal 2027 'secured', and line of sight to $230B in fiscal 2028. The first two are reproduced here exactly - Q4 AI of $21.7B and fiscal 2027 of $115.0B. The third is not reachable from the same build rate: $115B in fiscal 2027 requires the sequential ramp to DECELERATE hard through that year, and $230B in fiscal 2028 then requires it to RE-ACCELERATE. This model's base decelerates and AI plateaus near $132B a year, about 43% below the fiscal 2028 line of sight. That gap is the finding, not a bug, and it is what the bull case is for. Note that management's own customer roadmap describes exactly such a re-acceleration - Anthropic from 5 GW in 2027 to an incremental 10 GW in 2028, OpenAI from 1.3 GW to over 5 GW - so the disagreement is about whether that step happens, not about whether management said it would.

AVGO forward model
Horizon
Fair value per share $406.40 +14% against $357.89
Terminal-year revenue $265.50B last four projected quarters
Enterprise value $2.02T $503.68B explicit + $1.52T terminal

Management's own stated targets, taken literally and carried forward: AI semiconductor revenue of $16.0B in the guided quarter, $56B in fiscal 2026, more than $100B in fiscal 2027, and the operating leverage the CFO describes holding at a 67% non-GAAP operating margin. What this case does NOT claim is a number for fiscal 2028 and beyond, because Hock Tan has not given one — so the tilt here is modest and the multiple, not the ramp, is where the optimism sits. Read the near-term quarters as understated: a compounding delta cannot reproduce a step, so this case matches the stated terminal shape better than it matches the guided quarter.

AVGO REVENUE MODEL

Latest: $67.80B (2031Q3E)

Period Value
2025Q2 $15.00B
2025Q3 $15.95B
2025Q4 $18.02B
2026Q1 $19.31B
2026Q2 $22.19B
2026Q3 $29.59B
2026Q4E $35.26B
2027Q1E $39.86B
2027Q2E $43.60B
2027Q3E $46.69B
2027Q4E $49.25B
2028Q1E $51.42B
2028Q2E $53.28B
2028Q3E $54.90B
2028Q4E $56.34B
2029Q1E $57.65B
2029Q2E $58.84B
2029Q3E $59.96B
2029Q4E $61.02B
2030Q1E $62.04B
2030Q2E $63.02B
2030Q3E $63.99B
2030Q4E $64.95B
2031Q1E $65.90B
2031Q2E $66.85B
2031Q3E $67.80B
Scenarios

Where each case comes from

Hock case — primary sources

The primary sources this case is built from — filings, calls and posts. Where they are claims by an interested party rather than disclosures, every number in the Hock column is what happens if they are taken at face value.

Valuation

From cash flow to fair value

Present value of free cash flow, 20 quarters$503.68B
Terminal-year revenue$265.50B
Terminal-year EBITDA$180.06B
Exit multiple, on revenue9.0x
Terminal value$2.39T
Discounted at 9.5% a year, terminal value becomes$1.52T
Share of enterprise value from the terminal75%
Enterprise value$2.02T
Net cash-$35.44B
Equity value$1.99T
Shares4.89B
Fair value per share$406.40
Against the deployed price of $357.89, as of +14%

7x terminal revenue against roughly 20x trailing enterprise value to revenue at the 2 September close. The terminal carries 67.6% of enterprise value, which is above two thirds and therefore the number to argue about: at 6x terminal revenue the base fair value falls to $225 and at 8x it rises to $275, so a single turn of the exit multiple is worth about $25 a share. By fiscal 2030 this model has consolidated revenue flat near $193B a year at a 67% EBITDA margin, with AI plateaued rather than compounding. Net cash is negative $35.4B - cash of $23,975M against short-term debt of $2,252M and long-term debt of $57,167M - so equity value is levered to the enterprise value and a turn of the multiple moves the share price more than it moves EV.

Read the other way round: at $357.89 the market is paying 7.6x terminal-year revenue, holding every other assumption on this page fixed. That is the number to argue about.

Quarter by quarter

The projected path

Quarter AI SemiconductorsNon-AI SemiconductorsInfrastructure Software Revenue YoY EBITDA Capex FCF R40 PV of FCF
2026 Q4E $22.13B$4.34B$8.79B $35.26B +96% $25.12B $468M $21.20B +156 $20.72B
2027 Q1E $26.43B$4.54B$8.89B $39.86B +106% $28.21B $568M $23.77B +166 $22.72B
2027 Q2E $29.83B$4.72B$9.05B $43.60B +97% $30.69B $657M $25.83B +156 $24.13B
2027 Q3E $32.54B$4.90B$9.25B $46.69B +58% $32.69B $736M $27.48B +117 $25.09B
2027 Q4E $34.69B$5.08B$9.48B $49.25B +40% $34.33B $806M $28.83B +98 $25.74B
2028 Q1E $36.43B$5.25B$9.75B $51.42B +29% $35.69B $868M $29.95B +87 $26.14B
2028 Q2E $37.83B$5.42B$10.04B $53.28B +22% $36.85B $923M $30.89B +80 $26.36B
2028 Q3E $38.97B$5.59B$10.35B $54.90B +18% $37.85B $973M $31.71B +75 $26.45B
2028 Q4E $39.90B$5.76B$10.68B $56.34B +14% $38.73B $1.02B $32.43B +72 $26.44B
2029 Q1E $40.68B$5.93B$11.03B $57.65B +12% $39.53B $1.06B $33.09B +69 $26.37B
2029 Q2E $41.33B$6.11B$11.40B $58.84B +10% $40.26B $1.09B $33.68B +68 $26.24B
2029 Q3E $41.89B$6.29B$11.79B $59.96B +9% $40.95B $1.13B $34.25B +66 $26.08B
2029 Q4E $42.36B$6.47B$12.19B $61.02B +8% $41.60B $1.16B $34.79B +65 $25.90B
2030 Q1E $42.77B$6.65B$12.61B $62.04B +8% $42.24B $1.18B $35.31B +65 $25.70B
2030 Q2E $43.13B$6.84B$13.05B $63.02B +7% $42.86B $1.21B $35.82B +64 $25.49B
2030 Q3E $43.45B$7.03B$13.51B $63.99B +7% $43.47B $1.23B $36.33B +63 $25.27B
2030 Q4E $43.74B$7.23B$13.98B $64.95B +6% $44.09B $1.26B $36.83B +63 $25.04B
2031 Q1E $44.00B$7.43B$14.47B $65.90B +6% $44.70B $1.28B $37.34B +63 $24.82B
2031 Q2E $44.23B$7.64B$14.97B $66.85B +6% $45.32B $1.30B $37.86B +63 $24.60B
2031 Q3E $44.45B$7.85B$15.50B $67.80B +6% $45.95B $1.32B $38.38B +63 $24.38B

Every row is projected. A year-over-year change is shown only where the quarter it compares against exists — an em dash means there is no comparable quarter, not a flat year.

Track record

Model revisions

Assumptions are marked to reality as each quarter prints. Every change is appended here, with the fair value the model produced at the time, so the model's own history stays visible.

DateFair value thenNote
2026-08-20 $282.09 First cut, built on the 2026 Q2 earnings release. Three verticals: AI semiconductors on a megawatts-shipped driver calibrated to the $56B fiscal 2026 and $100B-plus fiscal 2027 AI targets, non-AI semiconductors on a cyclical recovery, and Infrastructure Software on a decaying VMware repricing uplift.
2026-09-03 $250.25 Rebuilt on the Q3 FY2026 print and call. Basis moves from 2026 Q2 to 2026 Q3. The AI capacity driver is re-anchored on management's first disclosure of its own content per gigawatt ($20-30B, taken at the $25M per MW midpoint) rather than the previous $18M per MW estimate, and recalibrated to reproduce the guided Q4 AI revenue of $21.7B and the fiscal 2027 guide of $115B exactly. Non-AI semiconductors and infrastructure software are re-anchored on the Q4 figures management gave on the call ($4.3B and about $8.7B), the latter the first guided sequential decline in that line. Shares, net cash and reference price updated to the Q3 balance sheet and the 2 September close.