4 Best ETFs for Capitalizing on the Semiconductor Market Surge
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Oct 11 2024
0mins
Should l Buy AVGO?
Source: Benzinga
Semiconductor Market Growth: Driven by demand from cloud computing and AI, global semiconductor sales surged to over $53 billion in August 2024, marking a 20.6% year-over-year increase, with major companies like NVIDIA, TSMC, and Broadcom leading the market.
Investment Opportunities in ETFs: Various ETFs such as VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) and Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF (SOXQ) offer investors exposure to the booming semiconductor sector, each with unique features like expense ratios and asset management strategies to cater to different investment preferences.
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Analyst Views on AVGO
Wall Street analysts forecast AVGO stock price to rise
30 Analyst Rating
29 Buy
1 Hold
0 Sell
Strong Buy
Current: 331.170
Low
370.00
Averages
457.75
High
525.00
Current: 331.170
Low
370.00
Averages
457.75
High
525.00
About AVGO
Broadcom Inc. is a global technology firm that designs, develops, and supplies a range of semiconductors, enterprise software and security solutions. The Company operates through two segments: semiconductor solutions and infrastructure software. Its semiconductor solutions segment includes all of its product lines and intellectual property (IP) licensing. It provides a variety of radio frequency semiconductor devices, wireless connectivity solutions, custom touch controllers, and inductive charging solutions for mobile applications. Its infrastructure software segment includes its private and hybrid cloud, application development and delivery, software-defined edge, application networking and security, mainframe, distributed and cybersecurity solutions, and its FC SAN business. It provides a portfolio of software solutions that enable customers to plan, develop, automate, manage and secure applications across mainframe, distributed, mobile and cloud platforms.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
Broadcom Stock Surges Over 600% in Five Years
- Outstanding Stock Performance: Broadcom's stock has surged over 600% in the past five years, reflecting strong performance in the tech sector and increased investor confidence, further solidifying its market position.
- Stable Cash Flow: The company currently boasts a free cash flow of $7.4 billion, enabling it to consistently pay a quarterly dividend of $0.65 per share while continuing to invest in growth, indicating its financial health.
- Robust Revenue Growth: In its fourth-quarter 2025 report, Broadcom's revenues grew by 28% year-over-year, with free cash flow up 36%, and even if growth slows slightly in the coming quarters, its strong balance sheet provides a true economic moat.
- Massive Backlog: Broadcom's backlog stands at an impressive $162 billion, ensuring growth potential for the next decade while showcasing its competitive advantage and execution capabilities in the market.
See More
Nvidia's Earnings Outlook Analysis Ahead of Report
- Market Value Surge: Since the end of 2022, Nvidia has added nearly $4.2 trillion in market cap, becoming the most valuable company on Wall Street, reflecting its dominant position and market confidence in the AI sector.
- Strong Sales Expectations: Analysts anticipate Nvidia will achieve approximately $65.6 billion in sales for fiscal Q4 2026, a 67% year-over-year increase, indicating robust demand for its AI hardware despite high investor expectations.
- Sustained Competitive Advantage: Nvidia's GPUs face virtually no competition in AI-accelerated data centers, with CEO Jensen Huang aggressively investing in R&D to maintain compute superiority, planning to introduce advanced GPUs annually.
- Pricing Power Challenges: As GPU supply improves, Nvidia's pricing power may weaken; although its GAAP gross margin remains above 70%, future sales growth could be impacted by internal competition and market dynamics.
See More
Oracle Shares Plunge 40% Amid AI Concerns
- Stock Plunge: Oracle's shares have fallen approximately 40% since late October, primarily due to investor concerns over its debt-financed AI data centers and heavy reliance on OpenAI workloads, indicating skepticism about its sustainable growth potential.
- Debt Financing Pressure: Despite raising tens of billions to expand capacity and promoting its role in training OpenAI models, the market is beginning to question the viability of this strategy, which was once seen as a transformative growth engine, reflecting a reassessment of its fundamentals.
- Microsoft's AI Burden: Microsoft's commercial cloud remaining performance obligations have surged to about $625 billion, with roughly 45% tied directly to OpenAI, raising concerns about its future financial health and potentially impacting its stock performance.
- Market Confidence Eroded: OpenAI CEO Altman's firm response to investor doubts starkly contrasts with market reactions, as stocks related to Oracle, Microsoft, and Broadcom have suffered steep declines due to skepticism surrounding OpenAI's commitments, despite Altman's assurances of steep revenue growth.
See More
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- Surging AI Revenue: Broadcom reported a 74% year-over-year increase in AI semiconductor revenue for the latest quarter, with projections indicating that first-quarter revenue will double to $8.2 billion, driven by strong demand for custom accelerators and AI Ethernet switches, significantly boosting overall performance.
- Record Backlog: The company's backlog for AI switches has surpassed $10 billion, reflecting robust market demand amid ongoing AI data center buildouts, which further solidifies Broadcom's position in the industry.
- Differentiated Product Offering: Broadcom has launched the industry's first Wi-Fi 8 access point and switch system, designed to enhance security and speed for enterprises utilizing AI, thereby increasing its competitive edge and attracting more customers.
- Unique Market Positioning: Broadcom's XPUs are custom chips tailored for specific purposes, differentiating them from Nvidia and AMD's general-purpose GPUs, allowing the company to carve out a niche in the competitive AI market and enhancing its strategic positioning for future growth.
See More
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- Cloud Services Driving Profitability: Microsoft’s cloud revenue grew 26% year-over-year, surpassing $51 billion, with adjusted net income up 21% year-over-year, and despite heavy investments in AI, it returned 32% of its free cash flow in dividends, showcasing strong profitability.
- Broadcom's Market Positioning: Broadcom offers a 0.70% dividend yield, but its dividend has increased over tenfold in the last decade to $2.36 per share, with significant growth expected over the next 20 years, particularly driven by strong demand in the AI data center market.
- Strong Cash Flow: Broadcom generated $27 billion in free cash flow over the past year, representing a 42% margin on revenue, and has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years, recently announcing a 10% increase, demonstrating its ongoing dividend payment capability.
See More
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- Investment Risk Warning: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns that even a slight miscalculation in AI investment timing could lead to bankruptcy, particularly as rivals pour hundreds of billions into data centers, highlighting the intense market competition.
- Cautious Spending Strategy: Amodei emphasizes that while powerful AI models are expected to emerge within one to two years, the timeline for revenue realization remains uncertain, potentially taking one to five years, making early massive capital commitments highly risky.
- Massive Spending Plans: Anthropic plans to invest $50 billion in U.S. AI infrastructure, focusing on data centers in Texas and New York, while competitors like Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta are budgeting significantly more at $200 billion, $185 billion, and $135 billion respectively, indicating fierce funding competition in the industry.
- Surge in Market Demand: According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, global chip sales are projected to reach $791.7 billion in 2025 and grow by 26% in 2026, indicating that AI demand is driving rapid growth across the entire sector.
See More
Broadcom Stock Surges Over 600% in Five Years
- Outstanding Stock Performance: Broadcom's stock has surged over 600% in the past five years, reflecting strong performance in the tech sector and increased investor confidence, further solidifying its market position.
- Stable Cash Flow: The company currently boasts a free cash flow of $7.4 billion, enabling it to consistently pay a quarterly dividend of $0.65 per share while continuing to invest in growth, indicating its financial health.
- Robust Revenue Growth: In its fourth-quarter 2025 report, Broadcom's revenues grew by 28% year-over-year, with free cash flow up 36%, and even if growth slows slightly in the coming quarters, its strong balance sheet provides a true economic moat.
- Massive Backlog: Broadcom's backlog stands at an impressive $162 billion, ensuring growth potential for the next decade while showcasing its competitive advantage and execution capabilities in the market.
See More
Nvidia's Earnings Outlook Analysis Ahead of Report
- Market Value Surge: Since the end of 2022, Nvidia has added nearly $4.2 trillion in market cap, becoming the most valuable company on Wall Street, reflecting its dominant position and market confidence in the AI sector.
- Strong Sales Expectations: Analysts anticipate Nvidia will achieve approximately $65.6 billion in sales for fiscal Q4 2026, a 67% year-over-year increase, indicating robust demand for its AI hardware despite high investor expectations.
- Sustained Competitive Advantage: Nvidia's GPUs face virtually no competition in AI-accelerated data centers, with CEO Jensen Huang aggressively investing in R&D to maintain compute superiority, planning to introduce advanced GPUs annually.
- Pricing Power Challenges: As GPU supply improves, Nvidia's pricing power may weaken; although its GAAP gross margin remains above 70%, future sales growth could be impacted by internal competition and market dynamics.
See More
Oracle Shares Plunge 40% Amid AI Concerns
- Stock Plunge: Oracle's shares have fallen approximately 40% since late October, primarily due to investor concerns over its debt-financed AI data centers and heavy reliance on OpenAI workloads, indicating skepticism about its sustainable growth potential.
- Debt Financing Pressure: Despite raising tens of billions to expand capacity and promoting its role in training OpenAI models, the market is beginning to question the viability of this strategy, which was once seen as a transformative growth engine, reflecting a reassessment of its fundamentals.
- Microsoft's AI Burden: Microsoft's commercial cloud remaining performance obligations have surged to about $625 billion, with roughly 45% tied directly to OpenAI, raising concerns about its future financial health and potentially impacting its stock performance.
- Market Confidence Eroded: OpenAI CEO Altman's firm response to investor doubts starkly contrasts with market reactions, as stocks related to Oracle, Microsoft, and Broadcom have suffered steep declines due to skepticism surrounding OpenAI's commitments, despite Altman's assurances of steep revenue growth.
See More
Broadcom's Rise in the AI Sector
- Surging AI Revenue: Broadcom reported a 74% year-over-year increase in AI semiconductor revenue for the latest quarter, with projections indicating that first-quarter revenue will double to $8.2 billion, driven by strong demand for custom accelerators and AI Ethernet switches, significantly boosting overall performance.
- Record Backlog: The company's backlog for AI switches has surpassed $10 billion, reflecting robust market demand amid ongoing AI data center buildouts, which further solidifies Broadcom's position in the industry.
- Differentiated Product Offering: Broadcom has launched the industry's first Wi-Fi 8 access point and switch system, designed to enhance security and speed for enterprises utilizing AI, thereby increasing its competitive edge and attracting more customers.
- Unique Market Positioning: Broadcom's XPUs are custom chips tailored for specific purposes, differentiating them from Nvidia and AMD's general-purpose GPUs, allowing the company to carve out a niche in the competitive AI market and enhancing its strategic positioning for future growth.
See More
Microsoft and Broadcom: Long-Term Dividend Growth Investment Opportunities
- Microsoft Dividend Growth: Microsoft's dividend yield stands at 0.84%, below the S&P 500's 1%, yet its dividend has more than doubled over the past decade, translating to an annualized growth rate of about 10%, indicating robust cash flow and potential for continued dividend increases.
- Cloud Services Driving Profitability: Microsoft’s cloud revenue grew 26% year-over-year, surpassing $51 billion, with adjusted net income up 21% year-over-year, and despite heavy investments in AI, it returned 32% of its free cash flow in dividends, showcasing strong profitability.
- Broadcom's Market Positioning: Broadcom offers a 0.70% dividend yield, but its dividend has increased over tenfold in the last decade to $2.36 per share, with significant growth expected over the next 20 years, particularly driven by strong demand in the AI data center market.
- Strong Cash Flow: Broadcom generated $27 billion in free cash flow over the past year, representing a 42% margin on revenue, and has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years, recently announcing a 10% increase, demonstrating its ongoing dividend payment capability.
See More
Anthropic CEO Warns of AI Investment Risks
- Investment Risk Warning: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns that even a slight miscalculation in AI investment timing could lead to bankruptcy, particularly as rivals pour hundreds of billions into data centers, highlighting the intense market competition.
- Cautious Spending Strategy: Amodei emphasizes that while powerful AI models are expected to emerge within one to two years, the timeline for revenue realization remains uncertain, potentially taking one to five years, making early massive capital commitments highly risky.
- Massive Spending Plans: Anthropic plans to invest $50 billion in U.S. AI infrastructure, focusing on data centers in Texas and New York, while competitors like Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta are budgeting significantly more at $200 billion, $185 billion, and $135 billion respectively, indicating fierce funding competition in the industry.
- Surge in Market Demand: According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, global chip sales are projected to reach $791.7 billion in 2025 and grow by 26% in 2026, indicating that AI demand is driving rapid growth across the entire sector.
See More
