Broadcom CEO Rejects AI Slowdown Calls, Reaffirms $115 Billion Fiscal 2027 Revenue Target

Tan's CNBC Rebuttal to Slowdown Fears

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan publicly pushed back on Monday against Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's weekend call to slow frontier AI development, reaffirming Broadcom's AI semiconductor revenue targets of $115 billion for fiscal 2027 and $230 billion for fiscal 2028. Speaking in an interview with CNBC "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer, Tan was asked whether the slowdown debate had prompted him to reconsider those forecasts. "No, not at all," he replied, adding: "What we see is that demand for compute infrastructure — whether for AI research and development, for frontier AI models, or for inference compute needed to bring products to market globally — will remain robust, and I believe this demand has strong staying power."

Amodei's Proposal and the Market Reaction

Amodei's weekend essay proposed a three-step plan advocating for a slowdown in development without "sacrificing commercial advantage or America's leadership position in AI," drawing public support from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The remarks triggered a sharp selloff in AI infrastructure stocks on Monday, with Broadcom shares falling 4.8% and the iShares Semiconductor ETF tumbling 5.6%, as other data-center component suppliers also traded lower. Market observers offered differing interpretations of the motivations behind the slowdown calls, while some experts cautioned that it remains too early to determine whether the AI investment cycle will actually decelerate.

Anthropic Becomes Broadcom's Largest Custom Chip Customer

Tan also revealed during the interview that Anthropic is on track to become Broadcom's largest custom chip customer in 2027 and to hold that position through 2028, a relationship that explains why Broadcom investors are especially sensitive to Amodei's public statements. Google had previously been viewed as Broadcom's largest custom-chip partner, with the two companies having co-designed Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). Tan expressed particular optimism about inference demand, saying: "I can't speak to the training side, but once you productize inference capability, I believe the related demand will remain very, very strong."

Tan Frames AI as a Tool Requiring Guardrails

Tan said he agreed with Amodei that certain guardrails on AI are necessary but said he was less concerned about the technology's trajectory. AI, he argued, is "just a tool" that will not spiral out of control on its own, pointing to the everyday call volume generated once models have completed training as a sign that demand is durable. Broadcom's AI revenue streams include custom AI accelerators and networking chips used in AI systems.

Outlook and Competing Industry Voices

Nvidia, alongside Broadcom, has rejected the slowdown proposal, according to industry coverage of the debate. Broadcom's fiscal 2028 target of $230 billion, set during the company's fiscal 2026 third-quarter earnings call on September 2, exceeded market expectations and was a key highlight of that report. The dispute between frontier-AI labs and chip suppliers is likely to remain a flashpoint as investors reassess compute demand expectations.