Broadcom
AVGO · NasdaqOperating costs fell while revenue rose 85.5%
Operating expenses dropped 6.54% to $4.50B, so operating income grew by more than gross margin itself did and reached 53.9% of revenue.
Q3 FY2026, the quarter to Aug 2, 2026 · 10-Q filed Sep 10, 2026
- Operating margin
- 53.9%
- Net income
- $13.1B
- Free cash flow, quarter
- $13.7B
Largest source of revenue: Products, 82.1% of the total.
Where Broadcom's money goes
- 01
Operating costs fell while revenue rose 85.5%
Operating expenses dropped 6.54% to $4.50B, so operating income grew by more than gross margin itself did and reached 53.9% of revenue.
Why it matters
Revenue was $29.6B against $15.95B a year earlier, and gross margin $20.46B against $10.70B. Operating expenses went the other way, to $4.50B from $4.82B, which left them at 22.0% of gross margin against 45.0% a year earlier. Research and development fell 5.08% to $2.90B, or 9.78% of revenue against 19.1%. The filing attributes the lower research cost to "lower compensation, including stock-based compensation, resulting from a decrease in headcount".1
The margin rose in each quarter of the fiscal year. Operating income was $8.56B on $19.31B of revenue in the first quarter, $10.79B on $22.19B in the second and $15.96B on $29.59B in this one: 44.3%, 48.6% and 53.9% of revenue in turn. In the same quarter a year earlier, operating margin was 36.9%.1
AnalysisOur reading: the result rests on a cost base that has not grown with the business. Part of the fall is stock-based compensation, which the filing says declined on fully vested awards and a smaller headcount, so some of the saving may not recur. The margin structure holds only while costs stay far behind revenue.
- 03
One distributor carries about 71% of chip revenue
Direct sales to one distributor were 50% of total revenue against 32% a year earlier, equal to about 71% of semiconductor revenue this quarter.
Why it matters
The filing reports that direct sales to one semiconductor solutions customer, a distributor, were 50% of net revenue this quarter against 32% a year earlier. Semiconductor solutions was 70.4% of revenue, so that one channel equals about 71% of the segment's revenue. The company also believes its top five end customers, through all channels, took about 55% of revenue against about 40% a year earlier.1
A distributor is a channel, not the final buyer. The company recognizes most product revenue when title transfers in Penang, Malaysia, and reports regions by shipment location, which is why Asia Pacific shows $20.9B, or 70.8% of revenue. The filing says it expects "to continue to experience significant customer concentration in future periods".1
AnalysisOur reading: the growth and the concentration are the same fact seen twice. The products that drove the quarter are custom accelerators built for a small set of very large buyers, so each buyer's deployment plans now move a larger part of the total. The filing notes that AI orders in particular can make quarterly revenue fluctuate significantly.
Sources
- 1.Broadcom 10-Q for the period to 2026-08-02 (the filing), Sep 10, 2026, read Nov 2, 2026
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Growth, profit and margin
Revenue went from $13.2B in FY2016 to $63.9B in FY2025, the operating margin from -3.1% to 39.9%, over 9 years.
- Revenue$63.9B
- Operating income$25.5B
- Operating margin39.9%
- Period
- Q3 FY2026
- Revenue
- $29.6B
- Operating income
- $16.0B
- Operating margin
- 53.9%
- Net income
- $13.1B
- Free cash flow
- $13.7B
Does the profit turn into cash?
Q3 FY2026: free cash flow of $13.7B against net income of $13.1B in the quarter.
- Operating cash flow$27.5B
- Capital expenditure$623.0M
- Free cash flow$26.9B
- Net income$23.1B
Capital expenditure is drawn below the axis as cash out. Cash conversion is operating cash flow over net income, shown in the tooltip for years with a profit.
Financial data and sources
How the revenue mix has shifted
Each breakdown the filing reports, as shares of revenue, for every period it restates.
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations - Unaudited. The filing restates this breakdown for 1 period.
Click a member to isolate it across the years shown.
The figures
Margins, cash and growth for the period, each with what it was computed from.
Where revenue comes from
Every breakdown the filing reports for the period, with each item's share.
Revenue streams
| Products | $24.3B | 82.0% |
| Subscriptions and services | $5.3B | 18.0% |
Segments
| Semiconductor Solutions | $20.8B | 70.4% |
| Infrastructure Software | $8.8B | 29.6% |
Geographic markets
| Asia Pacific | $20.9B | 70.8% |
| Americas | $5.5B | 18.6% |
| Europe, the Middle East and Africa | $3.1B | 10.6% |
What it costs
The cost lines beneath operating income, each as a share of revenue, then the operating result.
Costs are reported by function: what it cost to make what was sold, then the expenses of selling, developing and administering.
| Cost line | Q3 FY2026 | Of revenue | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total cost of revenue | $9.1B | 30.9% | Source10-Q, us-gaap:CostOfRevenue, as reported in the 10-Q filed 2026-09-10 |
| Operating income | $16.0B | 53.9% | Source10-Q, us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss, as reported in the 10-Q filed 2026-09-10 |
Operating income by segment
Where the operating profit is earned, as the filing reports it.
Segments
| Semiconductor Solutions | $12.8B | 80.0% |
| Infrastructure Software | $7.3B | 45.9% |
Shares of operating income. The segments do not sum to the total; the filing states them beside it. Source10-Q, us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss, as reported in the 10-Q filed 2026-09-10
Operating figures the company states
From the text of the filing rather than its statements, each with the sentence that states it.
View source
Certain multi-year customer contracts in our semiconductor solutions segment and infrastructure software segment, including contracts where customers do not have termination rights, contain firmly committed amounts and the remaining performance obligations under these contracts as of August 2, 2026 were approximately $ 179.2 billion.
View source
Direct sales to one semiconductor solutions customer, which is a distributor, accounted for 50% and 46% of our net revenue for the fiscal quarter and three fiscal quarters ended August 2, 2026, respectively, and 32% and 30% of our net revenue for the fiscal quarter and three fiscal quarters ended August 3, 2025, respectively.
View source
We believe aggregate sales to our top five end customers, through all channels, accounted for approximately 55% and 50% of our net revenue for the fiscal quarter and three fiscal quarters ended August 2, 2026, respectively, and approximately 40% of our net revenue for each of the fiscal quarter and three fiscal quarters ended August 3, 2025.
View source
As of August 2, 2026 , approximately 58 % of contract liabilities related to contracts subject to termination for convenience provisions .
The statements, as filed
The income statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet in the company's own order and words. Every line links to the filing.
Income statement22 lines, as presented in the 10-Q
Cash flow statement2 lines, as presented in the 10-Q
Year to date, as a quarterly filing reports it.
| Line | Q3 FY2026 | A year earlier | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash flows from operating activities: | ||||
| Net income (loss) | $13.09B | $4.14B | +216% | Source10-Q, us-gaap:ProfitLoss, as reported in the 10-Q filed 2026-09-10 |
| Statement of Cash Flows | ||||
| Cash and cash equivalents at end of period | $23.98B | $10.72B | +124% | Source10-Q, us-gaap:CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents, as reported in the 10-Q filed 2026-09-10 |
Balance sheet25 lines, as presented in the 10-Q
About this data
- Source
- Broadcom 10-Q, accession 0001730168-26-000080, filed Sep 10, 2026, read on Nov 2, 2026.
- History
- From the SEC's XBRL company facts, the value from the latest filing that stated each period.
- Reading
- Paragraphs marked Analysis are CXProWealth's reading; everything else is the filing's own numbers and words, or a cited source.
- Version
- methodology business-lens-1.0 · schema 1.2.0 · run business-lens-2026-11-02
What holds Broadcom's model up, and what could bend it
Competitive edge
Committed backlog of $179.2B outruns a year's revenue
Firmly committed remaining performance obligations of about $179.2B, including a long-term custom accelerator contract, exceed the $63.9B of revenue in the whole last fiscal year.
The detail
Remaining performance obligations on multi-year contracts with firmly committed amounts, including contracts customers cannot terminate, were about $179.2B. The filing says they include a long-term contract for custom AI accelerators entered in the prior quarter. Revenue in the last full fiscal year was $63.9B. The company cautions that the figure is "not indicative of revenue for future periods", since it leaves out contracts customers can terminate.1
AnalysisOur reading: a custom design ties a customer to Broadcom's silicon for a product generation, and the filing notes that losing one design win can cost the next. The same mechanism works in the company's favour once a design is won, and the commitments are its visible result.
Capital spending is just 1.8% of revenue
With manufacturing mostly outsourced, free cash flow was $13.7B, 46.2% of revenue, and operating cash flow of $14.2B exceeded net income of $13.09B.
The detail
Operating cash flow was $14.2B against net income of $13.09B. Capital expenditure was $532M, 1.8% of revenue and 3.7% of operating cash flow, leaving free cash flow of $13.7B, a 46.2% margin. In the same quarter a year earlier, capital expenditure was $142M and free cash flow $7.02B, 44.0% of revenue.1
The filing describes a "primarily outsourced manufacturing business model" that relies on contract manufacturers such as third-party wafer foundries, with its own facilities used mainly for specialist components.1
AnalysisOur reading: foundries carry the fabs and, under the AI XPV platform, financial partners buy the racks, so growth has not required Broadcom to fund the capacity itself. That is why profit and cash moved together this quarter.
Most new software contracts cannot be cancelled
The company no longer offers termination for convenience on most new software contracts, which lets it book licenses upfront and firms up what customers owe.
The detail
The filing states that as of this quarter it no longer has termination for convenience provisions for the majority of new software contracts. On contracts without them, the license portion is recognized upfront and reported within products revenue, and the prior year was restated to match. Infrastructure software revenue was $8.75B this quarter.1
The shift is not complete. About 58% of contract liabilities still related to contracts subject to termination for convenience. Subscriptions and services, the support and service line, grew 11.15% to $5.31B, with its cost at 12.1% of that revenue against 12.7% a year earlier.1
AnalysisOur reading: the trade is visibility for lumpiness. A large renewal now lands in one quarter instead of spreading over its term, and each renewal cycle tests whether customers accept the terms again.
What to watch
A customer's lease payments are now partly Broadcom's risk
Under its new AI XPV platform, Broadcom backstops a customer's rack lease payments to a financial partner, so a default could cost cash, not only orders.
The detail
In the quarter Broadcom arranged for a financial partner to buy AI racks built on its custom accelerators and lease them to a customer, and agreed a backstop on the customer's lease obligations. The backstop grows as racks are deployed and shrinks as the customer pays. On a default, Broadcom covers the shortfall between part of the amount owed and what the racks fetch on sale. No amounts have been paid, and the filing describes the backstop's fair value as not material.1
The risk factors say some AI customers "may have constrained resources or capital", and that top customers have sought to lease accelerators and full racks instead of buying them, which the company says can bring backstops, guarantees and counterparty credit risk.1
AnalysisOur reading: the cost of a default would depend on what used AI racks are worth at the time, a value with little history behind it. Whether anything is ever paid under the backstop, and whether similar arrangements spread to other customers, are the signals to follow.
The company expects AI racks to compress gross margin
Cost of products sold rose to 28.8% of product revenue from 27.7%, and the filing expects AI accelerators and racks to lower future gross margin.
The detail
The risk factors state that the sale or leasing of custom accelerators, network switches and AI racks "will likely increase our operating margin but compress or lower future gross margin". Cost of products sold rose 125.4% to $6.98B, faster than the 117.3% rise in product revenue.1
AnalysisOur reading: a full rack bundles components Broadcom buys from others, so more of its revenue may carry thinner margins per dollar. Operating margin can still rise while costs stay flat, but the cushion that a 69.13% gross margin provides would narrow.
One foundry makes most of Broadcom's wafers
Manufacturing is mostly outsourced, with TSMC producing the great majority of wafers and a few suppliers providing most materials, including memory chips.
The detail
The filing says TSMC produced the great majority of the wafers made by its contract manufacturers in the fiscal year to date. TSMC also serves competitors, could prioritize other customers on short notice and has raised its prices. More than three-quarters of manufacturing materials came from five suppliers, some of them single-source, and the filing names memory chips among the components that have been constrained.1
AnalysisOur reading: with inventory built up, in the filing's words, "to support higher expected shipments for AI-related semiconductor solutions", a capacity or memory shortfall would show first as demand the company cannot meet rather than as lower orders.
Sources
- 1.Broadcom 10-Q for the period to 2026-08-02 (the filing), Sep 10, 2026, read Nov 2, 2026
Broadcom, further in
Member research, then your own questions on ChatGPT.
What could change the outlook
What Broadcom's numbers depend on from here, read from the filing: the conditions behind this period's margins and growth, and where a change would show first.
- What the 53.9% operating margin rests on from here
Costs, customers and the financing platform each carry part of this quarter's margin. The research sets out which of them the result depends on most, and what would change it.
- Reading the $179.2B backlog beside the rack backstop
Commitments and guarantees grew in the same quarter. The research explains how they connect and which signals show whether the backlog turns into revenue on the expected path.
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Have a question about Broadcom?
Explore its profit drivers, competitive edge, risks, or your own investment and business questions with CXProWealth on ChatGPT.
- How exposed is Broadcom's chip revenue to the one distributor that carried 50% of its total revenue this quarter?
- Why does Broadcom's infrastructure software earn an 83.7% segment margin against 61.3% for semiconductors?
- What could Broadcom owe under its AI rack lease backstop if the customer stopped paying?
Business Lens describes Broadcom from its own filings with the SEC. It is not a view on its shares, a target, or advice to buy, sell or hold anything; figures are as filed and may be restated by the company later. The filing, the dates and the version are under the financial data above.