Broadcom CEO Hock Tan has a message for the people pouring money into artificial intelligence: many of them are behaving like gamblers.
The remark, reported by Bloomberg, comes as Tan makes a broader argument. He says the biggest threat to AI’s buildout may no longer be chips or electricity. It may be money.
Speaking at the DBS Asia Future Forward Conference on October 12, 2026, Tan said access to capital may become the primary constraint on expanding AI infrastructure. In his view, that concern could overtake the chip supply and power availability problems that dominated earlier debates.
Tan noted that supply chain issues are easing. The harder part ahead, he suggested, is financing. Building AI data centers takes enormous sums, and someone has to fund them before any of the promised returns arrive.
Still, Tan is not calling the top on demand. He said demand for compute will remain robust at least until 2030. He has also described AI compute demand as “insatiable.”
Broadcom has raised its fiscal year 2026 AI semiconductor revenue guidance to $58 billion, up from earlier expectations.
Advertisement
The projections from there get steep. The company’s targets call for $115 billion in fiscal 2027 and $230 billion in fiscal 2028.
The growth is expected to come mostly from a small group of hyperscale customers. That group includes Google and OpenAI.
Anthropic is expected to become Broadcom’s largest custom-chip customer by 2027-2028. Its buildout is supported by extensive financing arrangements with partners such as Apollo and Blackstone.
Tan has also said that nearly all of Broadcom’s AI revenue comes from just six main customers.
On September 15, 2026, Broadcom shares fell approximately 4.8% after other industry leaders made cautionary remarks about the pace of AI development.
Tan’s position stands in contrast to that growing anxiety. Where others have voiced worry about how fast AI is moving, he has leaned into the strength of demand while flagging financing as the real risk.
The distinction matters. Doubting demand means questioning whether anyone wants the product. Doubting capital means questioning whether buyers can keep paying for what they clearly want.
For Broadcom shareholders, the central tension is concentration. When nearly all AI revenue comes from six customers, the fortunes of those few buyers effectively become Broadcom’s fortunes.
The Anthropic relationship is worth watching closely for this reason. Financing ties with Apollo and Blackstone show that private capital is willing to fund AI infrastructure today, but that willingness depends on conditions that can change.
There is also an irony in the gambler comment. Broadcom’s own projections require customers and their backers to keep placing very large bets on AI for years.
What to watch next: whether Broadcom’s fiscal 2026 results land at the $58 billion guidance, how financing for major AI customers holds up, and whether the stock keeps reacting to other executives’ comments rather than its own numbers.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.