6. Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO)
Harvard’s Stake: $146,681,741
Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) is up roughly 35% so far this year, yet bulls believe there is still meaningful upside ahead. The core reason is simple: the custom AI chip industry is booming as hyperscalers seek lower-cost, purpose-built alternatives to off-the-shelf GPUs — and Broadcom dominates this space. CEO Hock Tan stated earlier this year that the company has clear visibility to AI revenue from chips alone exceeding $100 billion in 2027, providing a rare and concrete long-term anchor for investors.
What makes Broadcom’s (NASDAQ:AVGO) position particularly defensible is its web of locked-in, multi-year hyperscaler partnerships. Meta extended its partnership through 2029 to co-develop multiple generations of its custom AI training and inference chips using Broadcom’s 2nm-class technology. Google extended its TPU development and supply agreement through 2031, guaranteeing Broadcom a five-year committed deployment runway.
Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) is also collaborating with Anthropic on a 4.5GW compute capacity deal and with OpenAI on a massive 10GW custom inference engine — though both relationships involve complex financing arrangements that the market is watching closely. Combined, these partnerships have pushed Broadcom’s AI order book to $73 billion, with its total corporate backlog approaching $162 billion.
However, the valuation is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. Broadcom’s (NASDAQ:AVGO) non-GAAP P/E stands at 61x — significantly higher than other high-growth chip players like Nvidia (36x) and Micron (44x). This is harder to defend given that Broadcom’s 3-year revenue CAGR of 25.66% and net income CAGR of 24.96% pale in comparison to Nvidia’s growth trajectory. The stock is effectively priced for perfection, meaning any stumble on earnings or a walk-back of the $100 billion 2027 target could trigger a sharp rerating.
Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund stated the following regarding Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
“Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) was weak for the quarter as higher inflation led investors to fear a slowdown in hyperscaler spending. This led to lower spending on custom silicon, the main reason for Broadcom’s strength over the last couple of years. We believe Broadcom still has some of the best tech in the space and will be one of the biggest winners from AI.”
While we acknowledge the potential of AVGO to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AVGO and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
Click to continue reading and see Harvard University Stock Portfolio 2026: Top 5 Picks.
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