Broadcom targets 1 million 3D stacked chips by 2027 as it challenges Nvidia's AI dominance

Broadcom Ships New AI Chip to Fujitsu, Plans Wider Rollout

Broadcom Inc. is shipping a new custom AI chip design to Fujitsu Ltd. that stacks components to save energy -- an approach it expects big data center operators to adopt later this year. Broadcom's 3.5D eXtreme Dimension System in Package takes two pieces of the chip called dies and stacks them top to top, rather than a previous system pioneered by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. that piles them top to bottom. The stack allows for more data to be transferred with better power efficiency, said Harish Bharadwaj, vice president of marketing in the company's custom chip unit. Broadcom, which helps design chips for companies like Alphabet Inc.'s Google and OpenAI, has been working for about five years with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to figure out a way to take this step. It has contended with challenges related to delivering power to all parts of the chip and keeping the components from overheating. Fujitsu will use the chip for data centers and possibly supercomputers in the future, Bharadwaj said. The next phase will be having so-called hyperscalers -- the largest data center operators -- adopt the technology, he said. "Across all our existing hyperscaler customers -- every one of them has adopted this for their next generation," Bharadwaj said. Broadcom has "half a dozen of these designs in development today" for various customers besides Fujitsu, he said. Broadcom has emerged as key rival to Nvidia Corp., which dominates the market for AI chips. A range of customers -- from hardware sellers to AI labs to chip startups -- are looking for designs that can wring greater performance and efficiency. That helped lift Broadcom shares 49% last year.

Chip designer Broadcom expects to sell 1 million 3D stacked chips by 2027

The company has refined the technology over five years to the point where its first customer, Fujitsu, is making engineering samples to test the design. Fujitsu plans to produce the stacked, or 3D, chips later this year. Artificial intelligence chip designer Broadcom said that it expects to sell at least 1 million chips by 2027 based on its stacked design tech, an executive told Reuters on Wednesday. The forecast, which Reuters is the first to report, marks a new product and sales target for Broadcom that could represent a revenue stream potentially worth billions of dollars. Harish Bharadwaj, vice president of product marketing, said the 1 million chips the company projects it will sell are based ⁠on an ⁠approach Broadcom developed that stacks two chips on top of one another, allowing the distinct pieces of silicon to be tightly bound to improve the speed at which data can flow from one chip to another. The company has refined the technology over five years to the point where its first customer, Fujitsu, is making engineering samples to test the design. Fujitsu plans to produce the stacked, or 3D, chips later this year. The million-chip figure includes several additional designs beyond the Fujitsu chip. The company's stacking approach gives its customers the ability to ⁠build chips that have more horsepower and use less energy to tackle the rapidly growing computing requirements AI software presents, Bharadwaj said. "Now, pretty much all of our customers are adopting this technology," he ⁠said. Broadcom does not typically design entire AI chips itself. It works with companies such as Google for its tensor processing units (TPUs) and ChatGPT maker OpenAI for its in-house custom processors. The Broadcom engineers help translate an early design into the physical layout of a chip that can be fabricated by manufacturers such as TSMC. The company's chip business has grown significantly because of the custom deals with companies such as Google. Broadcom projected that its AI chip revenue would double year-over-year to $8.2 billion in its first fiscal quarter. As a result, Broadcom has emerged as one of the most significant competitors to Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, as it races to produce silicon that competes with the chip giants. Fujitsu is using the new tech for a data center chip. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co is fabricating the chip using ⁠its cutting-edge 2-nanometer process and fusing it with a 5-nanometer chip. Companies can mix and match which manufacturing process TSMC uses with the Broadcom technology. TSMC fuses the top and bottom chip during the fabrication process. Broadcom has several more designs in the works and expects to ship two more products based on the stacking tech in the second half of this year and to sample an additional three in 2027. The company spent roughly five years developing the groundwork for the stacked chip tech and testing various designs to come up with a commercial product. Engineers are working to make chips that have as many as eight stacks of two chips each.

Broadcom aims to sell 1M 3D stacked chips by 2027

Broadcom (AVGO) said that it expects to sell at least 1M chips by 2027 based on its stacked design technology, Reuters reported, citing Harish Bharadwaj, vice president of product marketing at Broadcom. Bharadwaj said the 1M chips the company projects Broadcom projects the technology could lead to billions in revenue, with AI chip revenue expected to double year-over-year. The stacked design gives customers chips with higher performance and lower energy use to meet growing AI software demands. Broadcom reports that nearly all of its customers are now adopting the stacking technology, with Fujitsu and others involved.