Broadcom Was the AI Infrastructure Hero Until Wednesday

Broadcom was the flavor of the week. Erste Group upgraded it to Buy on AI chip enthusiasm. Jefferies raised price target from $500 to $550 on June 3rd, maintaining their Buy rating. The stock was riding high on Computex announcements and analyst giddiness about custom ASIC demand from Google and other cloud giants.

Then came earnings day (June 3rd). Broadcom beat on revenue but *flat-lined its AI chip guidance for 2026* — no raise, same "in excess of $100 billion" forecast they'd already given. Market translation: "The AI boom isn't as baked in as you thought."

Result? Stock tanked 12-13% in after-hours. Ripple effect: AMD, Intel, Marvell, Micron all got dragged down. Semiconductor sector coughed up 2.1% the next day.

The real kicker? CEO Hock Tan basically said "we expect momentum to continue into 2027 but we're not updating our numbers today." Translation: confidence crater. If the AI buildout was as frothy as the bulls promised, you raise guidance. You don't shrug and mumble about next year.

This is what happens when the entire market consensus bakes in "exponential AI infrastructure spending forever." One company says "actually, we're staying flat," and suddenly everyone's running the other way.