Nvidia Corp. has catapulted up the list of America’s most valuable companies this year, rising eight places from the end of last year and now sitting at fifth position with a market capitalization of $1.2 trillion.
But other chip companies have seen their positions rise even further. Just look at Broadcom Inc. AVGO,
+2.10%,
which has risen 16 spots over the course of 2023 and reached the top 10 for the first time on Friday, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Broadcom eclipsed Visa Inc. V,
-0.27%
at Friday’s close to take the No. 10 spot, with a valuation of $527.7 billion.
Read: Could Nvidia stock – up 231% this year – actually be a bargain?
Granted, Broadcom has had some help along the way. The company acquired VMware in late November and its market capitalization increased by about $50 billion at the end of the transaction, according to FactSet data.
But Broadcom’s rise also reflects how chip stocks have gained traction this year amid the artificial intelligence frenzy. Broadcom shares have doubled so far in 2023.
Mizuho agency analyst Jordan Klein expects “an order acceleration in network silicon for AI clusters” in the second half of 2024, as calendar year 2025 could bring a big year of capital investment in AI for Ethernet back-end high-speed connections.
Broadcom “is the MAIN WINNER in that investment cycle as an arms dealer for all network OEMs,” or original equipment manufacturers, wrote Klein, who is with Mizuho’s sales team and not its research department.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD,
+0.83%
has also made a nice climb up the charts, rising 48 places so far in 2023 and now ranking 30th in terms of market capitalization. AMD was valued at $223.9 billion at closing on Friday.
“We view AMD as well-positioned to capture a larger share of the hugely profitable $100 billion+ accelerator market as we continue to make advancements in server technology. [central processing units] against the incumbent [Intel],” BofA Securities analyst Vivek Arya wrote in a recent upgrade.
