Broadcom Falls 5% Despite DA Davidson Upgrade on Anthropic and OpenAI IPO Hopes; Arm and Qualcomm Sink 10%, Marvell Drops 8%

A bullish analyst call tied to Broadcom’s biggest AI customer isn’t enough to stop a broad chip selloff. Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO | AVGO Price Prediction) shares are trading at $327.49 this morning, down 5% from its prior close. DA Davidson upgraded Broadcom to Buy from Neutral on October 30 and raised its price target to $400 from $350, but AI-exposed semiconductor names are leading the market lower.

Over the past month, Broadcom stock is down 8%. Pressure on the group built after the NASDAQ Composite closed more than 1% lower on October 29. Big tech earnings this week, plus signs of a deepening PC slump and memory shortages, have left investors questioning the returns on AI infrastructure spending.

DA Davidson Sees Anthropic Powering Broadcom’s Next Leg

DA Davidson expects Anthropic to move ahead with a public listing and secure more funding, followed by a potential OpenAI IPO next year. The firm believes investors underestimate the odds. Yahoo Finance reported that Anthropic’s IPO could start trading as soon as mid-November, a timeline that matters for Broadcom.

Broadcom supplies chips, equipment and financing to Anthropic, and the company has agreed to provide up to $42 billion in financing to support Anthropic’s spending. That relationship could make Anthropic Broadcom’s biggest chip-design customer next year, in DA Davidson’s view. Demand is already visible: Broadcom’s AI semiconductor revenue reached $16.7 billion in Q3 FY2026, up 221% year over year (YoY).

Arm, Qualcomm and Marvell Take Bigger Hits Than Broadcom

Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM) stock is at $205.38, down 10%, representing a steep decline amid this group. Even after the slide, Arm stock is up 87% year to date (YTD), leaving room for profit taking ahead of the company’s upcoming earnings report. Spending has weighed on sentiment, too: Arm disclosed on July 29 that its operating margin contracted to 7% from 11% a year earlier.

Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) stock is at $167.17, also down 10%. Next up is Qualcomm’s Q4 FY2026 report on November 4. The company has guided for revenue of $9.7 billion to $10.5 billion, which means a decline from a year earlier. Guidance from Qualcomm also puts adjusted earnings per share (EPS) at $2.05 to $2.25, below the $3.00 the company earned a year earlier. Handset weakness is the main drag, and Qualcomm expects “approximately a 50% decline from the September to the December quarter” in iPhone-related revenue.

Automotive remains a bright spot, with Qualcomm forecasting another record quarter of strong growth. Longer term, Qualcomm targets more than $40 billion in non-handset revenue by fiscal 2029.

Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) stock is at $200.57, down 8%. That pullback comes after a huge run, with Marvell stock up 136% YTD. Bloomberg reported on October 29 that Marvell is close to a megadeal for laser maker Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE), and the deal talk has unsettled some Marvell shareholders.

How Broadcom’s Business Model Sets It Apart From Rivals

Broadcom earns its AI revenue by designing custom accelerators and networking chips for a handful of hyperscale customers, and it pairs that with a VMware-based infrastructure software business. Arm sells chip blueprints, collecting license fees and per-chip royalties while it moves into production silicon, and Qualcomm still leans on smartphone chips and patent licensing, with automotive, Internet of Things (IoT) and data center work as its growth engines. Data center silicon dominates at Marvell, from custom chips to optical interconnects and Ethernet switches.

The memory crunch cuts both ways for chipmakers like Qualcomm. Tight supply helps some suppliers, but it raises costs for PC and smartphone makers, linking this week’s PC-slump signs to Qualcomm’s outlook. On the July 29 call, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said, “The industry is operating at very high utilization.”

What Anthropic’s IPO and Chip Earnings Mean for Broadcom

For Broadcom, the focus now turns to whether Anthropic’s IPO arrives on the reported timeline and whether AI capital spending plans hold up. Qualcomm’s upcoming report and Arm’s results could reset sentiment across the group. All of that AI expansion still has to be powered, cooled and networked by somebody, and we rounded up seven suppliers doing exactly that in a free report on the non-chipmaker names behind the AI boom. For retirement-minded savers, the takeaway is that even well-positioned AI names can drop sharply when the whole sector sells off, and an analyst upgrade rarely stops a sector-wide move.

Supporters of Broadcom point to Anthropic’s growth, the financing tie and surging custom-chip demand. Skeptics counter that doubts about AI returns could keep pressuring the group, and Broadcom’s reliance on a few hyperscale customers leaves the company exposed. A cautious approach may make sense for some investors until the debate over AI spending returns resolves.

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