Broadcom vs Nvidia
Broadcom and Nvidia are both placed on 5 of the same AI data center parts in this catalog, spanning layers 1, 3. Broadcom appears on 12 parts in total and Nvidia on 14.
At a glance
| Broadcom | Nvidia | |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | public | public |
| Headquarters | Palo Alto, United States | Santa Clara, United States |
| Primary listing | AVGO | NVDA |
| Market cap | 1.54T USD | 5.09T USD |
| Parts placed | 12 | 14 |
| Layers covered | 3 | 4 |
| Units / subsidiaries | 1 | 0 |
| Seen in machines | 4 | 13 |
Market caps are a nightly snapshot in each listing's own currency, never converted.
What the shared parts are
- NICs / SuperNICs — Network interface cards, including Nvidia's higher-bandwidth "SuperNIC" variants, that connect a server's CPU and GPUs to the cluster network.
- Scale-up fabric — The fabric linking GPUs to each other inside a single rack or pod, separate from the switching fabric that connects racks to each other.
- Scale-out switch ASICs — The switch ASICs that route traffic between racks and pods, distinct from the scale-up fabric inside a single rack.
- Optical transceivers — Pluggable optical modules that convert electrical signals to light for transmission over fiber between switches and servers, sold at 400G, 800G, and 1.6T speeds.
- 1 more in the table below.
The 5 parts both make
| Part | Broadcom | Nvidia |
|---|---|---|
| NICs / SuperNICs Layer 1 — Compute silicon & packaging | manufacturer inferred | manufacturer inferred ConnectX |
| Scale-up fabric Layer 3 — Networking & interconnect | manufacturer inferred | manufacturer disclosed NVLink/NVSwitch |
| Scale-out switch ASICs Layer 3 — Networking & interconnect | manufacturer disclosed Tomahawk/Jericho | manufacturer disclosed Spectrum (Ethernet) and Quantum (InfiniBand) |
| Optical transceivers Layer 3 — Networking & interconnect | manufacturer inferred | manufacturer disclosed |
| Silicon photonics & co-packaged optics Layer 3 — Networking & interconnect | manufacturer inferred CPO switches | manufacturer inferred Spectrum-X and Quantum-X Photonics |
Only Broadcom
- Hyperscaler custom ASICs layer 1
- ASIC design services, IP & EDA layer 1
- PCIe/CXL switches & retimers layer 2
- Lasers layer 3
- Optical DSPs, drivers, TIAs layer 3
- Timing & telemetry silicon layer 3
- Retimers inside AECs layer 3
Only Nvidia
- Merchant GPUs / accelerators layer 1
- Server CPUs layer 1
- DPUs layer 1
- Switch systems & white-box ODMs layer 3
- Rack-scale systems layer 4
- GPU baseboards & compute trays layer 4
- BMC & platform firmware layer 4
- DCIM, digital twins, capacity planning layer 11
- Cluster management & GPU orchestration layer 11
Named in the same machines
- Nvidia GB300 NVL72 rack teardown
Questions
- Do Broadcom and Nvidia compete?
- In this catalog they are both placed on 5 of the same parts, across 2 layers: NICs / SuperNICs, Scale-up fabric, Scale-out switch ASICs, Optical transceivers and 1 more. Sharing a part does not mean selling the same product to the same buyer, so read each row's product note.
- Which has more placements, Broadcom or Nvidia?
- Broadcom has 12 placements and Nvidia has 14. Placement counts reflect how thoroughly each company has been catalogued as well as its real breadth, so they are not a ranking.
Generated from the catalog's part-to-company table. Each placement is tagged disclosed, reported or inferred; see sources & method. Neither company is endorsed or ranked here.