(Broadcom Inc., North San Jose, CA) A manufacturer of semiconductors, network hardware and financial services and security software. Broadcom makes specialized chips for mobile devices as well as optical components for networks and datacenters. It also makes specialized AI chips for Google and others. The company outsources the manufacturing of advanced chip designs (see
TSMC). See
AI chip.
A $60B company with 30,000 employees, Broadcom grew via several spinoffs and acquisitions. Founded in 1961 as the semiconductor division of HP, it became part of the test and measurement spinoff of Agilent. In 2005, Avago Technologies was formed from Agilent's semiconductor group, and in 2015, Agilent acquired fabless chip company Broadcom Ltd. A year later, the company became Broadcom Inc. In 2018, Broadcom acquired CA Technologies and a year later acquired the Enterprise Security division of Symantec, which became Norton LifeLock. See
semiconductor companies,
Qualcomm,
Huawei,
Symantec and
CA Technologies.