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Zeitgeist — a spike by Chris Gathercole
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Premium: The Hater's Guide To Broadcom

Newsletter · Watch/Read · (gathered 2026-09-13)

  • Ed Zitron frames Broadcom as a company built on aggressive acquisitions, asset-stripping, and minimal R&D, rather than genuine innovation, exemplified by CEO Hock Tan’s “I’m not your dad” management style at the VMware acquisition.
  • Broadcom’s R&D spending has decayed to an “unremarkable” 9.8% of revenue post-VMware, a stark contrast to its peers and a concern that led the Trump administration to veto its attempted acquisition of Qualcomm over fears of stifling 5G innovation.
  • The company’s future growth is overwhelmingly dependent on AI revenue, projected to make up over 80% by FY29, with its largest customers becoming “unprofitable, unsustainable AI companies” like OpenAI and Anthropic.
  • This extreme reliance on a few financially precarious AI customers, combined with Broadcom’s M&A-driven, low-R&D model, creates significant risk for its future stability if the AI boom falters.