Data centers are proliferating rapidly.
They require semiconductor chips to run, and one big supplier is Broadcom.
Broadcom's stock seems reasonably valued, too.
Data centers are growing rapidly, as they're needed for artificial intelligence (AI) operations.
According to S&S Insider, the data center GPU market had a market value of $23.87 billion in 2024, but is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.5% through 2032, reaching $201.64 billion. Companies that build data centers and those that sell the technology they house are therefore poised to profit -- handsomely.
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One such company is Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO), which produces custom chips for AI. It's a leader in application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), which help customers' designs become physical semiconductor chips that can be manufactured at scale.
The company has been growing at a robust clip, with full-year revenue for 2025 up 24% year over year, and net income up 42%. How has such growth translated into stock gains? Check it out:
|
Time period |
Average annual return |
|---|---|
|
Past 3 years |
77.73% |
|
Past 5 years |
47.96% |
|
Past 10 years |
38.94% |
|
Past 15 years |
37.62% |
Source: Data from Morningstar.com as of Jan. 23, 2026.
Crazy, right? Clearly, investing in Broadcom might boost your wealth substantially, especially over many years. Let's imagine you invest $1,000 in Broadcom and it grows at 25% over the next 10 years. You'll end up with about $9,300. Over 20 years? More like nearly $87,000. And those numbers are just for a single small investment. Invest in the company routinely, and you could end up with much more. A $1,000 investment in Broadcom annually, growing at 25% for 20 years, could get you to $345,000!
Best of all, Broadcom's stock seems reasonably priced, unlike many stocks that are heavily into AI. Broadcom's recent forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 34 isn't out of line for a company reporting its double-digit gains. Better still, Broadcom is a dividend-paying stock, recently yielding 0.8% and likely to increase its payout over the coming years.
So, investing some of your long-term dollars in Broadcom is a reasonable strategy to create wealth over time in your portfolio.
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Selena Maranjian has positions in Broadcom. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.