- Broadcom CEO Hock Tan called AI investors casino gamblers at a Singapore event on October 12.
- The KOSPI was down more than 6% and the Nikkei nearly 3% on Tuesday.
- Broadcom forecasts AI chip revenue hitting $230 billion by 2028 and is lending OpenAI and Anthropic tens of billions to keep buying.
Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) CEO Hock Tan told a Singapore audience on October 12 that many AI investors behave like casino gamblers.
Tan’s comment helped drag Asian chip stocks lower on Tuesday. His own company, meanwhile, is arranging billions in loans so its customers can keep buying the chips he says they barely understand.
What are investors out of the loop about?
Broadcom’s CEO Hock Tan, speaking at an event in Singapore, said that investors have “extreme expectations.” He also added that a lot of investors have no clue what they are investing in.
Tan likened companies splurging on AI experiments to a child handed $10 of arcade tokens who burns through them in ten minutes without learning anything. He also questioned the economics of AI labs that are losing money, pointing out that OpenAI’s roughly $50 billion annualized revenue as of September shows demand but, with heavy training costs, says little about long-term profit.
Tan’s comments include him in a crowd of insiders who have flagged a possible AI bubble, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Google’s Sundar Pichai.
South Korea’s KOSPI was hit the hardest following those comments, dropping more than 6% on Tuesday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost close to 3%, with SK Hynix and Samsung leading the declines.
China’s memory chip maker CXMT also contributed to the decline. The company has been taking market share from Korean companies. It reached 10% of global DRAM revenue in the second quarter of 2026, up from 4% a year earlier, and is now moving into LPDDR6 and NAND flash chips. NASDAQ futures also fell.
Why is Broadcom assisting AI companies?
Tan gave his warning while his company, Broadcom, expects its AI chip revenue to grow about four times, from roughly $58 billion this fiscal year to $230 billion by fiscal 2028.
In September, Broadcom reported $29.6 billion in revenue for the third quarter, up 86% from a year earlier. Its AI chip sales were $16.7 billion, up 221%. Growth this big depends on large cloud companies and AI labs like OpenAI.
Broadcom is reportedly pursuing more than $50 billion to finance OpenAI’s custom processors. The company has promised to lend up to $42 billion, based on Anthropic’s computing capacity. It is also backing part of a $60 billion bank loan, which should help Anthropic borrow money at lower cost.
Broadcom and OpenAI’s ties run deep. The two signed a collaboration in 2025 to deploy 10 gigawatts of OpenAI-designed accelerators using Broadcom networking, with Tan calling it “a pivotal moment in the pursuit of artificial general intelligence.”
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FAQs
What did Broadcom's Hock Tan say about AI investors?
At a Singapore event on October 12, Tan said many investors have "no clue what they are investing in" and are acting "almost like they are in a casino."
How far did Asian chip stocks fall?
South Korea's Kospi dropped more than 6% and Japan's Nikkei 225 fell nearly 3% on Tuesday, with SK Hynix and Samsung leading the decline.
Is Broadcom financing its own AI customers?
Yes. Broadcom is reportedly seeking more than $50 billion to fund OpenAI's chips, has agreed to up to $42 billion in lending tied to Anthropic, and is partially guaranteeing a $60 billion bank debt package.
Hannah Collymore
Hannah is a writer and editor with nearly a decade of blog writing and event reporting experience in the crypto space. At Cryptopolitan, Hannah contributes to the news page, reporting and analyzing the latest developments in DeFi, RWA, crypto regulation, AI and frontier tech industries. She graduated from Arcadia university with a degree in Business Administration.
