The Streak Nobody Expected to Keep Going
Something unusual happened over the past 10 days. Four companies that sell the physical and digital infrastructure behind artificial intelligence all reported earnings. Every single one beat Wall Street estimates by wide margins. Not one disappointed.
Dell started it on May 28 with $43.84 billion in revenue against a $35 billion estimate. AI server revenue alone hit $16.1 billion, up 757% from a year ago, and the company disclosed a $51 billion AI backlog still waiting to ship.
Snowflake followed with its best single day ever, surging 36.5% after product revenue grew 34% to $1.33 billion and the company announced a $6 billion collaboration with Amazon Web Services. Net revenue retention climbed to 126%, the first uptick in four quarters. The company added 616 net new customers, its most ever. First-quarter earnings of $0.39 per share beat consensus by 22%. Despite a pullback to around $261 from the $282 high, Snowflake still trades well above its pre-earnings level and carries a consensus price target of $283 from 44 analysts.
Then Hewlett Packard Enterprise dropped the most lopsided beat of the bunch. Revenue of $10.68 billion crushed the $9.82 billion estimate. Adjusted earnings of $0.79 per share beat the $0.54 consensus by 46%. Management raised full-year revenue growth guidance to 29% to 33% and pulled forward long-term financial targets by two years. AI systems bookings hit $1.8 billion in the quarter, bringing cumulative AI bookings to $16.4 billion. Morgan Stanley raised its price target to $71. Bank of America went to $80.
Marvell Technology added exclamation points on Monday and Tuesday. The stock surged more than 30% after Jensen Huang called it "the next trillion-dollar company" at Computex, and shares are up roughly 10% again today, pushing toward $309. The two-day gain now exceeds 40%. Revenue came in at $2.418 billion, up 28% year over year, and management guided Q2 to $2.7 billion, implying 35% growth. The stock trades at roughly 94 times forward earnings with a market cap above $270 billion.
Four hardware and infrastructure beats in 10 days. The combined market value added across these names exceeds $200 billion.
Why the Pattern Matters More Than Any Single Beat
Individual earnings surprises happen every quarter. What does not happen is four consecutive infrastructure names beating estimates by this margin, each confirming the same thesis: AI spending is accelerating, not plateauing.
The bears entered this earnings cycle with a plausible case. The SOX index is up 65% year to date. Valuations are stretched. The "priced for perfection" crowd had Credo Technology's 15% after-hours drop as evidence that even triple-digit revenue growth could not satisfy the bar.
Then four out of four names beat by margins that made the bar irrelevant. Dell beat revenue by $9 billion. HPE beat earnings by 46%. Marvell guided up and the stock ran 40% in two days.
The data now says something specific: AI hardware demand is not concentrated in GPUs. It is flowing into servers, networking equipment, optical interconnects, memory, and data analytics platforms. The supply chain is broader and deeper than the market priced six months ago.
Two weeks ago we wrote that the S&P 500 was priced for 22% earnings growth and that Dell's report would be the first real test. Dell did not just pass. It obliterated the test. And every company that reported after Dell did the same.
What Broadcom Tells You That the Others Cannot
Broadcom reports fiscal second-quarter results after the close today, and it is not just another beat-or-miss event. At a $2.28 trillion market cap and roughly 91 times trailing earnings, Broadcom is the largest company yet to report this cycle, and its AI exposure is the most direct.
Wall Street expects revenue near $22.1 billion, up roughly 39% from a year ago. Earnings per share consensus is around $2.40, implying 52% growth. AI semiconductor revenue is projected at $10.7 billion, up 140% year over year. The company entered the quarter with a $73 billion AI order book.
Three things matter tonight.
First, AI semiconductor revenue growth. The $10.7 billion guide was set three months ago. If actual revenue comes in meaningfully above that number, it confirms that custom AI chip demand from hyperscalers like Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta is accelerating faster than even Broadcom anticipated.
Second, VMware margin trends. Broadcom's $61 billion VMware acquisition is now more than a year old. Infrastructure software revenue is expected near $7.2 billion. Margin expansion in this segment would validate the acquisition thesis and differentiate Broadcom from pure semiconductor peers.
Third, the updated AI order book. If it grows from the current $73 billion, the AI infrastructure cycle still has room to run through year-end and into 2027.
What to Watch From Here
A beat tonight would extend the streak to five and confirm the broadest AI infrastructure rally in market history. A miss, or even a beat with cautious guidance, would be the first crack and could trigger profit-taking across the entire AI hardware complex.
The bigger question is what comes next. The semiconductor index is at all-time highs. Four consecutive blowouts gave it reason to stay there. The fifth report arrives in a few hours.
