AMD has a huge potential growth driver in inference.
Broadcom is a networking component leader with a custom chip opportunity.
TSMC is well positioned to benefit from the AI infrastructure buildout.
The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has been a big growth driver for the semiconductor industry. However, it may just be getting started. According to OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, the AI infrastructure buildout may make the internet buildout look capex-light and we're just at the beginning of the ramp up.
Let's look at three breakout growth stocks that should benefit from this trend.
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Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) has long lived in Nvidia's (NASDAQ: NVDA) shadow, but a potential shift in the AI market could create a big opportunity. The first phase of AI has been about training massive models, where Nvidia's CUDA software ecosystem gave it a big edge. However, as the industry pivots toward inference, AMD is carving out an important niche.
Inference is eventually expected to grow to become much larger than training, and cost-per-inference becomes a much more important factor. One of the world's largest AI companies is already using AMD's graphics processing units (GPUs) for a big chunk of its inference traffic, while 7 of the top 10 AI companies now use its GPUs.
AMD is also part of the UALink Consortium, which is looking to break the grip of Nvidia's proprietary NVLink standard. NVLink is a high-speed interconnect system that links Nvidia's GPUs to allow them to act as a single unit. It's another one of the chipmaker's big advantages. However, if the consortium can create an open interconnect standard, it would allow customers to more easily mix and match vendors in AI clusters.
Beyond GPUs, AMD's central processing units (CPUs) have been steadily gaining share in the data center space, while its gaming and PC chips have also been seeing strong growth. At the end of the day, AMD doesn't need to topple Nvidia to thrive. With inference demand accelerating and the company looking like it could take some market share, AMD is well-positioned for long-term growth.
Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) is another semiconductor company with big AI opportunities in front of it. Its core business is networking components, where its Ethernet switches and optical interconnects are used to move huge amounts of data across AI clusters. As these AI clusters continue to get bigger and bigger, networking needs scale with them. Last quarter, Broadcom's networking components business saw its revenue surge 70%, demonstrating the company's strong position in this area.
The company's bigger opportunity, however, is in custom AI chips. Broadcom is the leader in designing application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, for hyperscalers (companies that own massive data centers) looking to improve performance and cut costs. It helped Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) create its powerful tensor processing units (TPUs), and it is now developing custom chips for several other large customers.
Management says its top three design customers alone could deploy 1 million chip clusters each by its fiscal 2027, representing a $60 billion to $90 billion market opportunity. This doesn't even include newer customers like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), as it takes considerable time to design custom ASICs.
Broadcom has also entered the software virtualization space through its earlier acquisition of VMware. It's seeing solid growth in this segment as it switches to a subscription model and upgrades clients to its Cloud Foundation platform, which helps companies manage AI workloads across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
Between its networking portfolio, custom chips, and enterprise AI infrastructure, Broadcom has multiple growth levers that should power its results over the next decade.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) has become the heart of advanced chipmaking. Unlike chip designers, which compete directly, TSMC benefits regardless of who wins because it manufactures advanced chips for nearly every major player, including Nvidia, Broadcom, and Apple. You can also now add Alphabet to that list, as it recently announced that it is shifting production of its latest Tensor G5 chip from Samsung to TSMC's 3nm process, underscoring its technology lead.
TSMC's leadership comes from both its scale and its unmatched ability to shrink nodes. Smaller transistors create more powerful and efficient chips, and TSMC dominates this space. Chips built on its 7nm technology and below already account for nearly three-quarters of its revenue, while 3nm chips now make up nearly a quarter of its revenue.
With rivals Intel and Samsung continuing to struggle with yields, TSMC has become a vital cog in the semiconductor supply chain and an important partner to the largest chip designers. It is working closely with its customers to increase capacity to meet demand, and it expects AI chip demand to grow at more than 40% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2028.
Given its central role in the semiconductor supply chain, TSMC is one of the most compelling long-term AI infrastructure plays to own right now.
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Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Apple, Intel, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and recommends the following options: short August 2025 $24 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.