Broadcom, CrowdStrike Earnings Fuel S&P 500 Record Run

The artificial intelligence trade no longer needs to prove it can move markets. It now has to prove it can keep beating expectations that have climbed nearly as fast as the stocks themselves. On Wednesday, June 3, 2026, that test ran in real time, as Broadcom and CrowdStrike delivered quarterly results into a market already sitting at all-time highs, with the S&P 500 having closed above 7,600 for the first time the prior session.

The backdrop was a tape that has rewarded almost nothing but AI infrastructure. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite have all printed records this week, carried by semiconductors, networking gear and the data-center buildout underpinning them. Wednesday's earnings did not break that story. They complicated it, in ways that matter for anyone trying to gauge how much further this run can stretch.

Broadcom's narrow miss meets a blowout outlook

Broadcom reported fiscal second-quarter revenue of $22.187 billion, up 48% from a year earlier and a record for the company. The figure landed just shy of the roughly $22.27 billion Wall Street expected, a narrow top-line miss. Adjusted earnings came in at about $2.44 per share, ahead of the $2.40 consensus.

The detail that mattered most was the AI line. Semiconductor revenue tied to AI reached $10.8 billion, a 143% jump year over year. "Q2 semiconductor revenue from AI of $10.8 billion grew 143% year-over-year, above our forecast, driven by increasing demand for custom AI accelerators and AI networking," Chief Executive Hock Tan said.

The forward view was more aggressive still. Broadcom guided third-quarter consolidated revenue to roughly $29.4 billion, an 84% annual increase, and projected AI semiconductor revenue rising more than 200% to around $16.0 billion. Non-GAAP operating margin was guided steady near 67%, and adjusted EBITDA in the quarter rose 52% to a record $15.2 billion. For a company whose valuation already prices in years of growth, a slim revenue miss paired with an outlook that big is the kind of split decision that keeps both bulls and skeptics talking.

CrowdStrike's recovery picks up speed

The cybersecurity read came from CrowdStrike, and it leaned bullish. The company posted record first-quarter net new annual recurring revenue of $256 million, up 32% year over year, alongside record operating cash flow of $591 million and free cash flow of $468 million.

More telling was the guidance. CrowdStrike raised its full-year net new ARR growth outlook to about 27.7% at the midpoint, a 520 basis-point lift that marks an acceleration over the prior fiscal year. The company also announced a four-for-one stock split, with holders of record on June 25 set to receive three additional shares and split-adjusted trading expected to begin July 2.

"We delivered strong Q1 results, exceeding expectations across all guided metrics while accelerating growth and expanding profitability and cash flow," Chief Financial Officer Burt Podbere said. The acceleration narrative is significant for a company that spent much of the past year rebuilding trust after a high-profile outage. Re-accelerating ARR and a stock split aimed at retail accessibility suggest management believes the recovery is now durable.

A jobs print that gave the rally cover

The earnings did not arrive in a vacuum. Hours earlier, ADP reported that private payrolls rose by 122,000 in May, the strongest month since January 2025 and above the roughly 110,000 economists had penciled in. April's gain was revised modestly to 105,000.

The composition leaned defensive but healthy. Education and health services led with 57,000 hires, trade, transportation and utilities added 36,000, and professional and business services contributed 11,000. Annual pay growth held at 4.4% for job-stayers, while job-switchers saw pay growth ease to 6.5%. For markets, a labor market that is solid but not overheating reads as a near-ideal backdrop, firm enough to support corporate earnings yet soft enough to keep the Federal Reserve's easing path intact.

Where the money chased: the day's biggest movers

Beneath the index records, the session showed how concentrated the enthusiasm has become. Marvell Technology surged as much as 12.1% after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was cited calling the chipmaker "the next trillion-dollar company," a single endorsement worth tens of billions in market value. The remark captured how much the AI rally now runs on a handful of names and the figures who vouch for them.

Elsewhere, NextNav jumped about 10.8% and GameStop climbed roughly 9.4% in early trading, a reminder that speculative pockets remain alive even at record highs. On the other side, Datadog fell about 7.1%, StepStone Group lost 9.1% and Mineralys Therapeutics dropped 11.2%, a spread that underscores how unforgiving this market is to anything off the AI script.

The valuation question the records cannot answer

Broadcom traded between roughly $475 and $496 during the regular session before its report, near the upper end of a range that has tripled the company's value in under two years. That is the heart of the risk. When AI revenue is growing 143% and guidance points to 200%, even an enormous result can disappoint if it merely meets, rather than crushes, expectations. Broadcom's slight revenue miss is a small example of the bar these companies now have to clear.

The broader caution is concentration. The S&P 500's march above 7,600 has been propelled by a narrow band of semiconductor and infrastructure stocks, leaving the index increasingly exposed to any wobble in AI capital spending. Should the data-center buildout cool, or a single hyperscaler trim orders, the names that carried the market up could just as easily drag it down.

For now, the data is cooperating. Earnings are beating on the metrics that matter most, the labor market is steady, and guidance keeps pointing higher. The question heading into the back half of 2026 is not whether AI demand is real. Wednesday's numbers settled that. It is whether the spending can sustain growth rates that valuations have already booked as a given. The next few quarters of chip and software earnings will answer it, and the market has left itself little room to be wrong.