The custom AI ASIC state of play (May 2026) — Broadcom deals, Google TPUs, Meta MTIA & beyond

Custom AI ASIC shipments are expected to outgrow merchant GPUs in 2026 as hyperscalers pour more money into purpose-built accelerators.

Broadcom is now the leading custom AI ASIC co-design player, with a large backlog and several confirmed customers.

Google’s TPU remains the most mature program, while Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI are all scaling in-house chip efforts.

TSMC’s advanced manufacturing and packaging capacity, including CoWoS and SoIC, is a key enabler for these chips and their HBM-heavy designs.