The European semiconductor sector is trending upward this Thursday after Broadcom released its quarterly results, with sales in artificial intelligence (AI) surpassing analysts' forecasts.

In Frankfurt, Infineon is up 1.21%. The same upward trend is seen for ASML, which is gaining 0.88% in Amsterdam.

Across the Atlantic, Broadcom reported better-than-expected results for its first fiscal quarter, driven by strong growth in its AI-related activities. The group posted adjusted earnings of $2.05 per share and revenue of $19.31 billion, exceeding analysts' estimates. Revenue rose 29% year-on-year for the period ending February 1. Demand for AI technologies has strongly supported activity. AI-related revenues more than doubled to $8.4 billion, a 106% increase.

"The solid AI outlook, which is expected to exceed $100 billion for fiscal year 2027, is likely conservative, with supply forecasts of 10 GW of computing power, including more than 1 GW to OpenAI, Broadcom's sixth announced client. The surplus in AI spending will persist, but the group made strong arguments that its AI-related revenues will outpace the market and continue to grow through 2028," notes Jefferies, which has a buy rating on the American semiconductor giant.

Most recently, at a conference organized by Morgan Stanley, as reported by Les Echos, STMicroelectronics CEO Jean-Marc Chéry indicated that the shift in data centers could happen much faster than previously expected. The company now targets revenues from this segment "well above" $1 billion as early as next year. This trajectory marks a sharp contrast with projections made in January, when the group was still mentioning this threshold... before 2030.

STMicroelectronics, whose stock has surged 30% since the start of the year, also announced Thursday the launch of a new entry-level microcontroller. Based on a Cortex-M33 core and 40nm process technology, this new generation promises higher performance, more memory, and optimized costs to power smart devices.

The group will release its first-quarter results on April 23.