Broadcom’s first Wi-Fi 8 silicon portfolio has somewhat been eclipsed by the inevitable OpenAI deal, which excited the market even more
Broadcom has announced its first Wi-Fi 8 silicon portfolio, positioning its new generation of chips as a foundation for AI-era connectivity across broadband gateways, enterprise access points and mobile clients
Unveiled at Network X 2025 in Paris, the Wi-Fi 8 range – including the BCM6718, BCM43840, BCM43820 and BCM43109 – is designed to handle the higher throughput, lower latency and symmetrical uplink-downlink capacity required by AI-driven workloads at the network edge. Alongside those products, Broadcom is offering licensing of its Wi-Fi 8 IP to device makers in mobile, automotive and IoT domains.
The launch follows Broadcom’s newly announced collaboration with OpenAI, under which the companies will co-develop 10 gigawatts of custom AI accelerators and Ethernet-based network systems. The multi-year partnership, running through to 2029, will see Broadcom integrate its connectivity portfolio into racks of OpenAI-designed chips deployed across OpenAI and partner data centres.
The two announcements together underscore Broadcom’s strategy to link its semiconductor roadmap with AI infrastructure demands, from hyperscale clusters to end-user devices. Broadcom president and CEO Hock Tan said the OpenAI deal marked “a pivotal moment” for the company’s role in enabling large-scale AI systems, while senior vice president Mark Gonikberg described Wi-Fi 8 as a response to “the stringent performance, reliability and efficiency demands of AI-era edge networks.”
Licence opportunities?
One element of Broadcom’s announcement may raise a little more tension among service providers – the licensing. Broadcom is offering new licensing terms for its Wi-Fi 8 IP. That flexibility may be a selling point – but given recent scrutiny of Broadcom’s licensing behaviour with its VMware portfolio, some telcos and industry watchers may be quietly watching to see how strictly terms are enforced.
Since acquiring VMware, Broadcom has shuttered perpetual licences and pushed customers into subscription bundles. That shift has prompted reports of audit letters, cease-and-desist notices, and steep price escalations – many of which Broadcom rebuts. In the EU, trade bodies have flagged the changes as potentially unfair, and cloud association CISPE has filed a formal appeal against the VMware merger.
Licensing can have a double-edged nuance: operators might welcome design flexibility, but they will also remember how contentious licence enforcement can become when terms shift or compliance demands grow.
Ultra reliable
Wi-Fi 8, formally aligned with the IEEE 802.11bn specification, shifts focus from peak speed to what Broadcom terms Ultra High Reliability – delivering consistent performance even in congested environments. The technology includes coordinated beamforming between access points, adaptive sub-channel operation to avoid congestion, and extended-range features designed to maintain stable connections across larger premises and multi-storey buildings.
The silicon incorporates a hardware-based telemetry engine that enables real-time performance measurement and adaptive network optimisation. Operators can use the telemetry to train or run AI models for quality-of-experience management, security analytics and predictive maintenance.
Data throughput
For service providers, the new generation is aimed at addressing bandwidth-heavy applications such as live streaming, gaming and voice interaction with AI assistants, which place increasing demands on symmetrical data throughput.
Jean-Paul Arzel, chief technology officer at Bouygues Telecom, said the French operator’s long partnership with Broadcom had “fuelled continuous innovation” and would extend into the Wi-Fi 8 era. “With Wi-Fi 8 on the horizon and our ongoing collaboration with Broadcom, we’re driving breakthroughs that will elevate performance and strengthen our technology leadership,” he said.
In the UK, BT’s consumer arm EE is also working with Broadcom on Wi-Fi 8. Luciano Oliveira, director of product for Home & TV, said: “Partnering with cutting-edge organisations like Broadcom for Wi-Fi 8 supports our ambition to continue providing the UK’s best network, while laying the foundations for connected experiences of the future.”
In North America, Charter Communications said Wi-Fi 8 would enhance its broadband service differentiation. Justin Colwell, executive vice president of technology strategy and innovation, said: “Our collaboration with Broadcom is focused on staying ahead of subscriber needs by offering broadband services and in-home Wi-Fi that are ready for emerging applications. With Wi-Fi 8 capabilities, we will be able to enhance the quality of the experience and differentiate our services in a competitive market.”
Comcast also plans to integrate Wi-Fi 8 into its home gateways. Fraser Stirling, global chief product officer, said the technology would help the operator sustain “ultra-low latency, multi-gig symmetrical speeds, and the bandwidth needed for data-intensive applications like live streaming, gaming, and emerging AI capabilities.”
Chips in the wild
According to Broadcom, early samples of its Wi-Fi 8 chips are already in the hands of select partners, with full commercial availability expected following certification by the Wi-Fi Alliance. The company says its third-generation digital pre-distortion technology and new power-management modes provide up to 30 percent energy efficiency gains compared with current Wi-Fi 7 designs.
Analysts view Broadcom’s twin moves – opening its Wi-Fi 8 IP and deepening its AI hardware collaboration – as a sign of convergence between edge connectivity and data-centre compute. IDC research director Phil Solis said the combined strategy “has market-disruption potential” by accelerating development of an AI-aware wireless ecosystem that extends from consumer devices to enterprise networks. With Wi-Fi 8, Broadcom aims to give operators and device manufacturers a path to networks that are not only faster but also instrumented for AI-based management.
