“Compare NVDA, AMD and AVGO R&D intensity over their last three fiscal years. Who increased it fastest?”

The answer

What the agent concluded

Of the three, only Broadcom’s R&D intensity rose: 14.7% → 17.2%. The jump happened in FY2024, the first year after Broadcom closed the VMware acquisition on November 22, 2023. Treat it as an acquisition effect, not a change in organic spending.

NVIDIA increased R&D the most in dollars ($8.7B → $18.5B, 113%), yet its intensity fell from 14.2% to 8.6% because revenue grew 254%.

AMD remains the most R&D-intensive at 23.4%, down 2.5 points as revenue outgrew spending.

The question has no clean answer: “increased fastest” depends on whether you measure the ratio or the dollars, and the only rising ratio comes from M&A.

Evidence

The numbers and where they came from

Period alignment

Fiscal years, kept as reported

• NVDAFY ends late JanuaryFY2024 → 2024-01-28 · FY2025 → 2025-01-26 · FY2026 → 2026-01-25
• AMDFY ends late DecemberFY2023 → 2023-12-30 · FY2024 → 2024-12-28 · FY2025 → 2025-12-27
• AVGOFY ends late Oct / early NovFY2023 → 2023-10-29 · FY2024 → 2024-11-03 · FY2025 → 2025-11-02

Calculations

Inputs and method, not just results

NVDA R&D intensity, FY2026

R&D expense / total revenue18,497,000,000 / 215,938,000,000= 8.57%

AMD R&D intensity, FY2025

R&D expense / total revenue8,091,000,000 / 34,639,000,000= 23.36%

AVGO R&D intensity, FY2025

R&D expense / total revenue10,977,000,000 / 63,887,000,000= 17.18%

Checks & caveats

What was verified, and what limits the answer

• !Caveat
  Fiscal years don’t line up

  NVIDIA’s FY2026 ended January 25, 2026; AMD’s FY2025 ended December 27, 2025; Broadcom’s FY2025 ended November 2, 2025. Each column compares a company with itself, not identical calendar periods.

• !Caveat
  Acquisition changes the base

  On November 22, 2023, we acquired VMware, Inc. (“VMware”) in a cash-and-stock transaction (the “VMware Merger”).

• ✓Verified
  What drove NVIDIA’s R&D

  The increases in research and development expenses for fiscal year 2026 were driven by a 29% increase in compensation and benefits expense, including stock-based compensation, reflecting employee growth and compensation increases and a 79% increase in compute and infrastructure.

• ✓Verified
  Rising ratios

  AVGO only.

Agent trace

Every tool call, in order

1. 01
   filings.statementNVIDIA revenue and R&D. Its fiscal year ends in late January.

   finance filings.statement accession=0001045810-26-000021 statement=income --output json

   → Revenue and R&D for FY2024–FY2026 (periods end in January).

   Raw CLI output ↗
2. 02
   filings.statementAMD revenue and R&D. Its fiscal year ends in late December.

   finance filings.statement accession=0000002488-26-000018 statement=income --output json

   → Net revenue and R&D for FY2023–FY2025 (periods end in December).

   Raw CLI output ↗
3. 03
   filings.statementBroadcom revenue and R&D. Its fiscal year ends in early November.

   finance filings.statement accession=0001730168-25-000121 statement=income --output json

   → Total net revenue and R&D for FY2023–FY2025 (periods end in Oct/Nov).

   Raw CLI output ↗
4. 04
   filings.readBroadcom's R&D jumped in FY2024. Check for an acquisition before comparing.

   finance filings.read accession=0001730168-25-000121 section=mda max_chars=60000 --output json

   → VMware acquisition closed November 22, 2023: explains the FY2024 step-up.

   Raw CLI output ↗
5. 05
   filings.readNVIDIA's ratio fell while R&D dollars rose. Read what drove the expense.

   finance filings.read accession=0001045810-26-000021 section=mda max_chars=60000 --output json

   → R&D growth driven by compensation and compute/infrastructure spend.

   Raw CLI output ↗
6. 06
   formula.marginCompute R&D / revenue for nine company-years with inputs.

   finance formula.margin numerator=18497 denominator=215938

   → NVIDIA FY2026: 8.57%.