VMware Price Increase Broadcom Timeline: 24 Licensing and Partner Changes Since the Deal, as Software Revenue Rose 4.4x
The VMware price increase Broadcom customers describe was not one list-price change. It was a chain of licensing changes that began on December 11, 2023, when Broadcom ended perpetual licences and SnS renewals, and moved buyers to per-core VCF and VVF subscriptions with a 16-core-per-CPU minimum. Broadcom’s infrastructure software revenue went from $1.97B in the last pre-deal quarter to $8.75B in the quarter ended August 2, 2026.
As of November 12, 2026, we rebuilt the record from three kinds of primary document: 20 Broadcom announcements and blog posts, Broadcom knowledge-base articles and release notes, and the General Court of the European Union’s case file in CISPE v Commission. Every row in the timeline below carries a quote that our build script checks against the saved Broadcom or court page. Revenue comes from the XBRL data in 19 Broadcom 10-Q and 10-K filings and VMware’s last six standalone filings on SEC EDGAR.
- Broadcom ended sales of perpetual VMware licences and of SnS renewals for perpetual products on December 11, 2023, 19 days after the November 22, 2023 close.
- Broadcom’s infrastructure software segment booked $8.75B in Q3 FY26 (quarter ended Aug 2, 2026), 4.4 times the $1.97B of Q4 FY23, the last full quarter before VMware, and +29% year over year.
- Over the latest four quarters the segment booked $29.7B, 40% more than Broadcom’s software business ($7.5B) and VMware ($13.6B) reported separately over the four quarters to mid-2023, even though VMware’s figure included the end-user computing unit Broadcom later sold.
- The segment’s operating margin went from 75% in Q3 FY23 to 84% in Q3 FY26.
- Broadcom’s own explanation of software growth changed: its 10-Qs cite license revenue on contracts customers cannot terminate from the Feb 2, 2025 quarter, and the phrase “transition to a subscription license model” last appears in the filing for the period ended Nov 2, 2025.
- No Broadcom page we read publishes VMware list prices. The only percentage claims we can source to the party making them are CISPE’s (up to 12 times, and “more than 1,000 percent” cumulatively) and Broadcom’s (VCF list price “by half”).
- Broadcom’s core-counting KB, last modified June 17, 2026, states a 16-core minimum per CPU and does not mention the 72-core order minimum that several top-ranking pages report.
Broadcom VMware licensing changes: the timeline
28 dated events since the close fall into three lanes: 24 licensing, product and partner changes, and 4 court steps. Licensing and product changes cluster in the first six months: perpetual licences ended on day 19, the price list shrank to four bundles by February 7, 2024, and the up-front payment requirement was dropped on June 11, 2024. Partner changes then run through 2025 and 2026, ending with Broadcom telling customers of removed cloud providers on April 22, 2026 to plan a move within twelve months. Court activity in the EU runs alongside.
| # | Date | Lane | What changed, and the source’s own words | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | May 26, 2022 | Courts | Merger agreement signed Broadcom agrees to acquire all of VMware's voting securities. pursuant to a merger agreement dated 26 May 2022 |
General Court order |
| 2 | Jul 12, 2023 | Courts | EU clears the deal without conditions European Commission Decision C(2023) 4654 final declares the concentration compatible with the internal market (Case M.10806). Commission Decision C(2023) 4654 final of 12 July 2023 |
General Court order |
| 3 | Nov 22, 2023 | Licensing | Acquisition closes Broadcom completes the VMware acquisition; total purchase consideration $86,290 million per its first post-close 10-Q. Today I am thrilled to announce Broadcom's successful acquisition of VMware |
Broadcom |
| 4 | Dec 11, 2023 | Licensing | Perpetual licences and SnS renewals end End of sale of perpetual licences, Support and Subscription (SnS) renewals for perpetual offerings, and HPP/SPP credits; VCF and the new vSphere Foundation become the two primary offers. with the end of sale of perpetual licenses, Support and Subscription (SnS) renewals for perpetual offerings, and hybrid purchase program/subscription purchase program (HPP/SPP) credits beginning today |
Broadcom |
| 5 | Dec 11, 2023 | Licensing | Broadcom says VCF list price is halved Broadcom states it cut the previous VCF subscription list price by half and raised support levels. we've reduced the previous subscription list price by half |
Broadcom |
| 6 | Jan 19, 2024 | Partners | 18,000+ resellers invited to Broadcom Advantage Invitations to all active VMware resell partners; participation goes live February 5, 2024. we have invited all active VMware resell partners (more than 18,000) to participate |
Broadcom |
| 7 | Feb 7, 2024 | Partners | Price list cut to four SKU bundles; rebates replaced by net margin VCF, vSphere Foundation, vSphere Standard and vSphere Essentials Plus; discounts disclosed up front. we have simplified pricing down to four SKU bundles: VMware Cloud Foundation, vSphere Foundation, vSphere Standard and vSphere Essentials Plus |
Broadcom |
| 8 | Feb 14, 2024 | Partners | Commercial segment handed to resellers Broadcom takes deeper direct relationships with its most strategic customers; the commercial segment is 100% partner-owned. our commercial segment is 100% owned and led by reseller partners |
Broadcom |
| 9 | Mar 21, 2024 | Partners | VCSP programme relaunched on per-core pricing Pinnacle, Premier and Registered tiers; every VCSP service billed on a per-core subscription; programme deliberately made smaller; white-label model for partners who do not qualify. All services offered by VCSPs will now be based on a per core subscription license |
Broadcom |
| 10 | Apr 15, 2024 | Licensing | Free zero-day patches for expired perpetual vSphere Hock Tan announces free access to zero-day security patches for supported vSphere versions for customers whose support has lapsed. we are announcing free access to zero-day security patches for supported versions of vSphere |
Broadcom |
| 11 | Apr 18, 2024 | Licensing | Broadcom: costs 'comparable' on an amortized basis FAQ names vSphere 7.x and 8.x as the supported versions for critical patches and says more than 8,000 SKUs existed at acquisition. On an amortized basis, customers' total expenditures are comparable under either model |
Broadcom |
| 12 | Apr 30, 2024 | Partners | VCSP election deadline set for May 31, 2024 Registered partners must choose Premier, white label or exit; exiting partners may serve existing customers through April 2025. Partners choosing to exit the program can continue to serve existing customers through the end of April 2025 |
Broadcom |
| 13 | May 6, 2024 | Partners | Quoting moved to Broadcom systems ERP migration completed; Broadcom says it delayed quotations for weeks. On May 6, 2024, our IT and sales operations teams completed the migration |
Broadcom |
| 14 | Jun 11, 2024 | Licensing | Up-front payment requirement dropped Broadcom offers an annual pay-as-you-go model instead of VMware's up-front payments; four core offerings replace about 8,000 SKUs. Today, we offer an annual pay-as-you-go model |
Broadcom |
| 15 | Jun 13, 2024 | Partners | VCSP head count published More than 90 Pinnacle and 390 Premier VCSPs committed; more than 2,100 Registered VCSPs on white label; 11 Cloud Commerce Managers. More than 2100 Registered VCSPs have signed up for White Label model |
Broadcom |
| 16 | Nov 1, 2024 | Licensing | VVF gets 250 GiB vSAN per core; Enterprise Plus added From November 2024, vSAN capacity in vSphere Foundation rises 2.5x to 250 GiB per core; the compute-only options become vSphere Enterprise Plus and vSphere Standard. we will be increasing the amount of vSAN capacity included in VMware vSphere Foundation by 2.5x to 250 GiB per core |
Broadcom |
| 17 | Feb 3, 2025 | Partners | Points-based partner programme launched Tiering by bookings, enablement and services capability. Broadcom has modified the Advantage Partner Program by introducing a new points-based model |
Broadcom |
| 18 | Mar 18, 2025 | Partners | Incumbency protection narrowed to true renewals 70% of points from bookings; renewals defined as same product, duration and core count; new cores go to deal registration. defining renewals as opportunities with the same product, duration and same number of cores |
Broadcom |
| 19 | Apr 10, 2025 | Licensing | Free ESXi returns (non-production) ESXi 8.0 Update 3e ships with a free vSphere Hypervisor 8: no Broadcom support, no vCenter, 8 vCPUs per VM. Broadcom makes available the VMware vSphere Hypervisor version 8, an entry-level hypervisor. No Broadcom support is available for this offering and it is for non-production use |
Broadcom |
| 20 | May 5, 2025 | Partners | 'Comprehensive review' of the VMware partner ecosystem Broadcom says it will apply standards all partners must meet. we are undertaking a comprehensive review of our VMware partner ecosystem |
Broadcom |
| 21 | Jul 23, 2025 | Courts | CISPE asks EU General Court to annul the clearance Application lodged in Case T-503/25. The applicant lodged its application at the Registry of the General Court on 23 July 2025 |
General Court order |
| 22 | Sep 22, 2025 | Partners | Fewer authorised VCSPs from November 2025; portability restricted Licence portability only to then-current certified clouds; non-renewing partners lose portability certification. reducing the number of authorized VCSP partners in most markets effective in Broadcom's new fiscal year in November |
Broadcom |
| 23 | Oct 2, 2025 | Licensing | vSphere 7 reaches end of general support ESXi, vCenter and vSAN 7.x end of general support. The End of general support for vSphere 7.0 was October 2nd, 2025 |
Broadcom |
| 24 | Nov 5, 2025 | Courts | Broadcom intervenes in T-503/25 Broadcom applies to intervene in support of the Commission. By document lodged at the Court Registry on 5 November 2025, Broadcom applied for leave to intervene |
General Court order |
| 25 | Dec 3, 2025 | Partners | Renewals move into deal registration VCF and VVF renewal protection now requires proof of customer adoption; VCF 9.x certifications needed by end of April 2026. As renewals shift into deal registration for VCF and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) |
Broadcom |
| 26 | Jan 2, 2026 | Partners | EMEA reseller ecosystem narrowed Broadcom applies its 'smaller, highly skilled' partner model to EMEA. a smaller, highly skilled, and more accountable partner ecosystem delivers better outcomes for customers |
Broadcom |
| 27 | Apr 22, 2026 | Partners | Broadcom addresses customers of removed VCSPs Customers whose VCSPs were affected by the partner reorganisation are told to migrate or consolidate within the next twelve months. particularly customers whose VCSP partners have been recently affected by Broadcom's Partner program reorganisation |
Broadcom |
| 28 | Jun 17, 2026 | Licensing | Core-counting rule restated: 16 cores per CPU minimum Broadcom's counting KB (last modified June 17, 2026) states the 16-core-per-CPU minimum and 1 TiB vSAN per VCF core; it states no 72-core order minimum. You must license a minimum of 16 physical cores for each CPU (physical processor) in your ESXi hosts, even if a CPU has fewer than 16 cores |
Broadcom |
| 29 | Jul 14, 2026 | Courts | EU Court of Justice dismisses VOICE appeal German IT users' association VOICE loses its bid to intervene (C-111/26 P(I)); T-503/25 resumes. Following the order of 14 July 2026, Voice v CISPE (C-111/26 P(I), not published, EU:C:2026:580), dismissing the appeal brought by VOICE |
General Court order |
| 30 | Oct 21, 2026 | Courts | General Court keeps CISPE members' identities from Broadcom Order on confidentiality in T-503/25; the case proceeds. ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE SIXTH CHAMBER OF THE GENERAL COURT 21 October 2026 |
General Court order |
Dates are the publication date of the Broadcom page, the effective date it states, or the date in the court order. Two pre-close events (rows 1 and 2) are listed for context and are not counted in the 28. Quotes are verbatim apart from typographic apostrophes.
How much did VMware prices increase? What each side has put in writing
Broadcom does not publish VMware list prices on any of the pages we read, so no one outside a customer contract can measure a list-price change. What exists are written claims. CISPE, an association of 48 European cloud infrastructure providers per the General Court’s description, has put multiples in four press statements since March 2024. Broadcom has made two claims in the other direction. We quote both exactly and do not convert them into a single “average increase”.
| Date | Who says it | Exact words | Document |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 19, 2024 | CISPE (European cloud providers' association) | Costs for licences have increased by a factor of twelve (i.e. 1,200 per cent) in some cases. |
Broadcom's brutal contract termination and imposition of prohibitive new licensing terms will decimate Europe's Cloud Infrastructure |
| Apr 22, 2024 | CISPE | prices are not lower, but have, in fact jumped by factors of 6, 10 or even 12 times |
Broadcom's response to market outrage solves nothing |
| Jul 24, 2025 | CISPE | drastic cost increases (sometimes exceeding tenfold) and mandatory multi-year commitments |
CISPE Takes European Commission to Court to Annul Approval of Broadcom's Acquisition of VMware |
| Mar 19, 2026 | CISPE (statement on its complaint to DG Competition) | which cumulatively have increased costs by more than 1,000 percent |
CISPE Files Competition Complaint Against Broadcom, Urges Immediate EU Action |
| Dec 11, 2023 | Broadcom (Krish Prasad) | we've reduced the previous subscription list price by half |
VMware by Broadcom Dramatically Simplifies Offer Lineup and Licensing Model |
| Apr 18, 2024 | Broadcom (FAQ) | On an amortized basis, customers' total expenditures are comparable under either model |
VCF go-to-market strategy: your top questions addressed |
The two sides are not measuring the same thing. Broadcom’s “by half” refers to the previous VCF subscription list price, while CISPE describes what members pay after re-bundling, the move from memory-based to core-based billing for cloud providers, and three-year minimum commits. The court filings that would test these claims are not public in full: the General Court’s October 21, 2026 order is about which redactions Broadcom may see. We could not read the 2024 AT&T filings in New York State court, because the court’s e-filing system refused automated requests, so we do not repeat percentages attributed to them.
Broadcom infrastructure software revenue before and after VMware
Revenue is the one number on this topic that Broadcom must report to the SEC. Broadcom reports an infrastructure software segment every quarter. It averaged $1.91B a quarter in fiscal 2023, before VMware. In Q3 FY26 it was $8.75B, and it was 30% of Broadcom’s total revenue. In fiscal 2024 Broadcom disclosed how much came from VMware: $2,102 million in a first quarter that included VMware only from November 22, rising to $3,833 million by the third quarter, and $12,384 million for the year.
Source: Broadcom 10-Q and 10-K XBRL, segment member InfrastructureSoftwareMember. Fourth quarters are the fiscal year minus nine months. Q1 FY24 ran 97 days (Broadcom’s fiscal 2024 had 53 weeks). The red share is Broadcom’s own “net revenue attributable to VMware” disclosure, which stopped after fiscal 2024; Q4 FY24 is the annual figure minus three quarters.
The comparison on the left is the closest like-for-like the filings allow. Before the deal, Broadcom’s software segment earned $7.51B over its four quarters to July 30, 2023, and VMware reported $13.61B over its four quarters to August 4, 2023. Together that is $21.12B. The latest four quarters of the combined segment come to $29.67B, 40% more. VMware’s figure includes its end-user computing business, which Broadcom classified as held for sale at the close and later sold, so a like-for-like gap would be wider. Revenue growth is not the same thing as a price increase: it also reflects new products, contract terms and, on Broadcom’s own account, license revenue recognized up front on contracts customers cannot cancel.
| Quarter | Ended | Days | Software revenue ($M) | Of which VMware ($M) | Segment op. margin | Share of Broadcom revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 FY22 | Jan 30, 2022 | 91 | $1,833 | 71.3% | 23.8% | |
| Q2 FY22 | May 1, 2022 | 91 | $1,874 | 70.1% | 23.1% | |
| Q3 FY22 | Jul 31, 2022 | 91 | $1,840 | 69.7% | 21.7% | |
| Q4 FY22 | Oct 30, 2022 | 91 | $1,838 | 71.6% | 20.6% | |
| Q1 FY23 | Jan 29, 2023 | 91 | $1,808 | 72.3% | 20.3% | |
| Q2 FY23 | Apr 30, 2023 | 91 | $1,925 | 73.4% | 22.0% | |
| Q3 FY23 | Jul 30, 2023 | 91 | $1,935 | 74.6% | 21.8% | |
| Q4 FY23 | Oct 29, 2023 | 91 | $1,969 | 75.0% | 21.2% | |
| Q1 FY24 | Feb 4, 2024 | 98 | $4,571 | $2,102 | 59.4% | 38.2% |
| Q2 FY24 | May 5, 2024 | 91 | $5,285 | $2,674 | 59.9% | 42.3% |
| Q3 FY24 | Aug 4, 2024 | 91 | $5,798 | $3,833 | 67.4% | 44.4% |
| Q4 FY24 | Nov 3, 2024 | 91 | $5,824 | $3,775 | 71.9% | 41.4% |
| Q1 FY25 | Feb 2, 2025 | 91 | $6,704 | 76.4% | 44.9% | |
| Q2 FY25 | May 4, 2025 | 91 | $6,596 | 75.6% | 44.0% | |
| Q3 FY25 | Aug 3, 2025 | 91 | $6,786 | 77.2% | 42.5% | |
| Q4 FY25 | Nov 2, 2025 | 91 | $6,943 | 78.0% | 38.5% | |
| Q1 FY26 | Feb 1, 2026 | 91 | $6,796 | 78.3% | 35.2% | |
| Q2 FY26 | May 3, 2026 | 91 | $7,178 | 78.7% | 32.4% | |
| Q3 FY26 | Aug 2, 2026 | 91 | $8,752 | 83.7% | 29.6% |
VMware Inc. standalone quarters used for the baseline ($M):
| Jul 30, 2022 to Oct 28, 2022 | $3,211 |
| Oct 29, 2022 to Feb 3, 2023 | $3,715 |
| Feb 4, 2023 to May 5, 2023 | $3,277 |
| May 6, 2023 to Aug 4, 2023 | $3,408 |
How Broadcom explained the growth, filing by filing
Each 10-Q and 10-K has one sentence explaining why infrastructure software revenue rose. Reading them in order shows the stated reason moving from the acquisition itself, to VCF demand plus contract terms, to VCF demand alone. “Contributions from VMware” carried fiscal 2024. VCF demand first appears in the filing for the period ended Feb 2, 2025. The subscription transition is cited through the period ended Nov 2, 2025 and then drops out.
| Filing | Contributions from VMware | Strong demand for VCF | License revenue on contracts customers cannot terminate | Transition to a subscription license model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10-Q, period ended Feb 4, 2024 | Yes | No | No | No |
| 10-Q, period ended May 5, 2024 | Yes | No | No | No |
| 10-Q, period ended Aug 4, 2024 | Yes | No | No | No |
| 10-K, period ended Nov 3, 2024 | Yes | No | No | No |
| 10-Q, period ended Feb 2, 2025 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 10-Q, period ended May 4, 2025 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 10-Q, period ended Aug 3, 2025 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 10-K, period ended Nov 2, 2025 | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| 10-Q, period ended May 3, 2026 | No | Yes | No | No |
| 10-Q, period ended Aug 2, 2026 | No | Yes | Yes | No |
Yes means the phrase appears in the sentence that begins “Net revenue from our infrastructure software segment increased” in that filing’s MD&A.
What is Broadcom’s pricing model for VMware now?
Broadcom sells per-core subscriptions. Its KB 313548, revised June 17, 2026, sets the counting rule: license every physical core, with a floor of 16 cores per CPU, so a host with two 8-core CPUs counts as 32 cores. VCF includes 1 TiB of vSAN capacity per licensed core. vSphere Foundation’s included vSAN went to 250 GiB per core in November 2024, when Broadcom also made vSphere Enterprise Plus and vSphere Standard the two compute-only options. A free hypervisor is back too: ESXi 8.0 Update 3e, released April 10, 2025, includes a free vSphere Hypervisor 8 for non-production use only, with no support, up to 2 physical CPUs per host and 8 vCPUs per VM.
The calculator applies only the 16-core-per-CPU rule from KB 313548. It does not price anything, because Broadcom does not publish per-core list prices on the pages we read.
For holders of old perpetual licences, two dates matter. Broadcom’s April 2024 FAQ promised critical security patches for “supported versions” of vSphere, which it named as 7.x and 8.x, even without a support contract. Broadcom’s KB 415405 records the end of general support for vSphere 7.0 as October 2, 2025. The ESXi bugs those patches cover are tracked in our hypervisor vulnerabilities report.
What changed for an MSP or VCSP partner
For managed service providers the bigger change was the channel, not the SKU list. In Broadcom’s own sequence:
- January 19 to February 5, 2024: reseller migration. Broadcom invited more than 18,000 active VMware resellers into Broadcom Advantage at their old tier, replaced rebates with a net margin model and cut the price list to four bundles. On February 14 it said the commercial segment is 100% partner-led, while its most strategic customers get deeper direct relationships with Broadcom.
- March 21, 2024: VCSP relaunch. Cloud provider services moved to per-core subscriptions (replacing VMware’s memory-based cloud provider billing, per CISPE), under Pinnacle, Premier and Registered tiers, and Broadcom said it was deliberately shrinking the programme. Registered partners had to work through a Pinnacle or Premier partner to reach VCF.
- April 30, 2024: deadlines. Registered partners had until May 31, 2024 to choose Premier, white label or exit; exiting partners could serve existing customers through April 2025. By June 13, 2024 Broadcom counted more than 90 Pinnacle and 390 Premier VCSPs, more than 2,100 white-label Registered VCSPs and 11 Cloud Commerce Managers.
- March 18, 2025: renewals redefined. Tiering became 70% bookings points and 30% capability points. Incumbency protection now covers only true renewals (same product, duration and core count); added cores and migrations go to deal registration. A back-end rebate returned through distributors.
- September 22, 2025: fewer VCSPs. Broadcom said it would cut the number of authorised VCSPs in most markets from its new fiscal year in November 2025, and that VCF licence portability would apply only to then-current certified clouds, so customers of non-renewed providers lose the right to bring their licences there.
- December 3, 2025: renewals need proof of adoption. VCF and VVF renewals moved into deal registration, approved on technical capability and customer adoption evidence. Pinnacle, Premier and Select partners needed minimum VCF 9.x certifications by the end of April 2026; Premier partners get 10 certification vouchers, Pinnacle unlimited.
- April 22, 2026: customers of removed providers. Broadcom told customers whose VCSPs were affected by the reorganisation to migrate to retained providers, move within the ecosystem or consolidate, and called the next twelve months “an important window”.
Of roughly 1,000 cloud providers in Europe that resold VMware software and ran it on their own infrastructure, less than 20 remain, and that excluded providers have until March 31, 2027 to sell their infrastructure or customers, or close.
What to do with this as an MSP
- Count cores before a renewal conversation. Run every client host through the 16-core-per-CPU rule. Small hosts with 8-core CPUs pay for twice the cores they have; the calculator above shows the gap.
- Check your portability status in writing. Since November 2025, a client’s VCF licence can only move to a cloud on Broadcom’s current certified list. If you host client workloads and were not renewed as a VCSP, that client’s bring-your-own-licence route to you is gone.
- Treat renewals as competitive deals. Since the December 2025 change, the reseller of record does not automatically keep a VCF or VVF renewal; the partner with adoption evidence and VCF 9.x certifications does.
- Map vSphere 7 estates. vSphere 7 left general support on October 2, 2025. Perpetual-licence clients still on 7.x are outside the “supported versions” Broadcom named for its free critical patches.
- Quote multiples carefully. The 6x, 10x and 12x figures in circulation are CISPE’s statements. Use the client’s own before-and-after invoices rather than a headline multiple. Licence cost is one input next to the M365 changes in our Microsoft 365 price increase ledger when you rebuild a client’s annual IT budget, and our server virtualization guide covers the platform options.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Broadcom increase VMware prices?
On the pages we read, Broadcom does not describe its changes as a price increase. Its December 11, 2023 announcement ended perpetual licences and SnS renewals, and its April 18, 2024 FAQ says that on an amortized basis customers’ total expenditures are comparable under either model, while cutting more than 8,000 SKUs to four per-core offerings. In its SEC filings Broadcom attributes software revenue growth to VCF demand, license revenue on contracts customers cannot terminate, and the move to subscriptions. Segment revenue rose from $1.97B to $8.75B a quarter.
Will VMware prices increase in 2026?
Broadcom publishes no 2026 VMware price list on the pages we checked. The verifiable 2026 changes are structural: from November 2025 Broadcom cut the number of authorised cloud providers in most markets, renewals for VCF and VVF moved into deal registration (December 3, 2025), and partners had until the end of April 2026 to hold VCF 9.x certifications. Segment revenue in Q3 FY26 was +29% year over year.
What is Broadcom’s pricing for VMware?
Per-core subscriptions to four offerings: VMware Cloud Foundation, vSphere Foundation, vSphere Standard and, from November 2024, vSphere Enterprise Plus. Broadcom’s KB 313548 requires at least 16 licensed cores per CPU and includes 1 TiB of vSAN per VCF core; vSphere Foundation includes 250 GiB of vSAN per core from November 2024. Per-core list prices are not on these Broadcom pages.
What happened with Broadcom and VMware?
Broadcom signed the merger agreement on May 26, 2022, the European Commission cleared it without conditions on July 12, 2023, and the deal closed on November 22, 2023 for total purchase consideration of $86,290 million. CISPE asked the EU General Court to annul the clearance on July 23, 2025 (Case T-503/25), which was still pending after a procedural order on October 21, 2026.
How much did VMware prices go up after Broadcom bought it?
There is no audited figure. CISPE, a European cloud providers’ association, said on March 19, 2024 that licence costs rose by a factor of twelve in some cases, and on March 19, 2026 that combined changes increased costs by more than 1,000 percent. Broadcom says it halved VCF’s list price. Neither claim has been tested in a court ruling we could find.
Is there a 72-core minimum for VMware licences?
Not on Broadcom’s counting rules page as of its June 17, 2026 revision. KB 313548 states a minimum of 16 physical cores per CPU (a host with two 8-core CPUs is licensed as 32 cores) and does not mention a 72-core order minimum. Confirm order minimums in writing with your Broadcom partner before quoting.
Free to cite and republish with a link to this page.
Methodology
Timeline. We listed Broadcom’s company news sitemap, selected every English article about VMware licensing, products or partner programmes from November 2022 to May 2026, and saved the article body through the JSON endpoint broadcom.com’s own pages use. We added Broadcom knowledge-base articles 313548, 399823 and 415405, the ESXi 8.0 Update 3e release notes, and the General Court order of October 21, 2026 in Case T-503/25. Each timeline row stores a verbatim quote; the build stops if the quote is not found in the saved page. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
Revenue. Broadcom (CIK 1730168) 10-Q and 10-K XBRL instances for fiscal 2022 to the quarter ended Aug 2, 2026: RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax and OperatingIncomeLoss with the business segment axis. Fourth quarters are annual minus nine-month values. VMware Inc. (CIK 1124610) total revenue from its last six standalone filings. VMware-attributable revenue is taken from Broadcom’s fiscal 2024 filing text. Operating margin is segment operating income divided by segment revenue; it excludes Broadcom’s unallocated expenses such as acquisition amortization.
Claims. Price-increase percentages are quoted only from documents published by the party making the claim (CISPE’s press statements, Broadcom’s pages), with that party named. We do not average them or treat them as measurements.
Limitations. Broadcom does not publish per-core list prices on the pages we read, so this page measures no price change itself. The before/after revenue comparison mixes fiscal calendars (Broadcom’s year ends around November 1, VMware’s ended around February 1) and includes VMware’s end-user computing unit in the baseline. Several events reported elsewhere (a 72-core order minimum, a late-renewal surcharge, the February 2024 removal of the free ESXi edition, other customer lawsuits) are left out because we could not find a Broadcom or court page stating them. CISPE’s statements are an interested party’s claims.
Not advice. Confirm licensing terms with Broadcom or your distributor before quoting a client.
Cite as:The Uptime Report. "VMware Price Increase Broadcom Timeline: 24 Licensing and Partner Changes Since the Deal, as Software Revenue Rose 4.4x." November 2026. https://theuptimereport.com/vmware-price-increase-broadcom/
References
- Broadcom, Broadcom announces successful acquisition of VMware (Hock Tan), Nov 22, 2023. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, VMware by Broadcom Dramatically Simplifies Offer Lineup and Licensing Model (Krish Prasad), Dec 11, 2023. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, Building a Simplified and Stronger Advantage Program for VMware by Broadcom, Feb 7, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, VMware: Business Simplification, Portfolio Innovation and Ecosystem Standardization, Feb 14, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, VMware by Broadcom: the first 100 days (Hock Tan), Mar 14, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, A New Era for VMware Cloud Service Provider Partners Begins, Mar 21, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, A changing market landscape requires constant evolution: our mission for VMware customers (Hock Tan), Apr 15, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, VCF go-to-market strategy: your top questions addressed, Apr 18, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, Opening More Opportunities for VMware Cloud Service Providers, Apr 30, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, The forward-looking customer journey continues (Hock Tan), Jun 11, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, Strengthening partners to better serve our customers, Jun 12, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, Continuing to Simplify and Optimize through Cloud Service Providers, Jun 13, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, Bringing More Value and Options to the VMware Cloud Foundation Portfolio, Oct 31, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, Broadcom Focuses on Value-Based Solution Providers, Feb 3, 2025. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, Redesigned Broadcom Partner Program Delivers More Value to Partners and Customers, Mar 18, 2025. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, Driving VMware Partner Program and Ecosystem Evolution to Align with Customer Success, May 5, 2025. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, Shaping the Future of VMware Cloud Foundation: Broadcom's Focused Strategy for VMware Cloud Service Providers, Sep 22, 2025. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, Broadcom's Advantage Partner Program: A Clear Roadmap to Partner Success and Customer Impact, Dec 3, 2025. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, Building a Stronger, More Focused Partner Ecosystem to Better Serve EMEA Customers, Jan 2, 2026. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom, We're Creating an Economically Viable Cloud Service Provider Ecosystem for Our Customers, Apr 22, 2026. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom KB 313548, Counting Cores for VMware Cloud Foundation and vSphere Foundation and TiBs for vSAN. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom KB 399823, VMware ESXi 8.0 Update 3e now available as a Free Hypervisor. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom KB 415405, End of General Support for vSphere 7.0. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom TechDocs, VMware ESXi 8.0 Update 3e Release Notes. Accessed November 2026.
- General Court of the European Union, Order of the President of the Sixth Chamber, 21 October 2026, Case T-503/25, CISPE v Commission (ECLI:EU:T:2026:697). Accessed November 2026.
- CISPE, Broadcom's brutal contract termination and imposition of prohibitive new licensing terms will decimate Europe's Cloud Infrastructure, Mar 19, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
- CISPE, Broadcom's response to market outrage solves nothing, Apr 22, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
- CISPE, CISPE Takes European Commission to Court to Annul Approval of Broadcom's Acquisition of VMware, Jul 24, 2025. Accessed November 2026.
- CISPE, CISPE Files Competition Complaint Against Broadcom, Urges Immediate EU Action, Mar 19, 2026. Accessed November 2026.
- CISPE, EU General Court finds for CISPE, Nov 2, 2026. Accessed November 2026.
- Broadcom Inc. 10-Q and 10-K filings, fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2026 (SEC EDGAR, CIK 1730168), including the 10-Q for the quarter ended Aug 2, 2026 and the 10-Q for the quarter ended February 4, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
- VMware Inc. (now VMware LLC) 10-Q and 10-K filings, 2022 to 2023 (SEC EDGAR, CIK 1124610). Accessed November 2026.
Research library
More original data reports from The Uptime Report. Every report includes its methodology and a free CSV download. Browse all research
Threats and breaches
- AT&T Data Breach Settlement Payout Date
AT&T payout status, tiers, incident history - Microsoft Data Breach History
Microsoft incidents by type, 2020 to 2026 - IC3 Report 2025
IC3 losses, crime types, states per capita - AI Incidents Statistics 2026
AI incidents by year, harm type, company - Cyber Attacks 2026
Every 2026 cyber attack, primary-sourced - WordPress Vulnerabilities
WordPress plugin, theme and core CVEs - Hypervisor Vulnerabilities
Hypervisor CVEs vs exploitation - DMARC Adoption Statistics 2026
DMARC enforcement, 15,000 domains - RMM Vulnerabilities and Remote Access Flaws
RMM and remote access flaws in KEV - Identity Theft Statistics 2026
ID theft per 100K by state and type - Scam Statistics 2026
FTC fraud losses by channel and age - VPN Vulnerabilities by Vendor
VPN gateway KEV and CVEs by vendor - MFA Statistics 2026
MFA methods across 2,571 services - Password Statistics 2026
12,674 passwords tested against HIBP - Ransomware Groups 2026
Most active ransomware groups, ranked - Ransomware Statistics 2026
Leak-site victims by month since 2021 - Malicious npm Packages
Malicious npm packages, day by day - Cybersecurity Statistics 2026
70 sourced stats, every number traced - Zero-Day Statistics
Every tracked zero-day since 2014 - Phishing Statistics 2026
Four phishing measures, one evidence board - Patch Tuesday Statistics 2026
Every Microsoft CVE since 2021 - Disaster Declarations by State
FEMA data for continuity planning - Data Breach Statistics 2026
980 breaches in Have I Been Pwned - Ransomware Initial Access Vectors
CISA advisories coded by entry technique - CVE Statistics 2026
Vulnerabilities published per year, NIST NVD - How Long Do Companies Take to Report a Data Breach?
1,675 Washington notices - Known Exploited Vulnerabilities
The CISA KEV catalog analyzed - Healthcare Data Breach Report 2026
HHS OCR breach portal scorecard - Ransomware Reported to the FBI
Five-year IC3 trend - ConnectWise ScreenConnect Vulnerabilities
ScreenConnect CVEs dated, with version lookup - SonicWall Vulnerabilities 2026
SonicWall CVEs by product line and KEV year - Dental Practice Data Breaches 2026
Every 2026 dental breach on the HHS portal - Apple Zero Days 2026 List
Every Apple-flagged CVE, with KEV dates - Android Zero Days 2026
Android flags by layer, OEM patch lag - Auto Dealership Data Breach 2026 Tracker
Dealer and vendor breaches by state filing - Law Firm Data Breaches 2026
Every law firm AG notice, sized and dated - Accounting Firm Data Breach 2026
CPA breach notices against the tax calendar - Bank DMARC Adoption 2026
DMARC at 4,118 US banks, by size - MSP Email Security
MSP DMARC and SPF, 1,430 domains - Credit Union Cybersecurity Statistics 2026
55% of credit unions skip DMARC - Citrix NetScaler Vulnerabilities 2026
48 NetScaler CVEs, 6 exploited, build checker - Fortinet Vulnerabilities 2026
Every 2026 Fortinet CVE, by product - Okta Vulnerabilities
Okta CVEs and incidents, two ledgers - Veeam Vulnerabilities
Veeam CVEs, fixed builds, KEV flags
Infrastructure and uptime
- Data Centers Using Nuclear Power
Every US nuclear deal, by NRC stage - Claude Outage History
934 Claude incidents by model and hour - AMD vs Nvidia Market Share Over Time
AMD vs Nvidia share: Steam and SEC filings - iPhone Market Share by Country 2026
iPhone share in every country - Android Market Share by Version 2026
Android versions and patch status - OpenAI Outage History
1,051 OpenAI incidents, causes coded - Data Center Construction Spending 2026
Data center build spending, Census monthly - Microsoft End of Support 2026
Every 2026 Microsoft support cutoff - Fiber Internet Availability by State 2026
Fiber by state, build pace, top providers - 5G Coverage Map 2026
5G by state and carrier, FCC data - Cell Phone Outage History
FCC outages, DIRS cell sites, 911 fines - Mac Market Share 2026
Mac desktop share by country and version - Browser Market Share 2026
Browser share since 2009, by platform - Microsoft 365 Market Share 2026
Who runs email: Microsoft vs Google - CrowdStrike Outage
July 19, 2024 outage, minute by minute - Data Center Electricity Prices 2026
Power prices vs data center load, by state - Average Internet Bill 2026
Home internet prices by speed and state - Search Engine Market Share 2026
Search share since 2009, by country - ChatGPT Market Share 2026
AI chatbot referral share, every tracker - Google Cloud Outage History
Google Cloud incidents by product, 2013 on - Azure Outage History
Every Azure PIR, coded by root cause - Data Center Water Usage 2026
Water by site, company and drought - AI Energy Consumption 2026
Big Tech electricity vs US demand - SSD Prices 2026
NAND price cycle from makers’ filings - RAM Prices 2026
DRAM prices from producers’ filings - Domain Name Statistics 2026
Domains by TLD, renewals, registrars - Linux Market Share 2026
Linux desktop share, every headline traced - GitHub Outages
GitHub incidents by month since 2020 - Cloudflare Outage History
Every Cloudflare outage post-mortem - Starlink Statistics 2026
Satellites, subscribers, coverage, outages - Internet Access Statistics 2026
Home internet gaps by state and group - SQL Server End of Life
SQL Server support countdown + CVEs - Windows 11 Market Share 2026
Windows 10 vs 11 share by country - Cloud Computing Statistics 2026
Hyperscaler revenue and capex, SEC data - AWS Outage History
Every AWS Post-Event Summary since 2011 - Data Centers by State 2026
Sites, jobs, power for every state - Data Center Statistics 2026
Data center power, spending, jobs - 99.9% Uptime
Uptime calculator and 35 real SLAs - Power Outage Statistics by State
Outage hours by state, EIA data - Cost of Downtime
Revenue per hour for 3,001 public companies - Windows Server End of Life
Support dates and CVEs per server version - SQL Server 2016 ESU Cost
ESU cost calculator, every formula - Slack Outage History
1,459 Slack entries, SLA history, ledger - Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 in US Schools
Google vs Microsoft in 10,591 districts - Block GPTBot
AI crawler blocks across top 10k sites - security.txt Adoption 2026
Who publishes a valid security.txt - Government Email Security 2026
.gov DMARC: local 40% vs federal 88% - Government Website Security 2026
.gov web security scored by state - vSphere 8 End of Support
vSphere 8 dates, exploited flaws by version - Office 2019 End of Life
Office 2019 EOL: who still gets patches - Zoom Outage History
Every Zoom incident since 2015
Regulation and disclosure
- Are Ransomware Payments Illegal? Law by Jurisdiction
Who may pay a ransom, by jurisdiction - HIPAA Security Rule Changes 2026
Security Rule status: current vs proposed - FTC Safeguards Rule Breach Notification
500-consumer, 30-day FTC breach duty - Data Center Moratorium by State 2026
Moratoria and bans in every state - State Privacy Laws 2026
23 state privacy laws, compared - State AI Laws 2026
131 state AI laws, dates and penalties - FedRAMP Statistics 2026
FedRAMP authorizations, GSA data - Item 1C Cybersecurity Disclosures
What 600 10-Ks say in Item 1C - CMMC Certification Statistics 2026
CMMC demand vs assessor capacity - Data Brokers List 2026
728 brokers across three state registries - SEC Cybersecurity Incident Disclosures
Every 8-K Item 1.05 filing - HIPAA Enforcement Tracker
Every OCR penalty and settlement - CMMC Level 2 Assessment Cost
CMMC Level 2 cost estimator, DoD figures - Safe Harbor Cybersecurity Laws by State
10 states, 11 laws, framework grid
Workforce and pay
- Intel Layoff Tracker
Every Intel WARN notice, by site and date - Amazon Layoffs by State
Amazon WARN notices, state by state - Oracle Layoffs by State
Oracle WARN notices and restructuring cost - Cloud Architect vs Cloud Engineer Salary
Architect vs engineer pay, H-1B filings - Entry Level DevOps Engineer Salary
Entry level DevOps pay, H-1B filings - Microsoft Layoff History Timeline
Every round dated, 2009 to 2026 - Google Layoffs by Year
Notices, headcount, severance by year - AI Engineer vs ML Engineer Salary
AI vs ML engineer pay, from H-1B filings - Data Engineer Salary by Experience
Data engineer pay by DOL wage level - Most Popular Programming Languages 2026
Language ranks by country, GitHub data - Computer Science Graduates Per Year
CS degrees per year, IPEDS 2011 to 2024 - Data Scientist Salary 2026
Data scientist pay ladder and metros, BLS - Web Developer Salary 2026
Web dev vs software pay by state, BLS - AI at Work Statistics 2026
Worker AI use: ever, weekly, daily, by job - Network Engineer Salary 2026
Network engineer vs admin pay, BLS - IT Manager Salary 2026
IT manager pay by industry, BLS OEWS - Software Engineer Salary 2026
Developer pay by metro, BLS OEWS - H-1B Statistics 2026
H-1B lottery, employers, and wages - AI Layoffs 2026
AI-blamed job cuts, sourced to filings - Help Desk Salary 2026
Help desk hourly pay, BLS OEWS - Cybersecurity Salary 2026
Security pay percentiles, BLS OEWS - Women in Tech Statistics 2026
Women’s share of tech jobs since 2011 - IT Unemployment Rate 2026
Tech vs national jobless rate, monthly - Tech Job Postings 2026
Tech postings vs 2020, by role and country - Tech Layoffs 2026
Tech layoffs from state WARN notices - Remote Work Statistics 2026
Telework by job, industry, and state - Highest Paying Cities for IT Jobs 2026
Metro pay by role, BLS OEWS - The Tech Job Market in 2026
Openings, quits, hires, layoffs - IT Salaries by State 2026
Pay matrix for four IT roles - IT and Cybersecurity Jobs Outlook 2026
BLS employment projections - Salesforce Layoffs by State
Salesforce WARN notices, state by state - Dell Layoffs by Year
Headcount, severance, notices by year - IBM Layoffs by Year
IBM workforce charges against headcount - Meta Layoffs by Year
Meta rounds, sites and headcount by year - IT Director vs IT Manager Salary
IT director vs manager pay, H-1B filings - Penetration Tester Salary Entry Level
Entry level pen test pay, H-1B filings - Site Reliability Engineer vs DevOps Salary
SRE vs DevOps pay, H-1B filings - Solutions Architect vs Software Engineer Salary
Architect vs engineer pay, Level I to IV - Data Engineer vs Data Analyst Salary
Data engineer vs analyst pay, H-1B ledger - Network Engineer vs System Administrator Salary
Network engineer vs sysadmin pay by state - Security Analyst vs Security Engineer Salary
Analyst vs engineer pay, step by step - Cloud Engineer vs DevOps Engineer Salary
Cloud vs DevOps pay by metro, H-1B - Cisco Layoffs by Year
Cisco cuts by year: charges vs staff
MSP market and spending
- AI Capex 2026
Big Tech capex vs cash flow, SEC data - Cybersecurity Budget 2027
Federal and CISA cyber budgets, benchmarks - Microsoft 365 Price Increase 2026
Every M365 price change, vs inflation - Computer Prices 2026
Computer price indexes and HS 8471 imports - MSP Market Size 2026
Managed services market, built from Census - Small Business AI Adoption 2026
AI use by firm size, sector, state, Census - Cyber Insurance Statistics
Cyber insurance market, NAIC 2015-2024 - IT Spending by Industry
IT investment by industry, BEA - IT Services Industry Growth 2026
Census revenue by service industry - IT Hourly Rates 2026
Hourly IT labor rates, GSA contracts - VoIP Statistics 2026
Business VoIP vs landlines, FCC - MSP Industry Statistics 2026
Jobs, wages, and firms, BLS QCEW - Federal IT Spending 2026
IT services contracts, USAspending - IT Services Firms by State
Census business patterns atlas - How Much Do MSPs Charge Per User?
Published MSP prices, 1,310 websites
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