By Maria Armental

Chip-maker Broadcom Inc.'s profit more than doubled in the latest period and revenue rose by a stronger-than-expected 15%, driven by its core business of semiconductor solutions.

Company officials have pointed particularly to higher data center spend in the cloud and telecommunications companies that continue to upgrade their infrastructure and networks.

Chief Executive Hock Tan said in Broadcom's first-quarter earnings call in March that demand was such that Broadcom was virtually 90% booked for 2021.

On Thursday, Broadcom reported $1.49 billion in second-quarter profit, up from $563 million a year earlier. On a per-share basis, profit was $3.30, or $6.62 as adjusted.

Revenue for the quarter ended May 2 rose to $6.61 billion from $5.74 billion a year earlier, ahead of the company's roughly $6.5 billion projection.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected $2.81 a share, or $6.43 a share as adjusted, and $6.51 billion in revenue.

"Due to the strength in demand for semiconductors across our multiple end markets, we delivered 20% year-over-year increase in semiconductor revenue," Mr. Tan said in a statement. "Our third quarter outlook projects this year-over-year growth to sustain, as we continue to see strong demand from service providers and hypercloud," he added.

Broadcom generated about $3.44 billion of free cash flow in the latest period and ended the quarter with $9.52 billion in cash, compared with $9.55 billion in the previous quarter.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-03-21 1644ET