Broadcom more than tripled its profit as demand for the company's artificial-intelligence chips and networking technology propelled revenue growth in the third quarter.

The semiconductor and software company on Wednesday reported a profit of $13.09 billion, or $2.68 a share, in the quarter ended Aug. 2. That compares with a profit of $4.14 billion, or 85 cents a share, a year earlier.

Stripping out certain one-time items, adjusted earnings were $3.32 a share. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting $3.22.

Revenue grew to $29.59 billion from $15.95 billion, beating analyst expectations for $29.24 billion.

Semiconductor revenue from AI more than tripled to $16.7 billion, and is expected to continue growing to $21.7 billion in the current fourth quarter, Chief Executive Hock Tan said. "Demand for our custom AI accelerators and networking continues to be very strong," he said.

The company projected total revenue in the fourth quarter to grow to $34.8 billion. Analysts had been expecting $34.68 billion.

Shares fell 3.6% to $353.97 in after-hours trading on Wednesday. The stock closed down 0.7% at $367.24, but has risen 6.1% this year.