Marvell Technology
MRVL · NasdaqReinvented itself from a hard-drive-chip company into the design partner behind AWS Trainium and Microsoft's Maia silicon.
Who they are
Marvell spent its first two decades as a storage-chip company, founded in 1995 by Dr. Sehat Sutardja, Weili Dai, and Pantas Sutardja and built into a dominant supplier of hard-disk and SSD controllers. That business stagnated by the mid-2010s alongside internal governance problems, and in 2016 Matt Murphy arrived as CEO to run what's now called the "New Marvell": wind down the low-margin consumer businesses, and rebuild around custom silicon and high-speed data center connectivity instead.
What they do
Murphy's rebuild ran through three deliberate acquisitions: Cavium in 2018 ($6 billion, for networking and Arm server chip expertise), Avera Semiconductor in 2019 (bought out of GlobalFoundries, the deal that actually gave Marvell its custom ASIC design capability), and Inphi in 2021 ($10 billion, for the optical interconnect technology that now moves data between racks in every hyperscaler AI cluster). The result is a company that designs custom AI accelerators for hyperscalers who want an alternative to Broadcom — most visibly AWS's Trainium chips and Microsoft's Maia silicon — while also selling the optical DSPs that connect those chips together at scale. Marvell's Data Center segment now accounts for more than 70% of total company revenue.
How Marvell makes money
Custom silicon design revenue, plus product sales of its optical and networking chips once a design ships. Custom AI ASIC revenue doubled in fiscal 2026 to $1.5 billion, and Murphy has guided to 20%-plus growth in FY2027 and roughly a doubling again by FY2028, with more than 50 design projects underway across 10-plus customers. In 2026 Marvell also struck a partnership with Nvidia around NVLink Fusion, connecting its custom silicon and optical interconnect technology directly into Nvidia's AI infrastructure ecosystem — a notable move for a company whose main pitch is often "the alternative to Nvidia."
The bigger trend
Marvell and Broadcom now effectively run a duopoly in high-end custom AI silicon design, and the two companies play different roles in hyperscalers' strategies: Broadcom has the deeper bench and the marquee Google TPU relationship, while Marvell is often the partner hyperscalers pick specifically because it isn't Broadcom — a structural hedge that keeps Marvell relevant even as Broadcom's share keeps climbing. Some analysts remain openly skeptical that any single custom-ASIC relationship has durable "gravity," arguing hyperscalers could shift designs between Broadcom, Marvell, and in-house teams more easily than the revenue backlogs suggest.
Whether Marvell's FY2027 20%-plus custom-silicon growth guidance holds up against a much larger, faster-growing Broadcom pulling ahead in the same customer conversations. Also watch whether the rumored Microsoft Maia relationship converts from "design win" to disclosed, recurring revenue the way AWS Trainium already has — Marvell has been notably less specific about Maia than about its AWS work.
Related companies
Frequently asked questions
Both design custom AI chips for hyperscalers, but Broadcom holds the larger share of the market (estimated above 70%) and the marquee Google TPU relationship, while Marvell is generally seen as the more flexible, pure-play partner hyperscalers pick when they want a second source, most visibly for AWS Trainium and Microsoft's Maia silicon.
Marvell spent its first two decades as a hard-drive and storage-chip company. After Matt Murphy became CEO in 2016, it exited low-margin consumer businesses and acquired Cavium, Avera Semiconductor, and Inphi, building the custom-silicon design and optical interconnect capability it uses today.
Marvell's custom AI ASIC revenue doubled in fiscal 2026 to $1.5 billion, with CEO Matt Murphy guiding to more than 20% growth in fiscal 2027 and roughly a doubling again by fiscal 2028.
This page describes public value-chain positioning for informational purposes only. It is not investment advice, and inclusion here is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Figures reflect public reporting as of mid-2026 and may have changed since.