Marvell acquires Celestial AI for up to $5.5 billion to dominate optical AI infrastructure

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Marvell Technology announced a $3.25 billion acquisition of Celestial AI, potentially reaching $5.5 billion with revenue milestones. The deal aims to strengthen Marvell's position in AI infrastructure by integrating Celestial's photonic fabric technology for optical interconnects. The semiconductor stock surged 9% following the announcement and strong Q3 earnings that beat expectations.

Marvell Makes Bold Move in Multi-Billion-Dollar Deal

Marvell Technology has announced plans to acquire Celestial AI in a multi-billion-dollar deal valued at $3.25 billion upfront, with the potential to reach $5.5 billion if specific revenue milestones are achieved

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. The acquisition represents an aggressive strategy for Marvell to secure complementary technology that could position the company more competitively in the booming AI infrastructure market. The deal is expected to close early next year, pending regulatory approval

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Source: Benzinga

Source: Benzinga

The maximum payout of $5.5 billion will be triggered if Celestial AI generates $2 billion in cumulative revenue by the end of fiscal 2029

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. Marvell will pay equity holders up to 27.2 million shares of common stock, valued at up to $2.25 billion, contingent on meeting these revenue milestones based on a 10-day volume-weighted average price

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. The semiconductor stock surged 9% in extended trading following the announcement and strong third-quarter earnings results

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Photonic Fabric Technology Transforms Data Center Connectivity

Celestial AI specializes in developing optical interconnect hardware using what it calls photonic fabric technology, which enables high-performance computers to communicate at unprecedented speeds

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. The startup was valued at $2.5 billion in March during a $250 million funding round, and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan joined its board in January

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. The technology addresses a critical bottleneck in AI computing chips as systems scale beyond single-rack configurations.

Source: ET

Source: ET

Optical connections are becoming essential because advanced AI systems require components that can tie together dozens or hundreds of chips to train and run large language models

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. While many AI chip connections currently use copper wires, newer systems increasingly rely on optical connections because they transfer more data faster and enable physically longer cables

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. Celestial's technology boasts over twice the power efficiency of copper, with low power consumption and strong thermal stability

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Next-Generation AI Deployments Drive Strategic Vision

The first application of Celestial technology will connect systems based on large XPUs, which are custom AI chips typically manufactured by companies investing billions in AI infrastructure

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. Marvell CEO Matt Murphy stated the acquisition "builds on our technology leadership, broadens our addressable market in scale-up connectivity, and accelerates our roadmap to deliver the industry's most complete connectivity platform for AI and cloud customers"

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Marvell plans to integrate Celestial's optical technology directly into custom chips and related components called switches

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. The initial application targets scale-up interconnects delivering 16 terabits per second—ten times the capacity of current systems—while enhancing total bandwidth

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. Amazon Web Services Vice President Dave Brown endorsed the move, stating it will "help further accelerate optical scale-up innovation for next-generation AI deployments"

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Marvell Seeks Competitive Edge Against Broadcom and Nvidia

The acquisition comes as Marvell attempts to close the gap with semiconductor rivals like Broadcom, which have seen significant valuation increases driven by AI excitement

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. Marvell stock is down 18% in 2025, while Broadcom's shares have surged more than 64%

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. The company competes against Broadcom for custom chip and networking businesses, while trying to establish relevance alongside Nvidia in the AI chip market

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Marvell expects Celestial AI to start generating meaningful revenue in the second half of fiscal 2028, reaching a $500 million run rate by year-end and $1 billion by the end of fiscal 2029

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. The company reported third-quarter adjusted earnings of $0.76 per share on $2.08 billion in sales, beating expectations, and projected data center revenue to rise 25% next year

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. Bullish analysts at Oppenheimer raised their target for Marvell to a new Street high of $150 from $115, citing optimism about the acquisition

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Optical Interconnects Address AI Clusters Scaling Challenges

As multi-rack scale-up fabrics demand higher bandwidth, lower latency, and extended reach, interconnects will increasingly shift to all-optical connections

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. Sandeep Bharathi, president of Marvell's Data Centre Group, explained that "by combining our UALink scale-up switch roadmap and Celestial AI's breakthrough optical scale-up interconnect, we will enable customers to build AI systems that scale beyond the limits of copper"

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Source: AIM

Source: AIM

The technology enables AI clusters to be distributed across large geographical areas, addressing the needs of cloud infrastructure providers spending hundreds of billions on AI infrastructure buildouts

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. Silicon photonics technology, which uses light rather than electrical signals, creates speedy links between AI computing chips and memory chips

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. This compact solution allows direct optical connections to XPUs while freeing up space for added high-bandwidth memory

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