Marvell stock rises after KeyBanc lift, ships 5M photonic chips

Shares of Marvell Technology rose 8% after KeyBanc raised its price target on the chipmaker to $385 from $260 while maintaining an Overweight rating, and after Marvell said it has shipped more than 5 million coherent photonic integrated circuits for AI data centers. The new target implied about 33% upside from Wednesday’s close of $289.54. Broader strength in semiconductor stocks also supported the gain.

KeyBanc analyst John Vinh increased the firm’s target by 48% after meeting with Marvell management. Vinh wrote that the firm’s outlook on Marvell’s optical-networking business has become more optimistic and estimated the total addressable market for that segment at roughly $30 billion by 2030. He also maintained a positive view on Marvell’s custom AI chip business, noting a “clear line of sight” to about $10 billion in AI chip revenue by 2030, supported by demand from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.

Marvell said it has shipped more than 5 million coherent photonic integrated circuits worldwide through a partnership with Tower Semiconductor. Photonic integrated circuits transmit, process and route data using light instead of electricity. They are widely used in telecommunications and are increasingly adopted in data centers because they support faster networking and can carry larger data flows than copper connections. Marvell supplies digital signal processors that convert electrical signals into light inside optical transceivers.

Marvell has expanded its portfolio through acquisitions and partnerships. The company acquired Celestial AI, an optical-networking firm, for $3.3 billion and interconnect specialist XConn for $540 million. Nvidia invested $2 billion in Marvell under a collaboration that lets customers combine components from both companies to build semi-custom AI infrastructure. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has predicted Marvell could become the “next trillion-dollar company.”

Marvell executives framed the photonics milestone as validation of technical progress and partnerships. Dr. Radha Nagarajan, the company’s senior vice president and chief technology officer for optical engineering, said in a statement: “This milestone demonstrates the strength of our collaboration. As one of our key ecosystem partners, we look forward to continue working with the Tower team to advance next-generation coherent technologies for scale across data center architectures, providing customers with the latest efficient, high-performance photonics technologies to power their advanced AI workloads.”

Marvell’s shares have climbed about 250% year-to-date and roughly 45% in June. The company is set to join the S&P 500 on June 22, replacing Pool Corporation in the benchmark index.