Marvell Stock Rally Faces a $170 Wall as AI Chip Bets Run Hot

Marvell Stock Rally Faces a $170 Wall as AI Chip Bets Run Hot

NEW YORK, April 27, 2026, 09:01 (EDT)

  • Marvell’s AI-fueled surge has brought the stock right up to—or even past—a handful of new Wall Street price targets.
  • The bull case has been getting a boost from new optical and custom-chip deals, though the rally looks increasingly stretched.
  • Investors are eyeing whether demand tied to Nvidia, Amazon, and possibly Google projects can support the current valuation.

Marvell Technology’s AI-fueled surge is hitting resistance as B. Riley lifted its price target to $156 from $135—still under Friday’s closing print. Shares finished April 24 at $164.31 and were quoted at $160.88 ahead of Monday’s session, according to StockAnalysis data.

This is in focus now as Marvell shifts from a niche chip player into a top pick for Wall Street traders looking for exposure to custom AI chips and optical networking—the backbone hardware for moving data at speed through dense AI data centers. Application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, are custom-built for big jobs like AI inference, not everyday general use.

The stock now faces a changed landscape. Nvidia still dominates AI computing, Broadcom pushes hard in custom chips, and Marvell is chasing growth in wiring, switching, and optical tech that ties these systems together. On March 31, Marvell and Nvidia announced they would collaborate via Nvidia’s NVLink Fusion platform. Nvidia also put $2 billion into Marvell.

B. Riley reiterated its Buy on Marvell in a call dated April 13, which resurfaced in Monday’s reports and pointed to solid March supply-chain reads from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. as a tailwind for the tech sector. StockAnalysis shows analyst Craig Ellis at B. Riley bumping his price target up to $156, up from $135.

Some analysts aren’t holding back—RBC Capital Markets just bumped its target to $170 from $115, sticking with its Outperform call. Oppenheimer also moved up, now at $170 from $150, after sitting down with Marvell execs and pointing to AI data-center networking and ASIC momentum. But across 32 analysts tracked by StockAnalysis, the average price target stands at $120.28, which comes in under the current market level.

Caution isn’t absent. One Seeking Alpha contributor cut Marvell to Hold, flagging a 138% jump since their previous piece and pegging fair value at $132. With shares trading roughly 20% over that, the author pointed to stretched pricing.

Chris Versace at TheStreet Pro decided it was time to cash in some chips after a big run, telling readers the portfolio will unload 415 Marvell shares at or around $170. That’s after the stock soared more than 125% over eight weeks. Versace pointed to a relative strength index close to 90—a level that often signals things have gotten too hot. “Letting our winners run” only goes so far, he said, and it was time for some discipline. Time to “ring the register,” as Versace put it. TheStreet Pro

Investors didn’t miss the signal in Marvell’s results. The company put up a record $8.195 billion in fiscal 2026 revenue—a 42% jump—with CEO Matt Murphy crediting “robust AI demand” for the surge. Looking ahead, Marvell is projecting first-quarter revenue of $2.4 billion, give or take 5%. Marvell Technology, Inc.

Marvell has been snapping up tech to address data crunches. On April 22, the company announced its purchase of Polariton Technologies, a Swiss firm specializing in high-speed, low-power silicon photonics devices — these components push data with light, lowering energy consumption and ramping up speed. Details on the price weren’t released. Sandeep Bharathi, who runs Marvell’s data-center group, said the move expands the company’s optical roadmap with “differentiated modulation technology.” Marvell Technology, Inc.

Nvidia’s tie-up added fresh momentum to the story. “The inference inflection has arrived,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang declared. Marvell’s Murphy pointed to the deepening relationship as evidence of just how critical “high-speed connectivity, optical interconnect and accelerated infrastructure” have become in building out AI at scale. Marvell Technology, Inc.

A fresh jolt from reports of Google negotiations sent Marvell shares higher. As Investopedia noted, The Information reported Marvell is in discussions with Alphabet’s Google about building custom AI chips—a potential threat to Nvidia’s dominance in AI hardware, and also to Broadcom’s turf in custom silicon. Both Google and Marvell kept quiet when Investopedia reached out for comment.

Amazon’s role came into sharper focus after Reuters last week said the company plans to invest as much as $25 billion in Anthropic. The AI firm, for its part, has agreed to pour more than $100 billion over the next decade into Amazon’s cloud tech, a deal that includes Trainium chips. “Reflects the progress we’ve made” on custom silicon, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said, pointing to Anthropic’s adoption of Trainium. Reuters

Plenty of optimism is already baked into the stock, and that’s a risk. In its results release, Marvell flagged its reliance on a handful of big customers, pointed out that those clients might just build in-house or switch suppliers, and acknowledged that acquisitions might fall short of expectations. Should cloud spending falter, Google deals fail to turn into actual sales, or optical demand drag out, the shares could lose steam in a hurry.

Marvell’s AI infrastructure exposure isn’t really in question — that’s a given. The real debate now: can that exposure ramp up quickly enough to justify a share price already bumping up against even the loftiest Wall Street estimates?

Khadija Saeed

Khadija Saeed is a financial markets reporter at TS2.tech. Her coverage ranges from stocks and technology to emerging industries and developments across global markets. She studied economics and finance at the London School of Economics and worked in market research before becoming a financial journalist. Follow Khadija Saeed on Google News.

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