NEW YORK, May 26, 2026, 19:02 (EDT)
Marvell Technology climbed 6.08% to close at $208.26 on Tuesday ahead of its earnings report set for Wednesday, as investors kept buying up chip stocks connected to AI infrastructure.
Marvell reports fiscal Q1 2027 results after the close on May 27, and investors are watching the stock as a gauge for demand in cloud spending on custom chips and fast data-center links. The company said its earnings call will start at 1:45 p.m. Pacific time.
HSBC’s Frank Lee is now backing Marvell, lifting his rating to Buy from Hold and hiking the price target to $300 from $85. Lee said the stock is “Ready to Ride the AI-Networking Super-Cycle.” He pointed to strong optical interconnects and CXL revenue that he thinks the market still undervalues. Optical interconnects use light for fast data movement. CXL is a high-speed connection for processors and memory. TipRanks
Susquehanna’s Christopher Rolland lifted his price target to $230 from $100, pointing to possible “better results/guidance” as demand for Marvell’s Inphi line and custom accelerators gains. TipRanks reported that Citi’s Atif Malik also upped his target, taking it to $215 from $118 just before the numbers. TipRanks
Marvell is sticking to its point that AI needs more than just GPUs. The company said Tuesday that CEO Matt Murphy will give a keynote at COMPUTEX next week, focusing on connectivity as the next choke point for AI. Murphy plans to talk about how moving data between accelerators, servers, racks and entire data centers is the key issue now.
Marvell is telling investors to focus on data centers. In its annual report, Marvell posted data-center revenue of $6.10 billion for fiscal 2026, making up 74% of total revenue—up from 40% two years ago. The company said AI-driven demand for custom chips and electro-optics powered the gains.
Marvell set expectations back in March after posting record fiscal 2026 revenue of $8.195 billion. At the time, Murphy pointed to strong AI demand and said bookings were at a record clip.
Stocks pushed up. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both ended Tuesday at record highs, with the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index adding 5.5% and hitting its own all-time high. Marvell finished up 6%, while Qualcomm gained close to 4.5% on AI-chip deal headlines. Micron surged 19% after UBS raised its target, Reuters reported.
Broadcom climbed 1.9%, while Nvidia fell 0.3%. Both are custom-chip competitors. Nvidia and Marvell said in March that Marvell would join Nvidia’s NVLink Fusion ecosystem. Nvidia also put $2 billion into Marvell. At the time, Jensen Huang said “token generation demand is surging.” Murphy said the move shows the “growing importance of high-speed connectivity.” Marvell Technology, Inc.
But a lot of traders are in this setup, which can go both ways. Options traders are pricing in a 13.6% move either way after earnings, TipRanks said. Marvell’s filing said its top 10 customers made up 82% of fiscal 2026 revenue. If guidance only matches bullish bets or a major cloud buyer pushes out orders, the stock could drop hard.
Marvell is still seen more as an AI data center play than just a networking-chip name. The stock’s next test lands Wednesday, when it needs to show results to back up the move.
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