NEW YORK, December 30, 2025, 18:45 ET — After-hours
- Marvell shares were up about 1.1% at $86.76 in after-hours trading.
- The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended slightly lower after Fed minutes, with chip ETFs down modestly.
- Investors are watching the Jan. 6 CES fireside chat with CEO Matt Murphy and the closing timetable for the Celestial AI acquisition.
Marvell Technology, Inc. shares were up about 1.1% at $86.76 in after-hours trading on Tuesday. The stock traded between $85.58 and $88.07 during the session. About 9.6 million shares changed hands.
The move came as Wall Street finished slightly lower in choppy, holiday-thin trade after the Federal Reserve released minutes from its December meeting. The S&P 500 slipped 0.14% and the Nasdaq fell 0.23%. 1
That matters for Marvell because shifts in rate expectations can swing valuations across AI-linked semiconductors, where investors pay up for growth that arrives later. Marvell also has a near-term readout on strategy when Chief Executive Matt Murphy speaks at a JP Morgan CES fireside chat on Jan. 6, its investor-relations calendar shows. 2
Marvell has been watched since Dec. 2, when the Santa Clara, California-based company said it would buy photonics startup Celestial AI for about $3.25 billion and forecast roughly $10 billion in revenue for its next fiscal year. Marvell and rival Broadcom help cloud companies design custom data-center chips, and the company said data-center revenue was expected to rise about 25% while custom-chip revenue would grow about 20%. It also issued a warrant to Amazon tied to photonic product purchases through 2030 that could allow Amazon to buy up to about $90 million of Marvell stock at an exercise price around $87. 3
A regulatory filing said the upfront consideration includes about $1 billion in cash and about 27.2 million Marvell shares, with up to an additional 27.2 million shares tied to revenue milestones. Marvell expects the transaction to close in the first quarter of calendar 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions. 4
The acquisition targets optical interconnects — connections that use light rather than electrical signals — as chipmakers look to move more data with less power inside AI data centers. In the deal announcement, Amazon Web Services Vice President Dave Brown said “we believe optical interconnects will play an important role in the future of AI infrastructure”. 5
Chip stocks were mixed on Tuesday. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) slipped about 0.1% and VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) fell about 0.3%, while Nvidia was down about 0.3% and Broadcom edged up about 0.2%.
Marvell’s small after-hours gain left it outperforming the broader chip ETFs, putting attention back on company-specific catalysts rather than sector beta. For investors, the question is whether optical links and custom silicon can expand fast enough to justify premium multiples in a rate-sensitive market.
The Jan. 6 appearance is likely to sharpen that debate. Traders will listen for any updated timeline on customer adoption of optical connectivity and any signal that spending is broadening beyond headline AI accelerators into networking and memory-heavy architectures.
In the near term, thin year-end liquidity can exaggerate moves in mid-cap semiconductors. A decisive push above the upper-$80s would test whether buyers are willing to chase the stock into January after a muted close for the Nasdaq.
Marvell’s late bid kept the stock on a firmer footing heading into the final trading day of the year. The next session will show whether the move holds once portfolio rebalancing and macro headlines return to the fore.
