Marvell Technology (MRVL) Stock Soars on Celestial AI Deal and Bullish Data Center Outlook

Marvell Technology (MRVL) Stock Soars on Celestial AI Deal and Bullish Data Center Outlook

Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRVL) is ripping higher on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, after the chip designer paired record quarterly results with a bold $3.25 billion acquisition of Celestial AI and a sharply upgraded forecast for its AI data center business. [1]

As of late-morning U.S. trading, Marvell shares were changing hands in the high‑$90s, up around 5%–6% on the day, after earlier touching above $100. That builds on an after‑hours surge of roughly 14% following Tuesday’s earnings call and deal announcement. [2] The stock has whipsawed in 2025—down mid‑teens year‑to‑date before this move—but is now bouncing back toward the upper half of its 52‑week range of about $47 to $127. [3]

Below is a detailed breakdown of today’s MRVL stock news, forecasts, and analysis as of December 3, 2025, suitable for readers following Google News and Discover.


Marvell Technology stock today: MRVL jumps back toward $100

Multiple real‑time data providers show Marvell trading just under the $100 mark on Wednesday:

  • StockAnalysis reports MRVL at $97.42, up 4.88% intraday at 11:46 a.m. ET. [4]
  • Investing.com similarly shows the stock near $97.4, up almost 5%, with volume above 30 million shares. [5]
  • Earlier in the session, intraday readings from trading‑oriented outlets pegged MRVL around $101, with a day high above $103. [6]

According to Reuters, the rally has taken Marvell to about a nine‑month high, with shares up roughly 9% at one point and adding over $6 billion to its market value if gains hold. [7]

Even after the rebound, commentary from traders notes MRVL is still down mid‑teens percentage year‑to‑date, underscoring how volatile the name has been during the AI‑chip spending cycle. [8]

Valuation is firmly in “growth stock” territory: Reuters cites a 12‑month forward P/E near 27x, below Broadcom’s upper‑30s multiple but still well above the broader market. [9]


Q3 FY2026: Record results powered by AI data centers

The immediate catalyst for today’s surge is Marvell’s third quarter of fiscal 2026 (reported December 2), which came in ahead of expectations and highlighted just how central AI has become to the business. [10]

Key numbers from the official earnings release and post‑mortem analysis:

  • Net revenue:$2.075 billion, a 37% year‑over‑year increase, and slightly above management’s guidance midpoint. [11]
  • Non‑GAAP EPS:$0.76, topping consensus estimates around $0.74. [12]
  • GAAP EPS: Inflated to $2.20 by a large gain on the sale of the automotive ethernet business. [13]
  • Data center revenue: About $1.52 billion, up 38% year‑on‑year, and slightly above Wall Street expectations. [14]

CEO Matt Murphy described the quarter as driven by “strong demand for our data center products”, and the numbers back him up: data center now dominates the top line, with GuruFocus noting that interconnect products alone account for roughly half of data center revenue. [15]

Marvell also closed the sale of its automotive ethernet business to Infineon for $2.5 billion, a divestiture management frames as freeing up capital and focus for higher‑growth AI infrastructure opportunities. [16]

Guidance points to a strong finish to the year

For the fourth quarter of FY2026, Marvell guided to: [17]

  • Revenue: Around $2.2 billion, plus or minus 5%
  • Non‑GAAP EPS: About $0.79, plus or minus $0.05

Management also told investors they expect full‑year revenue growth to exceed 40%, with the data center segment remaining the primary engine. [18]

For many analysts, that combination—record results, a solid Q4 guide, and a clearly accelerating AI roadmap—set the stage for today’s positive rerating.


Inside the Celestial AI deal: a $3.25 billion bet on photonics

The other big headline is Marvell’s agreement to acquire Celestial AI, a privately held semiconductor startup focused on photonic fabric technology for next‑generation AI data centers.

Deal structure and strategic rationale

  • Purchase price: About $3.25 billion in a mix of cash and stock. [19]
    • Roughly $1 billion in cash and 27.2 million Marvell shares valued at around $2.25 billion, according to deal breakdowns. [20]
  • Closing timeline: Expected to complete in early calendar 2026 (Marvell’s Q1 FY2027). [21]
  • Amazon’s role: As part of the transaction, Marvell granted Amazon a warrant to buy up to about $90 million of MRVL stock (around 1 million shares), exercisable through 2030 based on Amazon’s purchases of photonic products. [22]

Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric uses light instead of electrical signals to shuttle data between AI chips and memory, targeting the bandwidth and energy bottlenecks in huge AI clusters. Reuters notes that Marvell sees this technology as unlocking a new $10 billion addressable market in AI datacenter infrastructure. [23]

Marvell expects Celestial to contribute: [24]

  • About $500 million in annualized revenue by late FY2028
  • Roughly $1 billion in annualized revenue by FY2029

Competitive positioning: taking on Broadcom and Nvidia

Reuters and CoinCentral both frame the acquisition as a way for Marvell to compete more directly with Broadcom and Nvidia in next‑gen AI networking and custom accelerators, particularly in co‑packaged optics (CPO) and advanced optical interconnects. [25]

TD Cowen analysts called the combination of Celestial’s photonics and Marvell’s custom chip franchise a meaningful boost to its optical roadmap, especially with Amazon’s endorsement via the warrant. [26]

Taken together with the earlier auto‑ethernet divestiture, Marvell is increasingly a pure‑play AI infrastructure story, levered to hyperscale cloud spending on data center networking and custom AI silicon. [27]


How Wall Street is reacting: wave of price target hikes

Today’s news triggered a rapid repricing by analysts across Wall Street, with a flurry of price target increases focused on Marvell’s improved AI outlook.

Fresh December 3, 2025 moves

According to StockAnalysis and GuruFocus, as well as analyst‑note roundups: [28]

  • Benchmark: Raised its MRVL price target from $95 to $130 and reiterated a Buy rating, implying roughly 37% upside from prices in the low‑$90s before the spike. [29]
  • Cantor Fitzgerald: Kept a Neutral rating but boosted its target from $90 to $110, citing stronger long‑term revenue and EPS potential, including a 2027 revenue estimate of $12.5B and EPS of $4.50. [30]
  • Stifel: Lifted its target from $95 to $114 with a Strong Buy stance. [31]
  • Susquehanna: Raised from $100 to $120, rating Buy. [32]
  • J.P. Morgan: Hiked its target from $120 to $130, keeping a Buy/Overweight rating. [33]
  • KeyBanc: Took its target up to $130 from $90, also with a Buy recommendation. [34]
  • Deutsche Bank: Increased its target from $90 to $125, rated Strong Buy. [35]

Investing.com also notes that Evercore ISI lifted its target to $156, Wolfe Research to $125, and Rosenblatt to $120, all leaning on Marvell’s strengthened AI and data center cycles. [36]

Overall analyst consensus

Across 32 analysts tracked by StockAnalysis: [37]

  • Consensus rating:“Buy”
  • Average 12‑month price target:$103.72
  • Implied upside: Around 6.5% from ~97–98 dollars
  • Target range:$67 (low) to $149 (high)

That spread tells the real story: in aggregate, Wall Street sees modest average upside, but the bull case from the most optimistic firms imagines 50%+ appreciation if Marvell hits its long‑term AI goals.


MRVL stock forecast: what the latest numbers imply

Beyond price targets, analysts are also revising fundamental forecasts for Marvell as the AI cycle ramps.

StockAnalysis aggregates Street estimates showing: [38]

  • Revenue this fiscal year: About $8.32B, up 44% from roughly $5.77B last year.
  • Revenue next year: Around $9.66B, implying 16% growth on top of that.
  • EPS this year: Roughly $2.87, swinging from a prior GAAP loss.
  • EPS next year: Around $3.44, up nearly 20% year‑over‑year.

GuruFocus, citing management commentary and analyst models, highlights a long‑term data center growth path where: [39]

  • FY2026 data center revenue could grow around 45%
  • FY2027: roughly 25% growth
  • FY2028: as high as 40% growth, helped by Celestial‑driven optical products

Meanwhile, Cantor’s revised projections envision 2027 revenue of about $12.5B and the potential for EPS to approach $5.00, implying a scenario where MRVL could justify a triple‑digit share price if multiples hold. [40]

Realistically, these are scenarios, not guarantees. They depend on:

  • Hyperscalers continuing to spend aggressively on AI infrastructure
  • Marvell successfully integrating Celestial AI and executing its optical roadmap
  • Competitive pressures from Nvidia, Broadcom, and others not compressing margins too severely

Still, the direction of travel in the numbers is clear: Street models are moving up, not down.


What’s driving the bull case on Marvell?

Putting the news, forecasts, and commentary together, today’s bull case for MRVL revolves around three main themes.

1. A pure‑play AI infrastructure lever

Marvell has systematically repositioned itself away from slower‑growth markets like automotive ethernet and toward data center AI, optical interconnects, and custom accelerators. [41]

With data center already more than two‑thirds of revenue and still growing at high double‑digit rates, bullish analysts see Marvell as one of the cleaner liquid plays on hyperscaler AI capex outside of the megacap GPU vendors.

2. Differentiated photonics and custom silicon

Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric is designed to address the complexity of scaling AI superclusters, where bandwidth, latency, and power consumption become critical bottlenecks. Combined with Marvell’s existing switching, PAM‑4 DSPs, and custom ASICs, the acquisition strengthens its ability to deliver:

  • Co‑packaged optics for next‑gen AI accelerators
  • High‑speed optical links inside and between racks
  • Tailored interconnect solutions for cloud giants like Amazon and Microsoft [42]

If Marvell can truly become a “silicon photonics powerhouse,” as Murphy described in post‑earnings commentary, it could own a critical layer of future AI data centers. [43]

3. Stronger visibility via hyperscaler partnerships

Reports from Reuters, CoinCentral, and trader‑focused coverage all highlight deepening partnerships with major cloud providers, including Amazon (through the warrant) and Microsoft (via LiquidSecurity hardware security modules for European cloud security services). [44]

These relationships give Marvell:

  • Better multi‑year visibility into AI infrastructure roadmaps
  • Co‑development opportunities that can lock in repeat custom chip orders
  • A credible path to the $10B+ revenue potential management is now discussing for next fiscal year and beyond [45]

The bear case: what could go wrong for MRVL?

Despite the excitement, several risk factors are clear in today’s analysis pieces.

  1. Execution and integration risk
    • Celestial AI is a complex, bleeding‑edge technology asset. Integrating its team, products, and roadmap into Marvell while hitting aggressive revenue milestones (e.g., $500M by late FY2028, $1B by FY2029) will not be trivial. [46]
  2. Competitive pressure
    • Broadcom and Nvidia are formidable rivals in custom AI silicon, networking, and optics. If they out‑innovate or aggressively price, Marvell’s margins and share gains could disappoint. [47]
  3. Cyclical AI spending
    • The bullish forecasts assume hyperscalers continue to ramp AI capex. If macro conditions tighten, or AI workloads fail to monetize as expected, those capex plans could slow, hitting Marvell’s growth trajectory. [48]
  4. Valuation risk
    • Even after the recent pullback, MRVL’s forward P/E in the high‑20s bakes in a lot of optimism. If growth decelerates or sentiment toward AI infrastructure cools, the multiple could compress. [49]
  5. Model dispersion
    • While the average price target is around $104, some models still see downside, and consensus upside is mid‑single digits. That suggests not every analyst is convinced Marvell can fully deliver on its AI roadmap, at least at today’s price. [50]

Is Marvell stock a buy after the Celestial AI pop?

Whether MRVL is attractive after this run‑up depends heavily on your risk tolerance and time horizon.

  • Growth‑oriented investors who believe in a multi‑year AI infrastructure boom may view Marvell as a levered compounder, especially if they accept higher volatility and are comfortable with premium valuations.
  • Value‑focused or more conservative investors might see better entry points if the stock cools off or if the market demands more proof that Celestial AI integration is on track.

Crucially, even today’s bullish analyst notes emphasize that execution over the next 2–3 years will matter more than one blowout quarter or a single acquisition headline. [51]


Bottom line

On December 3, 2025, Marvell Technology has firmly recast itself as an AI infrastructure leader:

  • Record Q3 results, with data center revenue up nearly 40%
  • A $3.25B Celestial AI acquisition that deepens its optical and photonics capabilities
  • A sharply upgraded outlook, including expectations for 25%+ data center growth next year and revenue approaching $10B
  • And a wave of analyst upgrades and price target hikes, with several top firms now looking for triple‑digit share prices over the next 12–18 months

At the same time, MRVL is now priced as a high‑expectations AI play, with investors betting that management can execute flawlessly amid stiff competition and a still‑evolving AI spending cycle.

This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Always do your own research and consider speaking with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.

References

1. investor.marvell.com, 2. stockanalysis.com, 3. www.reuters.com, 4. stockanalysis.com, 5. www.investing.com, 6. www.timothysykes.com, 7. www.reuters.com, 8. www.reuters.com, 9. www.reuters.com, 10. investor.marvell.com, 11. investor.marvell.com, 12. coincentral.com, 13. investor.marvell.com, 14. www.gurufocus.com, 15. investor.marvell.com, 16. investor.marvell.com, 17. investor.marvell.com, 18. investor.marvell.com, 19. www.reuters.com, 20. coincentral.com, 21. coincentral.com, 22. www.reuters.com, 23. www.reuters.com, 24. www.reuters.com, 25. www.reuters.com, 26. www.reuters.com, 27. investor.marvell.com, 28. stockanalysis.com, 29. www.gurufocus.com, 30. www.investing.com, 31. stockanalysis.com, 32. stockanalysis.com, 33. stockanalysis.com, 34. stockanalysis.com, 35. stockanalysis.com, 36. www.investing.com, 37. stockanalysis.com, 38. stockanalysis.com, 39. www.gurufocus.com, 40. www.investing.com, 41. investor.marvell.com, 42. www.reuters.com, 43. coincentral.com, 44. www.reuters.com, 45. www.reuters.com, 46. www.reuters.com, 47. www.reuters.com, 48. mynews13.com, 49. www.reuters.com, 50. stockanalysis.com, 51. www.investing.com

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