Marvell Stock Soars 11% After Bold AI Forecast — Chipmaker Predicts $15 Billion Revenue Boom

Shares of Marvell Technology surged in premarket trading Friday after the semiconductor firm delivered an ambitious long-term forecast fueled by the explosive growth of artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The company projected that revenue could approach $15 billion by fiscal 2028, significantly above Wall Street expectations. The bullish outlook ignited investor enthusiasm, sending Marvell’s stock up more than 11% before the opening bell.

Behind the forecast is a powerful force reshaping the technology sector: the global race to build AI data centers.

The rapid adoption of AI tools across industries is driving unprecedented demand for specialized semiconductor technologies. Marvell sits at the center of that trend, supplying custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and high-speed interconnect solutions used to power advanced data centers.

These chips are designed to handle massive data flows between processors, memory systems, and servers — a critical requirement for modern AI workloads.

The spending behind this technological transformation is enormous.

Technology giants including Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are expected to pour at least $630 billion this year into building and expanding AI infrastructure.

Much of that capital is flowing directly into semiconductor supply chains.

“They’re still growing massively,” said Marvell President and COO Chris Koopmans, referring to the hyperscale cloud companies driving the AI boom.

Marvell now expects revenue to grow nearly 40% by fiscal 2028, reaching close to $15 billion — far exceeding the analyst consensus estimate of $12.92 billion, according to LSEG data.

The company also raised its fiscal 2027 outlook, projecting revenue growth of more than 30% year over year to nearly $11 billion, up from earlier expectations of roughly $10 billion.

Executives say they are confident in these projections thanks to strong booking trends from major cloud providers investing heavily in AI infrastructure.

“We’re looking directly at hyperscaler capital-spending plans and our own booking rates,” Koopmans explained. “We feel very confident in hitting those numbers.”

Marvell’s near-term outlook also impressed investors.

The company expects first-quarter revenue of around $2.40 billion, plus or minus 5%, which is above analyst forecasts of $2.27 billion.

That projection includes expected contributions from two key technology additions:

The inclusion of these companies highlights Marvell’s strategy of expanding deeper into high-performance AI networking technologies.

One of Marvell’s most strategic moves came last year when the company completed a $3.25 billion acquisition of Celestial AI, doubling down on an emerging technology known as photonic fabrics.

Unlike traditional electronic connections, photonic fabrics use light signals instead of electrical signals to move data between AI chips and memory.

This approach dramatically increases bandwidth and energy efficiency — two critical factors for scaling massive AI systems.

At the same time, Marvell divested its automotive Ethernet business, focusing resources on high-growth segments tied directly to artificial intelligence and data center computing.

Marvell is also benefiting from a broader industry shift toward custom AI chips.

Alongside Broadcom, the company helps cloud-computing firms design specialized processors tailored to their unique data-center workloads.

This approach offers an alternative to general-purpose AI processors from Nvidia, which currently dominates the AI chip market.

For Marvell, the custom chip segment already accounts for 10% to 15% of total revenue, and executives expect that share to grow significantly as hyperscalers seek greater control over performance and cost.

The company’s latest quarterly results reinforced its optimistic outlook.

For the fourth quarter, Marvell reported:

The company’s data center division, its largest business, generated $1.65 billion in revenue, also surpassing analyst estimates.

Marvell’s stock, like many AI-related semiconductor companies, has lagged the broader chip sector in recent months, leaving some investors concerned about slowing momentum.

However, analysts believe the latest results and guidance may help restore confidence.

Kinngai Chan, senior research analyst at Summit Insights, described the announcement as a “relief for investors”, suggesting the strong forecast reinforces expectations that data-center spending remains robust.

The broader semiconductor industry is experiencing an unprecedented surge driven by AI demand.

Earlier this week, Broadcom predicted it could generate more than $100 billion in AI chip sales next year, highlighting the scale of the opportunity.

As tech giants continue building massive AI infrastructure, companies supplying the underlying hardware — including Marvell — are positioned to capture a growing share of that spending.

If current trends continue, the next phase of the AI revolution may not only reshape computing but also fuel one of the most powerful growth cycles the semiconductor industry has ever seen.