Marvell CEO Says AI Bookings Are 'On Fire' — Analyst Sees Massive Upside

Marvell Technology, Inc (NASDAQ:MRVL) is well-positioned to ride the next wave of AI-driven growth, said a JPMorgan analyst.

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AI Demand, Data Center Growth Remain Strong

JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur maintained an Overweight rating on Marvell.

Sur said Marvell's AI outlook remained robust after the firm hosted a fireside chat with Chairman and CEO Matt Murphy and Senior Vice President of Investor Relations Ashish Saran, highlighting strong demand, expanding visibility and accelerating growth drivers.

The analyst noted AI demand remained strong, with Murphy describing short-term bookings as "on fire."

Marvell continued to see expanding backlog and revenue visibility, even as investors worried about a potential slowdown in AI spending, he noted.

Fourth-quarter bookings stayed strong through the holiday period, supporting a growing multi-year data center infrastructure build, Sur said.

Management expected the data center business to grow about 25% in calendar 2026 and accelerate to 40% growth in 2027, supported by new programs coming online, the analyst noted.

Custom AI Chips Drive A Step-Change In Revenue

He said Marvell's custom AI ASIC business was broadening and should drive a sharp revenue step-up.

The company expected AI custom revenues of roughly $1.8 billion in 2026, up 20% year-over-year, before doubling to $3.6 billion in 2027, Sur noted.

Growth was led by a strong ramp with its lead XPU customer, Amazon's Trainium 3, which tracked toward a $2 billion run rate in the second half, the analyst noted.

Marvell was also moving 15 XPU-attach sockets into production and advancing programs with multiple customers, including a third Tier-1 XPU customer, Microsoft, which is progressing toward production, he said.

Over time, Sur said, more AI training and inference workloads would shift to flexible, programmable ASIC architectures.

Networking Momentum And Strategic Expansion Support Long-Term Growth

The analyst also highlighted strong momentum in networking, with optical networking revenues growing faster than overall data center capex.

Marvell remained on track to generate $500 million in switching silicon revenue this year as new products ramp, including its 51.2T switch, he noted.

Advanced Ethernet cabling and retimers were also scaling quickly, with revenues doubling year-over-year to several hundred million dollars as adoption accelerated and the industry shifted toward PAM-based technologies, Sur noted.

The company was also well-positioned in scale-up networking through a mix of internal development and acquisitions, the analyst said.

Finally, he noted Marvell continued to expand its portfolio through disciplined M&A and supply-chain execution.

The acquisition of XConn Technologies strengthened scale-up switching and complemented Marvell's PCIe and CXL offerings, Sur noted.

While the $5-plus-billion acquisition of Celestial AI deepened customer engagement in photonic fabric technology, as per the analyst.

At the same time, Marvell secured supply by building long-term partnerships and aligning demand forecasts with suppliers, positioning the company to support sustained AI-driven growth, he added.

MRVL Price Action: Marvell Tech shares were down 4.44% at $84.31 at the time of publication on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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