Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) reported record results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2026, driven by strength in data center demand, and management raised its outlook for fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028 while highlighting a broader product and customer engagement footprint across AI infrastructure.
Quarterly and full-year results
For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, Marvell delivered record revenue of $2.219 billion, up 7% sequentially, which CEO Matt Murphy said exceeded the midpoint of guidance due to strong demand in the data center end market. Non-GAAP earnings per share were $0.80, which Murphy said was $0.01 above the midpoint of guidance.
Marvell’s fourth-quarter mix remained heavily weighted toward data center demand. Meintjes said data center represented 74% of revenue, with communications and other contributing 26%. Fourth-quarter GAAP EPS was $0.46, and non-GAAP EPS grew 33% year-over-year to $0.80.
Data center growth drivers: interconnect, switching, and custom
Murphy said fourth-quarter data center revenue was a record $1.65 billion, up 9% sequentially and 21% year-over-year, with sequential growth across optical interconnects, custom silicon, switching, and storage. For the first quarter of fiscal 2027, management expects data center revenue to grow about 10% sequentially, including a seasonal decline in on-premise data center revenue.
In interconnect, Murphy pointed to robust demand for 800G products and said Marvell is seeing strong bookings for 1.6T solutions, which entered production in the second half of fiscal 2026. He said Marvell expects 1.6T revenue to ramp very rapidly in fiscal 2027, with additional growth projected in fiscal 2028. He also highlighted Marvell’s “Coherent Light” offering for 2km to 20km applications, noting the company has begun shipping first-generation 1.6T Coherent Light products and is introducing a second generation with integrated MACsec security.
For data center interconnect used in data center interconnect (DCI) applications, Murphy said Marvell expects to supply DCI modules to all five major U.S. hyperscalers this year. He also announced what he described as the industry’s first secure 1.6T ZR and ZR+ DCI modules powered by a new 2nm coherent DSP, along with a new 2nm 800G DSP aimed at lower-power 800G modules. DCI modules powered by these MACsec-enabled DSPs are expected to begin sampling later in the year, according to Murphy.
Switching was another area of emphasis. Murphy said data center switching revenue in fiscal 2026 exceeded $300 million and was driven entirely by scale-out applications. For fiscal 2027, the company now expects data center switch revenue to surpass $600 million, up from the $500 million expectation provided last quarter, supported by sustained demand for 12.8T products and a ramp in 51.2T products. Marvell also expects to begin sampling a 100T platform in the first half of the fiscal year.
In custom silicon, Murphy said Marvell has scaled from “zero revenue to $1.5 billion in fiscal 2026,” and the custom business doubled in fiscal 2026. He said Marvell expects custom revenue to grow more than 20% year-over-year in fiscal 2027, “higher than our prior view,” and reiterated expectations for a stronger second half due to a program transition. Looking to fiscal 2028, Murphy again outlined an expectation for custom revenue to at least double year-over-year, driven by growth from existing programs, higher-volume XPU attach programs (including custom NIC and CXL), and a new Tier 1 XPU program ramping into high-volume production.
Acquisitions and AI scale-up networking focus
Murphy opened the call by welcoming the Celestial AI and Xconn teams, noting Marvell recently closed both acquisitions and that joint product roadmap discussions with customers are underway. He said the acquisitions strengthen Marvell’s position in AI scale-up networking, and that these deals are not expected to contribute meaningfully until fiscal 2028.
Murphy said Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric technology is expected to enable large-scale commercial deployment of co-packaged optics (CPO) for scale-up connectivity starting next year. He said Marvell remains on track for CPO revenue from Celestial to reach a $500 million annualized run rate in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2028 and to double to a $1 billion annualized run rate by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2029. He characterized scale-up interconnect as an emerging market that Marvell believes could exceed $10 billion by 2030.
On Xconn, Murphy said the acquisition expands Marvell’s switching expertise—particularly in PCIe—and supports both UALink and Ethernet-based scale-up opportunities. He said Marvell expects to sample UALink 115T solutions in the second half of fiscal 2027, with volume production expected in fiscal 2028, and that Xconn also adds PCIe 6.0 and CXL 3.1 switch solutions, including a monolithic architecture supporting up to 256 lanes.
Outlook: higher fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028 targets
Management raised expectations for fiscal 2027, driven by the data center business. Murphy said first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue is forecast at $2.4 billion at the midpoint, implying 8% sequential growth, and he said Marvell expects to grow revenue every quarter this fiscal year at a similarly strong sequential rate, with fourth-quarter revenue exceeding $3 billion. He said Marvell now expects total fiscal 2027 revenue to grow more than 30% year-over-year, “approaching $11 billion,” and emphasized the increase is driven by organic businesses.
For the first quarter of fiscal 2027, Meintjes guided to revenue of $2.4 billion ±5%, GAAP gross margin of 51.4% to 52.4%, and non-GAAP gross margin of 58.25% to 59.25%. Non-GAAP EPS guidance was $0.74 to $0.84, with a non-GAAP tax rate of 11%. He said first-quarter non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be approximately $575 million, reflecting payroll tax seasonality, merit increases, and the addition of Celestial AI and Xconn; the acquisitions together are expected to add about $75 million to fiscal 2027 annual non-GAAP operating expenses.
Looking to fiscal 2028, Murphy laid out a framework that includes expected contributions from the acquisitions of approximately $250 million in aggregate revenue. He said Marvell expects data center revenue in fiscal 2028 to grow close to 50% year-over-year, and he outlined an overall company revenue expectation of roughly $15 billion, which he described as about $2 billion higher than the outlook provided in December. He also referenced non-GAAP EPS “to well over $5,” describing $5+ as a floor rather than a prescriptive number.
Capital returns, balance sheet, and supply chain commentary
Marvell continued capital returns in fiscal 2026, with Meintjes reporting $2.245 billion returned through share repurchases and dividends, up about $1.3 billion from the prior year. In the fourth quarter alone, Marvell repurchased $200 million of stock and paid $51 million in dividends.
On the balance sheet, Meintjes reported total debt of $4.47 billion at quarter-end, with a gross debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 1.38x and net debt-to-EBITDA of 0.57x. He also noted inventory ended the quarter at $1.39 billion, up $374 million sequentially, as working capital increased to support growth.
In the Q&A, President and COO Chris Koopmans said the company has operated in a tight supply environment for AI-related components since the launch of ChatGPT, but expressed confidence that Marvell has secured supply for the growth management outlined “this year, next year, and beyond,” citing supplier relationships and multi-year forecasting visibility.
About Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL)
Marvell Technology Group is a global semiconductor company that designs and develops integrated circuits and related software for data infrastructure, networking, storage and connectivity markets. The company’s product portfolio includes system-on-chip (SoC) solutions, Ethernet physical-layer transceivers (PHYs), switch and switch silicon, optical interconnect components, storage controllers, and security processors. Marvell’s technology is used to enable high-performance data centers, carrier networks, enterprise and cloud storage, as well as connectivity in automotive and industrial applications.
Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Marvell has grown through both organic development and strategic acquisitions to broaden its capabilities across networking and data interconnect.
