Marvell's stock is soaring toward its first fresh high in a year. Here's what's driving the momentum.

MW Marvell's stock is soaring toward its first fresh high in a year. Here's what's driving the momentum.

By Emily Bary and Britney Nguyen

The narrative around Marvell is refocusing around the company's optical business

Marvell's stock is having its best week since 2024.

Marvell Technology's stock hasn't exactly followed a linear artificial-intelligence narrative, but now it's headed back into record territory.

Shares of Marvell $(MRVL)$ are up 7.3% in Friday trading to a recent $128.67. Any finish above $126.06 would constitute a new closing high - Marvell's first new high since Jan. 23, 2025, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The stock is also on track for its largest weekly gain since December 2024.

Marvell wasn't always thought to be an AI winner. The company makes application-specific integrated circuits that are an alternative to graphics processing units when it comes to AI applications. But analysts worried last year that the company might start losing out on business with some of its key customers. Marvell had also been weighed down by some traditional businesses unrelated to AI.

There are a few factors driving Marvell's momentum now. For one, the chip sector is red hot as investors pour back into riskier assets on hopes that the conflict in Iran may be near a conclusion. That has helped send the VanEck Semiconductor exchange-traded fund SMH to new highs.

See more: Nvidia's stock extends its hot streak - and that's great news for the S&P 500

Additionally, Marvell is a play on optical networking, an area that's becoming increasingly interesting as customers look for faster, higher-bandwidth and lower-latency alternatives to traditional copper wiring in AI data centers.

The market for optical ports, which connect fiber-optic cables to networking hardware in data centers, is expected to double this year, then double again in 2027, Barclays analyst Tom O'Malley said. That translates to Marvell's optical business potentially growing about 90% in both years, he added - even if Broadcom $(AVGO)$ takes some of the share.

"Marvell is first and foremost an optical company and with ports growing rapidly the market growth carries the name alone," he said in a Thursday note.

O'Malley upgraded the stock to overweight from equal weight in his report.

He had previously worried that Marvell was losing manufacturing share for Amazon.com's (AMZN) Trainium chips and had questions about potential issues with the company's digital-signal processors.

For now, however, the optical boom is working in the company's favor, according to O'Malley. He thinks Marvell's business narrative "is shifting more towards optics where it belongs."

Don't miss: Intel's stock hasn't been this hot in 38 years. It now has a 'renewed lease on life.'

-Emily Bary -Britney Nguyen

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April 10, 2026 15:18 ET (19:18 GMT)

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