Marvell to buy Lumentum in $115 billion all-stock deal, among tech's largest

Marvell signs one of tech's biggest ever acquisitions

Marvell, the custom chip designer, has agreed to acquire Lumentum, a maker of optical chips and networking equipment, in an all-stock transaction, TechCrunch reports. The deal gives Lumentum an enterprise value of $115 billion once debt is included, with an equity value of roughly $80 billion.

Under the exchange terms, Lumentum shareholders will receive 4.5 shares of Marvell common stock for every share they hold.

Where the deal ranks

According to TechCrunch, the purchase ranks among the largest acquisitions in the history of the technology industry. It is bigger than Microsoft's $68.7 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard in 2022 and Dell's $67 billion acquisition of EMC in 2016 — the two comparisons TechCrunch highlights — and it exceeds both even on equity value alone, before debt is counted.

Nvidia sits on both sides of the table

The transaction has an unusual wrinkle: both companies count Nvidia as a major shareholder. As TechCrunch reports, Nvidia put $2 billion into Lumentum in March as part of a multi-year agreement to buy the company's advanced laser components, with the funds supporting research and development as well as fab expansion. Later that same month, Marvell announced its own $2 billion investment from Nvidia, aimed at strengthening Marvell's optical networking and chip portfolio.

The GPU maker therefore holds a financial stake in both halves of the combined company, giving it an interest in the deal's success from either direction.

The strategic logic

Marvell says the combination will make it a leader in AI connectivity, with a product portfolio that stretches from individual chips up to full data center equipment. The rationale is straightforward: AI clusters are constrained not just by compute, but by the links that connect tens of thousands of accelerators, and optical interconnects have become a central cost and performance factor in large-scale AI buildouts. Bringing custom silicon design and photonics under one roof would let Marvell address a much larger share of that infrastructure spend.

A long road to closing

The deal is not expected to close until the first half of calendar year 2028, and only if shareholders of both companies and regulators sign off. That is a lengthy window for a transaction of this scale, and it means the competitive landscape stays largely intact while the approval process plays out.

Why it matters

The acquisition redraws the supply chain for AI data centers. A leading designer of custom silicon would, if the deal completes, also control a major supplier of the optical components that cloud providers need to network their accelerators together — consolidating two critical layers of AI infrastructure into a single vendor.

For Nvidia, the dual stakes mean it now has a meaningful financial position on both sides of one of the largest deals the industry has seen, alongside commercial agreements to buy Lumentum's laser components.

The size of the transaction also says something about the moment: the AI infrastructure arms race has moved beyond capital expenditure announcements into full-scale consolidation, with suppliers merging to capture more of the data center buildout. And with a closing date as far out as 2028, rivals in networking and custom silicon now have a long runway to reposition themselves before Marvell and Lumentum begin operating as one company.