Marvell wants to be a copper topper, bets $115B on photonics leader to push optical networking

What happened

Marvell Technology plans to acquire photonics giant Lumentum in an all-stock deal valued at $115 billion, due to close in the first half of 2028 and not yet completed. The move is intended to fill several key gaps in Marvell's photonics portfolio, particularly high-performance laser sources, optical transceivers, optical circuit switches, and specialized compound semiconductor manufacturing capabilities involving indium phosphide. The cause stated in the source is that higher speed interconnects combined with larger compute domains are the driving forces behind the move to photonics: as interconnects push beyond 400 Gbps per lane, copper interconnects are being pushed to their limit — traditional copper wire can only maintain a 400 Gbps signal over about 1.25 meters, and every time the per lane speed doubles, the reach is halved — whereas photonics are largely immune to this and can push that signal over kilometers. Background facts include: AI infrastructure builders, including Nvidia and AMD, are eyeing larger rack-scale systems that will rely heavily on optical interconnects; Nvidia invested $2 billion into Lumentum just eight months ago to bolster its optics manufacturing capacity; Marvell paid about $3.5 billion in February 2026 for photonic interconnect developer Celestial AI; and at Computex 2026 in Taipei, Jensen Huang predicted that Marvell's long-term investments in photonics would catapult it to a $1 trillion valuation, though the company's market cap currently sits at just $180 billion. The transaction is a planned acquisition due to close in the first half of 2028.

Impact and signal

Affected components and suppliers

Source and time

Source: The Register · 11/2/2026 · View original source