Marvell Technology has completed its previously announced acquisition of Celestial AI, adding optical scale-up interconnect technology to its data center portfolio. The deal brings Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric optical interconnect platform into Marvell’s Data Center Group, expanding its capabilities for high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity across large-scale AI systems.
Celestial AI’s technology targets scale-up connectivity inside next-generation AI platforms, where bandwidth density, latency, and power efficiency increasingly constrain performance. Marvell said the acquisition strengthens its position across critical interconnect domains, including electrical, optical, and custom silicon, as hyperscalers and AI system builders push toward tightly integrated architectures optimized for accelerator-to-accelerator communication.
Marvell expects initial revenue contributions from Celestial AI to begin in the second half of fiscal 2028, ramping to an annualized run rate of approximately $500 million by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2028 and $1 billion by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2029. The transaction adds about $50 million in annual non-GAAP operating expenses, reduces cash by $1 billion, lowers annual interest income by roughly $38 million, and increases diluted weighted-average shares outstanding by approximately 27 million shares.
- Integrates Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric optical interconnect into Marvell’s Data Center Group
- Targets scale-up AI connectivity with high bandwidth, low latency, and improved power efficiency
- Opens an incremental total addressable market tied to next-generation AI system architectures
- Initial revenue expected in 2H FY2028, scaling to a $1B annualized run rate by Q4 FY2029
- Financial impact includes higher operating expenses, lower interest income, and modest share dilution
“Celestial AI will enable us to advance Marvell’s long-term strategy to deliver the industry’s most comprehensive data infrastructure platforms,” said Matt Murphy, chairman and CEO of Marvell. “As AI systems continue to scale in size and complexity, customers require innovative connectivity solutions. The addition of Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric technology platform complements Marvell’s existing portfolio and enhances our ability to address the most demanding requirements of next-generation AI and cloud data center architectures.”
🌐 Analysis
Celestial AI adds an optical scale-up interconnect layer to Marvell’s portfolio, complementing its custom compute, Ethernet switching, SerDes, and optical DSP assets. As AI platforms move toward larger accelerator domains with tighter coupling, optical interconnects are increasingly evaluated for short-reach and rack-scale links to address power and signal-integrity limits of copper. Marvell’s roadmap now spans electrical and optical fabrics, positioning it to support emerging data center architectures that blend pluggable optics, linear drive, and future co-packaged or near-package optical approaches.
