Marvell vs. Micron: Which AI Chipmaker Is the Better Buy Right Now?

1 week ago 8

Adam Levy, The Motley Fool

Wed, April 29, 2026 astatine 10:05 AM CDT 5 min read

Semiconductor stocks person been connected a teardrop successful 2026, arsenic monolithic superior spending plans from hyperscalers substance maturation crossed the industry. Two of the apical performers truthful acold this twelvemonth are Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU). The 2 chipmakers' stocks are up 93% and 74%, respectively, successful 2026 arsenic of this writing.

Investors looking astatine the semiconductor abstraction whitethorn beryllium weighing these 2 high-flying stocks against each other. Despite the monolithic run-up successful some stocks' prices, 1 stands retired arsenic a amended bargain close now.

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Two technicians walking alongside a enactment      of server racks successful  a information  center.

Image source: Getty Images.

The customized AI chipmaker

Marvell makes optical networking chips and customized AI accelerators, commonly known arsenic XPUs. It designs Microsoft's Maia chips and antecedently designed Amazon's Trainium chips. It besides works intimately with the different hyperscalers, Alphabet and Meta Platforms, for networking chips. Nvidia precocious invested $2 cardinal successful Marvell, ensuring its chips are compatible with its NVLink Fusion infrastructure for high-speed interconnect.

Marvell's networking chips person attracted important attraction successful caller months arsenic the request for high-speed information transfers betwixt GPUs and AI accelerators has grown. Management expects its acquisition of Celestial AI, which specializes successful optical interconnect for AI systems, to scope a $500 cardinal annualized gross tally complaint by 2028 and $1 cardinal by 2029.

But investors whitethorn inactive beryllium underappreciating the XPU business. Microsoft has indicated it plans to usage much of its next-generation Maia chips for its interior AI grooming and inference. That could effect successful a important summation successful Marvell's bid measurement successful fiscal 2028. Additionally, The Information precocious reported that Marvell is successful talks with Google to make a customized AI accelerator arsenic an alternate to its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), developed by Broadcom. The talks besides included a representation processor designed to enactment alongside Google's TPUs.

The concern from Nvidia is simply a further denotation that the XPU concern has legs, and Nvidia is looking to support its GPU concern against the competition. As such, it's nary astonishment that analysts expect net per stock to ascent from $3.83 this twelvemonth to $7.50 2 years from now. Marvell should beryllium capable to nutrient accordant stock gains of information halfway server racks for years to travel arsenic it improves its networking spot capabilities and wins much sockets for its XPUs.

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