Marvell agrees to buy Lumentum in a $115B all-stock deal

Background

Large AI systems move enormous amounts of data between chips, servers and switches. Electrical connections become harder and more power-hungry as that traffic grows, so hardware makers increasingly rely on optical parts that carry signals as light. Lumentum sits on that side of the supply chain: it makes optical chips and networking equipment, the components that sit between computing silicon and the data centre network.

What was announced

On 2 November 2026, Marvell signed a deal to acquire Lumentum in an all-stock transaction ^[1]. The deal carries an enterprise value of 115 billion dollars, a figure that includes debt, and an equity value of about 80 billion dollars ^[1]. The gap between the two numbers reflects the debt folded into the enterprise value: enterprise value describes what the whole business is worth including its borrowings, while equity value describes what shareholders' stakes are worth.

Because the consideration is stock rather than cash, Marvell will issue 4.5 of its own shares for each Lumentum share ^[1]. Lumentum's holders therefore end up owning a slice of the combined company, and the price they effectively receive moves with Marvell's share price until the deal closes.

How big it is

TechCrunch placed the transaction alongside two previous mega-deals: Microsoft's 68.7 billion dollar purchase of Activision Blizzard in 2022 and Dell's 67 billion dollar purchase of EMC in 2016 ^[1]. On those comparisons, the Marvell-Lumentum transaction is substantially larger than either.

A shared major shareholder

The two companies have a common large investor. Nvidia is a major shareholder in both, having invested 2 billion dollars in Lumentum and 2 billion dollars in Marvell in March ^[1]. That overlap means the deal touches companies in which the same chip designer already holds stakes.

What the companies say

Marvell says the combination will make it a leader in AI connectivity, with products spanning chips to data centres ^[1]. In plain terms, the argument is about scope: instead of buying optical components from a separate supplier, a chip maker would own both the computing silicon and the optical and networking parts that carry data out of it.

What happens next

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of calendar 2028, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval ^[1]. That is a long gap between announcement and completion, and it means the deal is not yet final: both sets of shareholders have to vote, and competition authorities in the jurisdictions where the companies operate have to review it. Until then, the two businesses continue to operate as they do now, and the terms can still change or the deal can fail.

Why it matters

The deal is a marker of how central data movement has become in AI hardware. As models grow and clusters get larger, the optical links between machines become as important as the processors themselves, and control of that layer becomes worth paying for. The all-stock structure also says something about scale: a cash purchase of this size would be difficult to finance, whereas shares let Marvell pay with ownership of the combined business. If it closes as planned, a component supplier becomes part of a larger chip company, and Nvidia's stakes in both sit inside a single corporate structure.