This AI Chip Stock Is Up 100% in 2026. Here's Why Earnings Wednesday Could Send It Higher.
By The Numbers
- +100%+ — Marvell Technology (MRVL) has more than doubled year-to-date as of May 22, 2026
- $196.33 — MRVL closing price on Friday, May 22, 2026
- $2.40 billion — analyst consensus for Q1 FY2027 revenue when Marvell reports Wednesday, May 27
- 40% — Marvell's projected data center revenue growth for fiscal year 2027
- 20+ — custom AI chip design wins locked in for production in FY2028-2029
Markets are closed today. But on Tuesday, when trading resumes, all eyes will land on one sector. And by Wednesday evening, one AI chip stock could give investors a very good reason to pay attention.
Marvell Technology (MRVL) has already doubled in 2026. That kind of run usually signals a stock ready to stall. But Marvell's story is different, and its earnings report on Wednesday, May 27, could be the catalyst for another leg higher.
Why Marvell Is Different From Other AI Plays
Nvidia gets all the headlines. But Marvell operates deeper in the AI supply chain, in a place that is just as important and far less crowded.
Marvell builds custom AI chips called XPUs for the biggest cloud hyperscalers. Amazon's Trainium chip. Microsoft's Azure silicon. These companies want their own AI processors, but they don't want to design them from scratch. Marvell does that work for them.
Hold on. Let me stop here. This matters because it creates switching costs. Once Amazon builds its data center infrastructure around Marvell's chips, switching is expensive. That is recurring, high-margin revenue. Not a one-time trade.
"Marvell's data center revenue is projected to grow more than 40% in fiscal 2027. That number climbs another 50% in fiscal 2028."
The Optical Play Nobody Is Talking About
Marvell isn't just chips. It is also the connective tissue between chips.
Its optical interconnect business, the cables and switches that move data inside AI data centers at 800G and 1.6T speeds, is growing more than 50% this fiscal year. AI training clusters need enormous bandwidth. Every GPU in a training cluster needs to communicate with every other GPU. Marvell sells the highway that data travels on.
It's kinda like being the infrastructure contractor that builds the roads all AI traffic drives on. Nvidia builds the cars. Marvell builds the roads. No roads, the cars are useless.
What to Watch When Marvell Reports Wednesday
Analysts expect $2.40 billion in revenue and $0.80 in adjusted EPS for Q1 FY2027. Marvell beat estimates in Q4 FY2026 and guided strong. The bar is high, but the company has earned the benefit of the doubt.
More important than the headline numbers: watch what Marvell says about fiscal 2028. The company locked in more than 20 custom AI chip design wins set to enter production in FY2028 and FY2029. Any update on that pipeline is the real signal, not the quarterly EPS beat.
The stock closed at $196.33 on Friday. It has room. You don't have to trust me. Trust the math: 40% data center growth, 50% optical growth, 20-plus design wins in the pipeline, and a market that is still undervaluing what custom silicon is worth inside the AI infrastructure buildout.
P.S. Markets reopen Tuesday and Marvell reports Wednesday after the bell. If management raises guidance on its FY2028 pipeline, this stock moves fast.
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