Marvell’s AI story is one specific layer of the optical supply chain — the chips between the photon and the data path — and how it owns, shares, or has been locked out of each box at that layer.
↓what a TIA is
the optical receive path · top to bottom
Google coherent
choke point
~90% non-Nvidia
3.2T CPO
The fiber drops light onto a PD (photodetector); the PD turns it into microamps. The TIA (transimpedance amplifier) boosts that signal and hands voltage to the DSP. PD → TIA → DSP.
between the
photodetector
and the brain.
Small, deeply embedded, hard to second-source. That’s why winning the TIA socket is sticky — and Marvell has won it.
→the TIA monopoly
800G single-mode TIA: Marvell ~80%, Semtech ~20%. 800G multi-mode TIA: Macom ~50%, Marvell + Semtech split the rest. Almost all of the 800G TIA growth is single-mode — where Marvell is 4× the nearest competitor.
the dollar that
grows. Marvell
takes most of it.
1.6T TIA: Marvell is the only company in volume today. Macom and Semtech are still sampling; ramp expected 1H 2027 at the earliest. Every 1.6T module shipped in 2026 carries a Marvell TIA by default.
the strongest
competitive seat
in the whole
AI build-out.
⚡the DSP slugfest
The DSP is the brain of the module: equalisation, FEC (forward error correction), framing. At 800G and 1.6T it’s leading-edge silicon — TSMC 3 nm.
light. Fixes
bit errors.
Frames the data.
Outside Nvidia, Broadcom holds ~90% of the pluggable DSP market. Marvell is the credible challenger but materially smaller. The fight today isn’t design — it’s the same overbooked 3 nm capacity gating both sides.
more wafers
wins.
⌖white-box switches
Camp 1 — Nvidia: closed bundle, CSPs can’t customise. Camp 2 — Broadcom + Marvell: sell switch silicon to hyperscalers, which build customised white-box switches via JDM/ODM partners.
= bare-metal PC.
Marvell + Broadcom
are the CPU.
※where Marvell is absent
Google’s 2.4T coherent module. Core DSP is Google’s own — built by an in-house team assembled out of former Inphi engineers. Marvell is not the supplier.
own DSP. Marvell
out.
The Nvidia–TSMC 3.2T CPO main line. The optical-engine package on the substrate is controlled by Nvidia and TSMC. Third-party module specialists, Marvell included, have no direct seat at this layer.
Nvidia CPO box
has no Marvell.
↓NPO — Marvell as co-architect
NPO (near-packaged optics) is the bridge between today’s pluggables and full CPO. The optical engine moves closer to the switch ASIC but doesn’t fully integrate onto the substrate.
to the chip —
but not inside
the package.
NPO is DSP-less. Signal recovery moves to SerDes blocks paired with enhanced drivers and TIAs. The dominant SerDes-IP suppliers are Marvell and Broadcom. Among overseas players, Marvell and Amazon lead the NPO push.
Marvell still
owns the SerDes
underneath.
↓one-line read
Technology lead in TIA, structural pressure in DSP, co-architect in NPO. The TIA monopoly buys time; the DSP fight resolves next; NPO decides whether the SerDes-IP socket replaces what the DSP socket used to be.