March 5 (Reuters) - Marvell Technology forecast first-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates on Thursday, driven by rising demand for custom chips used in data centers, sending its shares surging 14.3% in premarket trading.
Growing adoption of AI tools by enterprise clients has boosted demand for specialized chips that power advanced data centers, benefiting companies such as Marvell and Broadcom that design application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).
Big Tech firms including Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta are expected to spend at least $630 billion to build AI infrastructure this year, lifting demand for chips used in servers and networking equipment from companies such as Marvell.
Marvell expects revenue of around $2.40 billion, plus or minus 5% for the first quarter, above analysts' average estimate of $2.27 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The company said the forecast includes expected results of Celestial AI and XConn Technologies.
The Santa Clara, California-based company divested its automotive ethernet business last year and completed the acquisition of Celestial AI in a deal worth $3.25 billion, doubling down on photonic fabrics, technology that uses light rather than electrical signals to connect AI chips and memory chips.
"We expect year-over-year revenue growth to accelerate each quarter in fiscal 2027, driven by continued strength in our data center business, with bookings continuing to grow at a record pace," CEO Matt Murphy said in a statement.
Marvell and rival Broadcom help cloud-computing companies design custom chips tailored to their data-center workloads, a fast-growing business as hyperscalers seek alternatives to Nvidia's general-purpose AI processors.
"Marvell's shares like many AI-related names have underperformed the semiconductor group in the past two quarters. We think the better-than-expected results and outlook, while expected, is more of a relief for investors than confirming the near-term data center spending strength," said Kinngai Chan, senior research analyst at Summit Insights.
Broadcom shares rally on custom AI chip demand
Broadcom on Wednesday said it expected over $100 billion in AI chip sales next year, signaling rapid share gains in a market dominated by Nvidia, which last month reported better-than-expected results for the January quarter.
For the fourth quarter, Marvell reported a 22% increase in revenue to $2.22 billion, slightly above estimates of $2.21 billion. Adjusted earnings per share of 80 cents beat estimates of 79 cents.
Revenue in the data center segment, its largest business, rose 21% to $1.65 billion, compared with estimates of $1.64 billion.