Marvell agrees to acquire Lumentum, joining chip and optical technology for AI connectivity

Marvell Technology, a semiconductor company, and Lumentum, a San Jose, California maker of lasers and optical components, announced on 2 November 2026 that they had signed a definitive agreement under which Marvell will acquire Lumentum. The joint announcement was datelined Santa Clara and San Jose, and each company filed it with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as an exhibit to a Form 8-K.

What each company brings

According to the release, Marvell's strengths lie in interconnect technology that carries electrical or optical signals, network switching, custom processors and the chips that attach to them, plus advanced semiconductor technologies. The release credits Lumentum with know-how in optical transceivers, high-performance lasers and optical circuit switching, backed by specialised manufacturing of compound semiconductors. It names indium phosphide as one of the process technologies Lumentum would contribute, along with lasers built for high speed and high power.

The companies' technical case

The two companies say rising bandwidth demand, together with the physical limits of copper connections, is speeding a move toward optical technology in AI infrastructure. In their account, the industry is leaving separate, modular parts behind in favour of tightly integrated optical products, and those products need their electrical and optical parts to be designed together much more closely. The stated aims are more bandwidth, better performance and lower energy use.

After closing, the companies expect the combined business to offer a portfolio covering leading-edge CMOS and silicon photonics as well as compound semiconductors, with advanced packaging and manufacturing. They expect it to develop optimised, pre-validated optical products that can be built in high volume, and to serve links of many lengths, from distributed data centres to connections inside advanced chip packages. Lumentum chief executive Michael Hurlston placed scale-across and scale-out among customers' needs today, and scale-up and scale-in among tomorrow's. The combined firm also plans to unite chip design, packaging and specialised manufacturing so that different kinds of chip can be integrated more deeply.

Marvell chairman and chief executive Matt Murphy called the shift toward optical connectivity an opportunity that arrives once in a generation. Hurlston, who is also Lumentum's president, said the combination would let the companies meet customers' complete interconnect needs.

Structure and timing

The deal is all-stock, and the release says both boards approved it unanimously. Murphy would remain chairman and chief executive of the combined company. Three Lumentum directors, Hurlston among them, would join the Marvell board, which currently has seven members.

The companies expect the deal to close during the first six months of calendar 2028. Completion depends on votes by both companies' stockholders, regulatory clearances and other customary conditions. Marvell says it intends to file a Form S-4 registration statement with the SEC, containing a single proxy statement for both sets of stockholders, to be mailed to them once the SEC declares the filing effective.

The release cautions that its statements on timing and expected benefits look forward and may not come to pass. Marvell and Lumentum scheduled a joint conference call for 5 a.m. Pacific time on the day of the announcement.