Marvell buys Lumentum for $115 billion, one of the largest deals in tech history

Chip designer Marvell Technology has agreed to acquire optical networking giant Lumentum in an all-stock transaction valued at $115 billion — a deal so large it ranks among the biggest acquisitions ever made in the technology industry, dwarfing Microsoft’s $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard and Dell’s $67 billion buyout of EMC.

Under the terms of the agreement announced November 2, each Lumentum share converts into 4.5 shares of Marvell common stock, representing a 23.9% premium to Lumentum’s unaffected share price. The equity value of the deal sits at roughly $80 billion, with the $115 billion enterprise figure including Lumentum’s debt. Post-closing, Marvell shareholders will own approximately 67% of the combined company, with Lumentum holders receiving the remaining 33%.

The strategic logic is straightforward: AI data centers are consuming optical interconnects at a pace the industry has never seen before, and Marvell wants to supply both the silicon and the photonics that move data between chips and servers. Marvell brings custom ASICs, electrical interconnects, and storage controllers; Lumentum brings lasers, transceivers, and optical circuit switches. Together, the companies claim a path to a combined total addressable market of $550 billion and more than $1 billion in annual run-rate cost synergies.

Nvidia’s fingerprints are visible throughout the deal. Earlier in 2026, the GPU giant invested $2 billion in Lumentum to secure a long-term supply of advanced laser components. Weeks later, it committed another $2 billion to Marvell to shore up its optical networking portfolio. Having strategic stakes in both companies gives Nvidia a compelling reason to want the combination to succeed.

The deal still needs approval from shareholders at both companies and from regulators across multiple jurisdictions, a process the companies say could take until the first half of 2028. Market reaction was lukewarm on announcement day, with investors in both stocks selling off — a common pattern for all-stock acquirers in large transactions.

As first reported by TechCrunch, this combination would give Marvell a unique position in the AI infrastructure stack, competing directly with Broadcom, which has pursued a similar photonics-plus-silicon strategy through its own acquisitions in recent years.