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Marvell Technology to acquire Celestial AI for optical interconnect technology advancement
Wednesday, February 18, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Marvell Technology is acquiring Celestial AI for approximately 500 billion yen to secure advanced optical interconnect technology. Celestial AI specializes in photonic-electronic convergence, which enables high-bandwidth chip-to-chip optical connectivity. This move is intended to enhance Marvell's competitiveness against Nvidia and Broadcom in data center infrastructure and power-efficient communication solutions.
Context
Marvell Technology has moved to acquire silicon photonics startup Celestial AI in a deal valued at approximately $3.3 billion. This acquisition targets the critical advancement of optical interconnect technology, specifically Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric, which enables high-speed data transmission between chips using light instead of electricity. The deal reflects a massive investment in solving the thermal and bandwidth constraints that currently limit the scaling of ultra-large artificial intelligence models.
This strategic integration allows Marvell to compete more aggressively against industry leaders Nvidia and Broadcom in the race for next-generation data center infrastructure. By shifting toward optical-electrical fusion, Marvell aims to slash power consumption while significantly boosting the throughput required for AI workloads. For the broader supply chain, this acquisition signals an accelerating shift toward co-packaged optics as the essential standard for future high-performance computing architectures.
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