Marvell Technology in talks with Google to co-develop custom AI chips — stock jumps 6.9%

Marvell Technology, a maker of networking chips, is in negotiations with Google to jointly design two new custom chips built specifically for artificial intelligence workloads. The news sent the company's stock price up 6.9% in afternoon trading.

Custom AI chips are faster and cheaper than general-purpose processors because they are optimized for the specific math operations that AI models perform. If this partnership succeeds, Google could reduce its reliance on Nvidia's expensive chips and Marvell gains access to one of the world's largest AI hardware buyers.

For business professionals and students: this deal signals that major tech companies are no longer willing to depend on a single chip supplier for AI infrastructure. It likely means more competition in the AI chip market, which could lower costs for companies building AI products — whether that's cloud providers, startups, or enterprises deploying AI internally.