Marvell Tech has reached a partnership with Google for custom AI chips, Wedbush: Custom silicon "has significant advantages"

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, Wedbush Securities stated that Marvell Technology (MRVL.US) announced this week a collaboration with Google to develop custom AI chips, further confirming the significant advantages of custom silicon chips in the current environment. Wedbush Securities analyst Matt Bryson wrote in a research report to clients: "Overall, we believe this outcome is not entirely unexpected. More importantly, we think this series of news and rumors indicates that companies with custom chip design capabilities and IP modules are in a favorable position in the current environment.

Moreover, given the abundance of market opportunities, this does not necessarily represent a zero-sum game (for example, Marvell Technology securing orders does not mean that Broadcom—Google's largest TPU partner—or AMD, or NVIDIA are necessarily losers)."

Marvell Technology reached an expanded cooperation agreement with Google regarding custom semiconductor products on July 29. Marvell Technology stated in regulatory filings: "The expanded cooperation covers a comprehensive range of custom chip projects related to the TPU ecosystem, including AI inference accelerators, storage controllers, network interface controllers, memory interface controllers, and near-memory computing."

As part of the agreement, Marvell Technology issued a warrant to Google on August 18, granting it the right to purchase up to 58.97 million shares at an exercise price of $206.58 per share.

Additionally, Bryson also commented this week on the potential future TPU collaboration project between AMD and Google, noting that such cooperation could have "significant implications."

The scope of products covered by this collaboration far exceeds a single chip category, encompassing AI inference accelerators, storage controllers, network interface controllers, memory interface controllers, and near-memory computing, marking Marvell Technology's role in Google's AI infrastructure from the periphery to the core.

Analysts at investment research firm Morningstar pointed out that if all 240 vesting batches are triggered, Marvell Technology could secure custom chip orders worth $120 billion from Google.

It is noteworthy that the collaboration between North American AI chip manufacturers and AI companies is becoming increasingly diverse, with equity ties becoming more intricate. NVIDIA has announced a $2 billion investment in Marvell Technology; AMD previously reached a similar warrant cooperation with Meta. An "AI chip equity network" encompassing NVIDIA, AMD, Marvell Technology, Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic is taking shape