Marvell Technology has started handing Google equity instead of just invoices. On August 19, 2026, the chipmaker disclosed in a regulatory filing that it granted Google a warrant to buy up to 58,970,907 Marvell shares at $206.58 apiece. At that price, the full warrant is worth about $12.2 billion. If Google exercises all of it, the company would become Marvell's fifth-largest shareholder, according to Reuters.
The arrangement is unusual because it links Marvell's stock directly to how much business Google actually sends its way. That structure, more than the headline dollar figure, is the real story.
Most of the stake still has to be earned
Only a small slice of the warrant, 1,360,867 shares, vests automatically on a fixed quarterly schedule over the first year. The remaining 57,610,040 shares vest solely as Google places qualifying orders for custom chips.
The mechanics work like a meter: every time Marvell books $500 million in revenue from Google-related custom chip sales, one tranche of 240,042 shares unlocks. There are 240 such tranches in total, which is where the often-cited $120 billion figure comes from: 240 tranches multiplied by $500 million each. Analysts cited by Reuters have pointed to that same ceiling as Marvell's potential revenue opportunity through fiscal year 2033, when the measurement window and the warrant's exercise period both close.
Crucially, Google has not committed to buying any specific dollar amount of chips. The purchases that drive vesting are entirely at Google's discretion, so the $12.2 billion warrant and the $120 billion revenue figure are both ceilings, not guarantees.
What Marvell actually builds for Google
The agreement covers silicon that plugs into Google's custom artificial intelligence (AI) hardware lineup. Google designs its own AI accelerator chips, called Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), which it uses to train and run AI models in its data centers rather than relying solely on graphics processing units from Nvidia. Marvell does not make the TPUs themselves; instead, it supplies the supporting silicon that connects to them, including AI inference accelerators, storage controllers, and network interface chips that move data between servers.
This is an expansion of work the two companies were already doing together. Marvell shares had already jumped once before, back in April 2026, after a report that it was in talks with Google on chips tied to the TPU platform.
Why Broadcom investors flinched
The reaction in the stock market told its own story. Marvell shares rallied nearly 10% on the news, according to CNBC, while Broadcom shares fell about 5% the same day. Alphabet's own stock barely moved.
The drop in Broadcom is notable because Broadcom has been Google's primary partner on custom TPU-related chips for roughly a decade, and the two companies had expanded that relationship as recently as April 2026. Investors read the new Marvell agreement as a sign that Google is spreading its custom-chip business across more than one supplier.
Not everyone views it as a direct hit to Broadcom, though. Morningstar analyst William Kerwin described the Marvell deal as "a big win for Marvell" but cautioned it looks more like "a growing pie at Google for new sources, rather than a competitive displacement of Broadcom," as reported by Yahoo Finance. In other words, Google's overall demand for custom silicon may simply be growing large enough to support multiple vendors at once.
What this means
For the AI chip supply chain, the deal is another data point in a broader shift: Google, along with Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, has been building or commissioning custom silicon to reduce its dependence on Nvidia's general-purpose AI processors. Spreading that custom work across more than one chip partner also reduces Google's exposure if any single supplier hits capacity constraints or production delays.
For Marvell, the warrant functions as a powerful incentive rather than a locked-in payday. The company only gets Google as a major shareholder, and only earns the associated revenue, if it delivers chips Google actually wants to keep buying in volume through 2033.
For investors in both companies, the structure matters more than the size of the headline number. Marvell's upside is conditional on execution over roughly seven years, not an immediate windfall. Broadcom, meanwhile, retains its long-standing role with Google, and the modest stock decline suggests markets see this as new competition for future growth rather than a loss of existing business.
