SoftBank Reportedly Eyes Marvell Buy to Merge with Arm
According to sources, SoftBank Group explored a potential acquisition of U.S. chip designer Marvell earlier this year. Negotiations on the deal fell through months ago, and talks have not yet resumed, though a future transaction remains possible. If successful, this could become the largest deal in semiconductor history.
Following the news, Marvell's shares surged over 5% during U.S. trading on November 6 but closed up only 0.46%. Arm shares initially rose about 2% but ended the day down 1.21%.
Insiders reveal that SoftBank founder and chairman Masayoshi Son has been intermittently considering Marvell as an acquisition target for years, aligning with his broader strategy to invest in AI technologies. SoftBank reportedly signaled its interest to Marvell months ago, but the two sides did not reach an agreement on terms. Talks could still be revived in the future.
Marvell's stock has risen in recent years due to optimism around its custom chip business, which serves major clients including Amazon and Microsoft. However, after issuing revenue forecasts below peak expectations in March, the company faced its largest stock drop in over two decades. In the second quarter of fiscal 2026, ending July 2025, Marvell reported a record quarterly revenue of $2 billion, up 57.6% year-over-year, yet its stock has still fallen 16% so far this year, with a current market value of around $80 billion.
By contrast, Nvidia and Broadcom have benefited strongly from the AI boom. Broadcom, a key competitor to Marvell in custom AI chips, has gained new clients like OpenAI, seeing its stock rise about 56% this year, with a market cap of $1.7 trillion as of November 5. Clearly, in Son's view, Marvell may be undervalued or has untapped growth potential under his guidance.
Sources indicate that SoftBank's goal in acquiring Marvell would be to merge it with its UK-based semiconductor IP giant Arm, positioning the combined entity to capitalize on the explosive growth of AI data centers. Arm expects that by 2025, CPUs based on its architecture will account for nearly 50% of deployments in major cloud providers' data centers, reinforcing its role as a key AI computing platform.
Arm's fiscal Q2 2026 revenue, ending September 30, grew 34% year-over-year to $1.14 billion, although still trailing many chipmakers using Arm IP extensively. Thanks to its IP contributions to AI-focused data centers and plans for its own chips, Arm's market value has reached approximately $170 billion—more than triple its $54.5 billion valuation at its 2023 IPO and far above the $32 billion SoftBank paid in 2016. SoftBank still holds nearly 90% of Arm.
By comparison, the larger-revenue Marvell has a market value of roughly $80 billion. Using Arm, valued at $170 billion, to acquire Marvell appears strategically attractive for SoftBank.
However, merging Arm and Marvell faces major hurdles, including potential antitrust scrutiny and opposition from Arm customers or Marvell competitors such as Broadcom and Qualcomm. A similar attempt occurred in 2020 when Nvidia announced plans to acquire Arm from SoftBank for $40 billion. The deal faced regulatory reviews and customer objections, ultimately being terminated in February 2022 after an 18-month review.
Insiders also note that management integration post-acquisition has not yet been defined. Whether Arm and Marvell will reopen negotiations remains uncertain, and Marvell may attract interest from other potential buyers. Representatives from SoftBank, Arm, and Marvell declined to comment on the rumors.
