Marvell Expands Custom Chip Partnership with Google, Granting Stock Warrants
Marvell has expanded its custom silicon partnership with Google to develop TPU-related AI accelerators, storage, and networking controllers. As part of the deal, Marvell granted Google warrants to purchase up to 58.97 million shares at $206.58 per share, tied to future purchase milestones. This partnership highlights the growing trend of tech giants investing in custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) to optimize AI workloads and reduce dependency on general-purpose GPUs. For Marvell, securing Google as a long-term customer guarantees significant revenue streams through the end of fiscal year 2033. The agreement covers various custom projects including AI inference accelerators, memory interface controllers, and near-memory computing products. The vesting of the majority of the stock warrants is structured in 240 tranches, with each tranche vesting for every $500 million in custom product revenue generated from Google.
## BACKGROUND
Google's Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) is a custom-designed application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) optimized for accelerating machine learning workloads. Near-memory computing is an architectural approach that places processing units closer to memory to mitigate the "memory wall," reducing latency and energy consumption during data-intensive AI operations.