Google pits Marvell against Broadcom as it chases AI crown

Google is eyeing an expansion of its chip ecosystem by partnering with Marvell, a rival to Broadcom, to develop custom silicon for its AI-focused Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). This shift comes as Google seeks to diversify its technology suppliers to avoid potential price hikes from Broadcom, a long-time partner for its TPUs.

The partnership could lead to Marvell supplying key components such as AI inference accelerators, storage controllers, network interface controllers, memory interface controllers, and near memory compute. While the specifics of the technologies are undisclosed, Marvell's extensive portfolio includes high-speed SerDes, multi-die XPU reference designs, CXL memory controllers, and silicon photonics interconnects.

One intriguing possibility is Marvell's Photonic Fabric technology, which could enable Google to dynamically reallocate additional memory to different TPU clusters based on workload, rather than attaching memory in a fixed ratio. This would allow Google to make memory a fungible resource, expanding its cloud computing capabilities.

The move is expected to be a significant revenue driver for Marvell, earning Google a warrant to acquire nearly 59 million shares, valued at around $12.2 billion. However, the extent to which Google will exercise this option remains to be seen.