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MRVL · Forward model · Communications and other · Bull case

What has to happen in Communications and other

Model as of

This page changes Communications and other inside the complete MRVL model. Every other vertical, corporate programme and valuation assumption stays in the selected portfolio case.

MRVL forward model
Horizon
Consolidated fair value $255.87 all other verticals held in this portfolio case
Final-quarter revenue $594M 6% of company revenue
Explicit segment contribution $2.61B EBITDA less segment capex, before corporate items

The custom business reaches the published target model of over $10 billion of revenue in fiscal 2029, on top of a connectivity base that management says has three separate businesses at or approaching a billion-dollar annualised run rate. Data center grew 45.7% year on year in the basis quarter with the custom ramp still described as beginning in the second half, and management guides custom to more than double in fiscal 2028 and accelerate significantly in fiscal 2029. NVIDIA's $2.0B preferred investment and the NVLink Fusion partnership put Marvell inside rather than opposite the largest AI infrastructure ecosystem, Celestial AI's Photonic Fabric adds scale-up interconnect content per rack, and the scale-up optics and switching TAM management calls 'still largely ahead of us' is not in the base path at all. The multiple holds at 8.5 times terminal revenue because the business is still compounding when the horizon ends.

Communications and other

Basis quarter$568M
Final quarter$594M
Implied CAGR+1%
Final revenue mix6%

Enterprise networking, carrier infrastructure, consumer and automotive/industrial, combined into one disclosed line in fiscal 2026. A cyclical recovery off the fiscal 2025 trough that is still well below its fiscal 2024 peak, and that turned down in the basis quarter for the first time since the trough: -3% sequentially, with management guiding a further low-to-mid-teens decline before what it calls a solid recovery in fiscal 2027 Q4.

Last four quarters
2026 Q3 $557M Reported
2026 Q4 $567M Reported
2027 Q1 $585M Reported
2027 Q2 $568M Reported
Enterprise networking: campus and SME routers, switches, WAPs, network appliancesCarrier infrastructure: broadband access, optical transport, routers, wireless RANConsumer: broadband gateways, gaming consoles, home storage, PCs, printers, set-top boxesAutomotive and industrial: industrial Ethernet, US military and government solutions
Sequential growth −14.0%/qtr decaying toward +0.5% -14.0% sequential: the middle of management's guided 'low to mid-teens percentage' decline for fiscal 2027 Q3, which the model reads as -14.0% sequentially and -12.3% year on year. Was +2.5%. This is the company's own number for one quarter, not a trend - see the vertical notes for why the driver cannot then carry the guided Q4 recovery.
Communications and other

Latest: $594M (2032Q2E)

Period Value
2025Q1 $344M
2025Q2 $392M
2025Q3 $415M
2025Q4 $452M
2026Q1 $455M
2026Q2 $516M
2026Q3 $557M
2026Q4 $567M
2027Q1 $585M
2027Q2 $568M
2027Q3E $494M
2027Q4E $457M
2028Q1E $439M
2028Q2E $431M
2028Q3E $430M
2028Q4E $433M
2029Q1E $439M
2029Q2E $447M
2029Q3E $456M
2029Q4E $466M
2030Q1E $477M
2030Q2E $488M
2030Q3E $500M
2030Q4E $512M
2031Q1E $525M
2031Q2E $538M
2031Q3E $552M
2031Q4E $565M
2032Q1E $580M
2032Q2E $594M

Assumptions & reasoning

  • THE PRINT BROKE THIS DRIVER'S SHAPE AND THE MODEL CANNOT EXPRESS THE FIX. Management guided fiscal 2027 Q3 revenue to 'decline in the low to mid-teens percentage range, both sequentially and year over year, followed by a solid sequential recovery in the fourth quarter', and separately said fiscal 2027 growth for this line should 'approach our 10% target'. A single decaying sequential rate can carry the dip or the recovery, not both. This revision carries the dip, because the dip is the first projected quarter and because carrying anything else would break the consolidated guidance and the data-center guidance at the same time. The magnitude of the recovery is not disclosed anywhere - no dollar figure, no percentage - so it has not been invented as a base shift.
  • What that costs, stated plainly: at -14.0% the model puts this line at $488.3M in fiscal 2027 Q3 and $444.7M in Q4, so fiscal 2027 comes out at $2,085.9M, -0.4% on fiscal 2026's $2,094.3M, against management's 'approach our 10% target' which would be roughly $2,300M. The model is about $215M light on this line for the year, and the shortfall compounds: fiscal 2028 lands at $1,613M. A future revision has to settle this with a dated base shift once the Q4 recovery has a number attached to it, most likely after the 6 October Investor Day or the fiscal 2027 Q3 print.
  • The -14.0% rate itself is management's own guided range read at its middle, not our extrapolation: it gives -14.0% sequentially and -12.3% year on year against fiscal 2026 Q3's $556.6M, both inside 'low to mid-teens'. The trailing sequentials it replaces were +1.9%, +3.1%, +3.1% and -3.0%, so 2.5% was not clearly wrong as a trend - it is simply not what the company guided for the next quarter.
  • The decay moves from 0.12 to 0.35 for a mechanical reason: the starting rate is now a guided one-quarter dip rather than a cyclical trend, and at 0.12 the model would carry a single guided down quarter out into a nine-quarter decline, taking the line to $262M. At 0.35 it troughs near $389M and turns up. Neither is what management described. This is damage limitation on a driver shape that no longer fits the guidance, and it is the most honestly wrong thing on this page.
  • The two earliest quarters are our arithmetic, not Marvell's disclosure. Communications and other did not exist as a reported line before fiscal 2026; the 10-K says the four legacy end markets were combined into it with the composition of data center unchanged, so 2025 Q1 and 2025 Q2 are the sum of the four legacy figures and are flagged estimated. Every later quarter, the $567.8M basis quarter included, is the reported figure.
  • The series has a structural break inside it. The 14 August 2025 sale of the automotive ethernet business took automotive and industrial from $76.0M in 2026 Q2 to $35.0M in 2026 Q3, roughly $40M a quarter out of this line. The basis quarter is the last one whose year-on-year comparison is distorted by it; from fiscal 2027 Q3 the disposal is on both sides, which is part of why the guided year-on-year decline is real rather than an artefact.
  • Seasonality tested and NOT carried. Ratio to a centred four-quarter moving average gave 0.953 for fiscal Q1, 1.013 for Q2, 1.001 and 1.031 for Q3 and 1.018 for Q4. The only quarter with two windows, fiscal Q3, spread 3.0 points - as wide as the whole apparent shape - and one of those windows is the quarter the automotive divestiture landed in. Management's own word for this line is 'lumpy'. Derived, method as stated; no factors are applied.
  • Terminal growth of 0.5% a quarter, about 2% a year, is untouched: mature networking and consumer silicon growing roughly with GDP. It never regains the $3,291.0M of fiscal 2024 inside this horizon, and after this revision it does not regain the basis quarter either - which is the flag above, not a forecast.
  • Margin starts at the consolidated 36.6% and glides DOWN to 33.0%, and capex intensity from 4.6% to 4.0%. Both remain assumptions with no disclosure behind them: Marvell reports one segment, so the only defensible starting point is the consolidated rate applied to both lines, with this one set below the company average because it is the cyclical, lower-content half.
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