Jensen Huang Predicts Marvell Will Join the Trillion-Dollar Club at COMPUTEX

The opening day of COMPUTEX 2026 in Taipei was packed with star power, as Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang once again demonstrated his Midas touch. While appearing on stage to support chip technology firm Marvell (MRVL), Huang publicly predicted that the partner, which focuses on data center interconnects and custom ASICs, will become "the next company to surpass a trillion dollars in market capitalization." The remark not only ignited cheers from the audience but also directly propelled Marvell's stock price up more than 7% during U.S. trading that day, hitting a new all-time high.

The dialogue between Huang and Marvell CEO Matt Murphy not only revealed that the AI infrastructure race has extended from a pure arms race in computing power into the deeper waters of data transmission and connectivity technology, but also delivered a powerful endorsement of Taiwan's critical role in the semiconductor packaging and optical communication supply chain.

From GPU Kingpin to Connectivity Evangelist: Huang Anoints Marvell's Trillion-Dollar Potential

During his keynote, Marvell CEO Matt Murphy pointed out that the performance improvement speed of current AI computing chips (such as GPUs and XPUs) has far outpaced the advancement of connectivity technologies like networking and storage. He stressed: "If data cannot move efficiently between chips, servers, racks, and even data centers in different regions, no amount of computing power can be fully utilized. Future AI innovation will no longer be judged solely on the performance of a single chip, but will depend on connectivity efficiency."

Reviewing the company's transformation, Murphy noted that in 2016, Marvell was a company with annual revenue of $2.3 billion, with its data center business accounting for less than 10%. Today, the company's revenue has surged dramatically over the past five years, projected to reach $16.4 billion next year, with the data center business now representing over 75% of the total.

At Murphy's invitation, Jensen Huang took the stage. He immediately displayed his humor, quipping "I love getting rich," and asked Murphy: "Are you confident about becoming the next trillion-dollar company? We still have some work to do, but we are not far off." Huang emphasized that with the advent of practical AI agents, computing is moving toward disaggregation and distribution, requiring effective organization of various resources, with connectivity being the most critical key. He explicitly stated that the collaboration between Nvidia and Marvell is a match made in heaven, particularly the combination in the optical field and NVLink Fusion technology, which can help customers gain tremendous flexibility.

Addressing the highly anticipated transition timeline from copper cabling to silicon photonics, Huang proposed a pragmatic "copper-to-optical transition" strategy. He stated: "The industry should use copper where it can, and use optical communication where it is needed. Copper has its limits. Over the next five to ten years, we will use a lot of copper and optics." Murphy added a vivid analogy: "At the end of the copper tunnel is optics," pointing out that current copper materials can transmit to 144 XPUs, but optical technology has virtually no limit, potentially reaching over 1,000 XPUs.

Optical Technology Takes Off, Relying on Taiwan's Advanced Packaging Ecosystem

Murphy specifically emphasized that advanced packaging technology plays a decisive role in whether optical technology can advance smoothly. To illustrate this, he invited Tien Wu, Chief Operating Officer of ASE Technology, the global chip packaging leader, onto the stage. Wu stated that ASE has collaborated with Marvell for over a decade, and in response to Marvell's massive demand in the AI era, ASE is actively increasing its production capacity.

Wu reflected that over the past forty years, Taiwan has transitioned from wireless and communication computing to the current data center generation, accumulating 350,000 semiconductor employees and 1.1 million high-tech workers. He analyzed: "Compared to many countries, the career options for engineers in Taiwan are not that diverse, causing the semiconductor and technology industries to become mainstream. This ecosystem is very difficult to replicate, and even if possible, it must rely on so many people."

Market analysts noted that Huang's remarks were not merely polite praise but highlighted that the AI infrastructure race has extended beyond GPUs themselves to custom chips, switches, optoelectronic interconnects, and internal data center transmission efficiency. Marvell's recent strategic positioning directly addresses the needs of major cloud service providers to reduce power consumption, improve AI cluster efficiency, and diversify supply chain risks. If Marvell can continue to secure ASIC orders from hyperscale cloud customers, its valuation logic will shift from a traditional cyclical semiconductor stock to a core AI infrastructure supplier.

Marvell shares surged $14.43 in U.S. trading on Monday, a gain of 7.04%, closing at a record high of $219.43, with a market capitalization of approximately $191.96 billion. Since the start of this year, the stock price has soared 158.21%.

Lip-Bu Tan Charms in Mandarin, Vows to Return Intel to Its Engineering Core

Earlier the same day, Intel (INTC) CEO Lip-Bu Tan also delivered a keynote as a host. He immediately greeted the audience in fluent Mandarin and showed a photo from his climb up Taipei's Elephant Mountain the previous night, using the theme "Crossing Mountains and Seas to Create a New Era" to close the psychological distance with Taiwan's supply chain.

Tan described himself as the first Intel CEO in history who can speak Mandarin and bond with Taiwanese partners over drinks. He recalled being invited to Taiwan 40 years ago by former Minister of Economic Affairs K.T. Li to introduce the concept of venture capital, subsequently establishing a venture capital fund with assistance from the development fund. He emotionally noted that during the same period, Morris Chang also returned from Texas Instruments to Taiwan to found TSMC (2330.TW), and he felt deeply excited to have participated in the foundational process of the Hsinchu Science Park and "Silicon Island."

Discussing his reforms over roughly 14 months as Intel CEO, Tan stressed that "execution has always been the top priority." He stated that Intel is fundamentally an engineering company, and from his first day on the job, he decided to have all engineering teams report directly to him to gain deep insight into engineering progress and drive success. He revealed: "Our customers and partners are already feeling the transformation happening at Intel, but we are just getting started."

Tan pointed out that Intel ships hundreds of millions of SoCs annually, working closely with partners at every layer of the technology stack. He identified four future core computing ecosystems: personal computers, edge intelligent agents and physical AI, foundational data centers, and emerging intelligent centers. Regarding the closely watched advanced process technology, Tan has continued to advance the Intel 18A process node since taking over, and earlier this year unveiled the Core Ultra Series 3 processor, codenamed Panther Lake, as the first product to use this process.

Market sources indicate that since taking office, Tan has reshaped the organizational culture with a discipline reminiscent of Chinese corporate management, not only canceling the work-from-home policy but also flattening the leadership structure to enable faster cross-departmental coordination. After the Trump administration briefly questioned his background, the U.S. government ultimately committed billions of dollars to acquire nearly a 10% stake, underscoring Intel's irreplaceable position in U.S. semiconductor strategy.

With Marvell singled out by Jensen Huang as a trillion-dollar contender and Intel striving for a comeback under Lip-Bu Tan's leadership, the first day of COMPUTEX painted a clearer picture of the competition, cooperation, and evolution within the global semiconductor landscape.