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CRDO vs. MRVL: Which AI Connectivity Stock Is the Better Buy?
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Key Takeaways
CRDO and MRVL are key AI connectivity players benefiting from rising data-center demand.
Credo is seeing rapid growth from AEC adoption, hyperscaler traction and expanding DSP portfolio.
Marvell's data center dominance, strong interconnect demand and acquisitions drive a steady growth outlook.
Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. (CRDO - Free Report) and Marvell Technology, Inc. (MRVL - Free Report) are semiconductor companies that specialize in high-speed connectivity solutions that are essential for AI-driven data centers.
Semiconductor companies are at the core of the AI revolution, as they offer solutions that enable improved processing power and efficiency to execute cloud and AI workloads.
CRDO and Marvell are key players in this domain and stand to benefit from the surging AI-powered demand. While both these companies offer semiconductor exposure, their financial performance, outlooks, and valuations present different risk-reward profiles for investors.
So, the question now arises: Which stock is a better investment pick at present? Let us dive into the fundamentals, valuations, growth outlook and risks for each company.
CRDO: Fast-Rising Player
CRDO’s Active Electrical Cables (AECs) business sits at the core of its growth narrative, playing an increasingly critical role in AI-driven networking deployments. On the last earnings call, management added that the industry was still in the early stages of AEC adoption, implying a long runway for growth as AI infrastructure deployments accelerate.
Credo’s hyperscaler traction sits at the center of its AEC strength. The company reported “substantial year-over-year growth” across four domestic hyperscalers. Three hyperscalers each contributed more than 10% of total revenues, reflecting strong adoption of Credo’s high-reliability AEC solutions. Credo has also secured a fifth hyperscaler customer, further strengthening its position within the global cloud ecosystem. Beyond traditional hyperscalers, Credo is also seeing increasing demand from Neocloud providers.
Apart from AEC, CRDO is now focusing on the IC portfolio (retimers and DSPs), which includes retimers and optical DSPs, and has continued to show a healthy performance. Credo’s PCIe retimer program remains on track for design wins in fiscal 2026 and revenue contributions in the next fiscal year.
Frequent product launches are expected to aid CRDO in expanding its market share. CRDO recently introduced Cardinal, a new family of 3nm, low-power 224G/lane optical DSPs tailored for next-generation AI compute fabrics. As part of its second-generation 1.6T DSP portfolio, Cardinal is built for high-density AI clusters handling massive east-west traffic.
The newly launched Robin optical DSP family is built on its sixth-generation architecture and designed for scalable, energy-efficient AI networks. The portfolio includes 800G and 400G devices optimized for AI workloads, offering flexible configurations for fully retimed and LRO applications with integrated silicon photonics and EML drivers. With Blue Heron 224G AI scale-up retimer, it is eyeing the lucrative scale-up networking market.
Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
CRDO is also expanding its long-term growth potential by introducing three new product families that broaden the total addressable market. These include Zero-Flap optics, Active Linear Cables (ALCs) and OmniConnect gearboxes. CRDO recently announced the general availability of next-generation 800G 2×DR4 ZF optical transceivers, designed to eliminate optical link flaps that often disrupt large-scale AI infrastructure.
The company remains “well capitalized” to continue to fuel the next leg of growth, while maintaining a considerable cash buffer. Credo’s $1.3 billion strong cash position enables it to pursue strategic M&A while continuing investments in product innovation, helping it to deepen its technology moat and broaden the addressable market amid increasing competitive pressure.
The company recently acquired high-speed connectivity IP innovator CoMira Solutions. The acquisition strengthens Credo’s existing scale-out products, such as ZF, AECs, ZF Optics and ALCs, as well as OmniConnect solutions through innovative connectivity products like link layer, error correction and security semiconductor IP. The CoMira acquisition builds on Credo’s earlier Hyperlume acquisition, announced in October 2025. Hyperlume is a developer of miniature light-emitting diode (microLED) technology-based optical interconnects for chip-to-chip communication.
MRVL: Established Player
Marvell is a semiconductor company with a diversified product portfolio that includes custom ASICs, data center switches and 5G chips. The company’s strategic pivot to prioritize the data center market is proving to be a successful growth catalyst amid surging AI infrastructure spending. The data center end market emerged as the company's largest segment, with a contribution of 74% to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 revenues.
Data center revenues were $6 billion, up 46% year over year, driven by demand for interconnect, switching and storage products, as well as scaling of custom business (doubled in fiscal 2026). The company has raised its fiscal 2027 revenue forecast to $11 billion, with the entire upside coming from stronger cloud capex and accelerating bookings.
The data center business is expected to grow 40% year over year in fiscal 2027, with the interconnect business remaining a standout. Revenues from this segment are expected to grow more than 50%, up from 30% projected earlier, while custom business revenues are expected to surge more than 20% year over year in fiscal 2027.
Marvell’s strength in high-speed interconnects across scale-out, scale-across and scale-up architectures bodes well. The company is seeing increasing demand for 800-gig products and strong bookings for 1.6T solutions, supported by its early leadership in 200G-per-lane technology. MRVL expects 1.6T revenues to “ramp rapidly” in fiscal 2027 with “substantial” growth anticipated in fiscal 2028. Over the long-term, MRVL expects its 400-gig per lane technology to help it maintain momentum when the industry transitions to 3.2T solutions.
The data center switching business remains another catalyst with revenues expected to exceed $600 million in fiscal 2027, driven by strong demand for 51.2T and upcoming 100T platforms. MRVL will begin sampling its 100T platform in the first half of the current fiscal year.
Marvell Technology, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
The company has been divesting non-core assets (like the Automotive Ethernet business) while layering in acquisitions, such as Avera, Aquantia, Inphi and Innovium, and now Celestial AI and XConn Technologies. Celestial AI specializes in the Photonic Fabric technology or PF platform. This platform is purpose-built for scale-up optical interconnect. MRVL expects Celestial AI's PF platform to enable large-scale commercial deployment of CPO for scale-up connectivity beginning next year. CPO revenues from Celestial are expected to reach a $500 million annualized run rate by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2028 and double by fiscal 2029.
XConn Technologies will aid in expanding its footprint across PCIe and CXL switch opportunities. Initial revenue contributions from XConn are expected to begin in the third quarter of fiscal 2027 and ramp to a $50 million annualized run rate by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2027. XConn is anticipated to add $100 million in revenues in fiscal 2028.
Stiff competition in the semiconductor space and global trade tensions remain a matter of concern for Marvell Technology. Also, its custom AI silicon, including XPUs, is weighing on the gross margin performance due to higher costs related to the manufacturing of these chips. Apart from significant upfront R&D and engineering investments, acquisitions bring along execution and integration risks.
Price Performances & Valuations of CRDO & MRVL
In the past month, CRDO has lost 14.5% while MRVL has gained 12.1%
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
In terms of the forward 12-month price/sales ratio, Credo is trading at 9.79, higher than MRVL’s 6.77X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
How Do Zacks Estimates Compare for CRDO & MRVL?
Analysts have revised earnings estimates upwards by 18.7% for CRDO for the current fiscal year in the past 60 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Estimates have been revised 5.6% upwards for MRVL’s bottom line.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
CRDO or MRVL: Which Is a Better Pick?
CRDO currently flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and MRVL carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
In terms of the Zacks Rank, CRDO appears to be a better pick at the moment.
View the Zacks #1 Rank List
Image: Bigstock
CRDO vs. MRVL: Which AI Connectivity Stock Is the Better Buy?
Key Takeaways
Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. (CRDO - Free Report) and Marvell Technology, Inc. (MRVL - Free Report) are semiconductor companies that specialize in high-speed connectivity solutions that are essential for AI-driven data centers.
Semiconductor companies are at the core of the AI revolution, as they offer solutions that enable improved processing power and efficiency to execute cloud and AI workloads.
CRDO and Marvell are key players in this domain and stand to benefit from the surging AI-powered demand. While both these companies offer semiconductor exposure, their financial performance, outlooks, and valuations present different risk-reward profiles for investors.
So, the question now arises: Which stock is a better investment pick at present? Let us dive into the fundamentals, valuations, growth outlook and risks for each company.
CRDO: Fast-Rising Player
CRDO’s Active Electrical Cables (AECs) business sits at the core of its growth narrative, playing an increasingly critical role in AI-driven networking deployments. On the last earnings call, management added that the industry was still in the early stages of AEC adoption, implying a long runway for growth as AI infrastructure deployments accelerate.
Credo’s hyperscaler traction sits at the center of its AEC strength. The company reported “substantial year-over-year growth” across four domestic hyperscalers. Three hyperscalers each contributed more than 10% of total revenues, reflecting strong adoption of Credo’s high-reliability AEC solutions. Credo has also secured a fifth hyperscaler customer, further strengthening its position within the global cloud ecosystem. Beyond traditional hyperscalers, Credo is also seeing increasing demand from Neocloud providers.
Apart from AEC, CRDO is now focusing on the IC portfolio (retimers and DSPs), which includes retimers and optical DSPs, and has continued to show a healthy performance. Credo’s PCIe retimer program remains on track for design wins in fiscal 2026 and revenue contributions in the next fiscal year.
Frequent product launches are expected to aid CRDO in expanding its market share. CRDO recently introduced Cardinal, a new family of 3nm, low-power 224G/lane optical DSPs tailored for next-generation AI compute fabrics. As part of its second-generation 1.6T DSP portfolio, Cardinal is built for high-density AI clusters handling massive east-west traffic.
The newly launched Robin optical DSP family is built on its sixth-generation architecture and designed for scalable, energy-efficient AI networks. The portfolio includes 800G and 400G devices optimized for AI workloads, offering flexible configurations for fully retimed and LRO applications with integrated silicon photonics and EML drivers. With Blue Heron 224G AI scale-up retimer, it is eyeing the lucrative scale-up networking market.
Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. Quote
CRDO is also expanding its long-term growth potential by introducing three new product families that broaden the total addressable market. These include Zero-Flap optics, Active Linear Cables (ALCs) and OmniConnect gearboxes. CRDO recently announced the general availability of next-generation 800G 2×DR4 ZF optical transceivers, designed to eliminate optical link flaps that often disrupt large-scale AI infrastructure.
The company remains “well capitalized” to continue to fuel the next leg of growth, while maintaining a considerable cash buffer. Credo’s $1.3 billion strong cash position enables it to pursue strategic M&A while continuing investments in product innovation, helping it to deepen its technology moat and broaden the addressable market amid increasing competitive pressure.
The company recently acquired high-speed connectivity IP innovator CoMira Solutions. The acquisition strengthens Credo’s existing scale-out products, such as ZF, AECs, ZF Optics and ALCs, as well as OmniConnect solutions through innovative connectivity products like link layer, error correction and security semiconductor IP. The CoMira acquisition builds on Credo’s earlier Hyperlume acquisition, announced in October 2025. Hyperlume is a developer of miniature light-emitting diode (microLED) technology-based optical interconnects for chip-to-chip communication.
MRVL: Established Player
Marvell is a semiconductor company with a diversified product portfolio that includes custom ASICs, data center switches and 5G chips. The company’s strategic pivot to prioritize the data center market is proving to be a successful growth catalyst amid surging AI infrastructure spending. The data center end market emerged as the company's largest segment, with a contribution of 74% to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 revenues.
Data center revenues were $6 billion, up 46% year over year, driven by demand for interconnect, switching and storage products, as well as scaling of custom business (doubled in fiscal 2026). The company has raised its fiscal 2027 revenue forecast to $11 billion, with the entire upside coming from stronger cloud capex and accelerating bookings.
The data center business is expected to grow 40% year over year in fiscal 2027, with the interconnect business remaining a standout. Revenues from this segment are expected to grow more than 50%, up from 30% projected earlier, while custom business revenues are expected to surge more than 20% year over year in fiscal 2027.
Marvell’s strength in high-speed interconnects across scale-out, scale-across and scale-up architectures bodes well. The company is seeing increasing demand for 800-gig products and strong bookings for 1.6T solutions, supported by its early leadership in 200G-per-lane technology. MRVL expects 1.6T revenues to “ramp rapidly” in fiscal 2027 with “substantial” growth anticipated in fiscal 2028. Over the long-term, MRVL expects its 400-gig per lane technology to help it maintain momentum when the industry transitions to 3.2T solutions.
The data center switching business remains another catalyst with revenues expected to exceed $600 million in fiscal 2027, driven by strong demand for 51.2T and upcoming 100T platforms. MRVL will begin sampling its 100T platform in the first half of the current fiscal year.
Marvell Technology, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Marvell Technology, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Marvell Technology, Inc. Quote
The company has been divesting non-core assets (like the Automotive Ethernet business) while layering in acquisitions, such as Avera, Aquantia, Inphi and Innovium, and now Celestial AI and XConn Technologies. Celestial AI specializes in the Photonic Fabric technology or PF platform. This platform is purpose-built for scale-up optical interconnect. MRVL expects Celestial AI's PF platform to enable large-scale commercial deployment of CPO for scale-up connectivity beginning next year. CPO revenues from Celestial are expected to reach a $500 million annualized run rate by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2028 and double by fiscal 2029.
XConn Technologies will aid in expanding its footprint across PCIe and CXL switch opportunities. Initial revenue contributions from XConn are expected to begin in the third quarter of fiscal 2027 and ramp to a $50 million annualized run rate by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2027. XConn is anticipated to add $100 million in revenues in fiscal 2028.
Stiff competition in the semiconductor space and global trade tensions remain a matter of concern for Marvell Technology. Also, its custom AI silicon, including XPUs, is weighing on the gross margin performance due to higher costs related to the manufacturing of these chips. Apart from significant upfront R&D and engineering investments, acquisitions bring along execution and integration risks.
Price Performances & Valuations of CRDO & MRVL
In the past month, CRDO has lost 14.5% while MRVL has gained 12.1%
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
In terms of the forward 12-month price/sales ratio, Credo is trading at 9.79, higher than MRVL’s 6.77X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
How Do Zacks Estimates Compare for CRDO & MRVL?
Analysts have revised earnings estimates upwards by 18.7% for CRDO for the current fiscal year in the past 60 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Estimates have been revised 5.6% upwards for MRVL’s bottom line.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
CRDO or MRVL: Which Is a Better Pick?
CRDO currently flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and MRVL carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
In terms of the Zacks Rank, CRDO appears to be a better pick at the moment.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.