Google Signs $12.2 Billion Deal with Marvell for Custom Chips

Alphabet's Google has cemented its next semiconductor move by signing a $12.2 billion agreement with Marvell Technology to diversify beyond Broadcom for custom chips used in its Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) ecosystem.

The partnership focuses on custom semiconductor products tied to Google's TPU ecosystem, with applications spanning AI inference, storage and networking.

AI inference is an area where specialised hardware is particularly effective, as inference workloads require computing and networking infrastructure that can support AI services at scale.

The joint developments include AI inference accelerators, storage controllers, network interface controllers, memory interface controllers and near-memory compute.

This agreement gives Google another supplier for specialised silicon as it expands its TPU ecosystem.