The Module Makers: The Half That Sells to ManyWide moat

Marvell Technology (MRVL) — moat facet

One part designed once and sold to every module maker on earth — the only half of Marvell that isn't built around a single buyer.

Everything else on these pages describes concentration. This page describes the exception, and it is the reason the optics business deserves the higher rating inside this company.

One buyer per program, or many?Custom silicon1 buyer per program, re-competed each generationOptical DSPevery module maker, every hyperscalerNamed DSP customersInnoLight, Coherent, Eoptolink and othersData-center revenue, FY2026above $6B, ~74% of totalWhy they choose Marvellit sells no lasers, so it takes no module marginThe structural reason optics carries the higher rating inside Marvell.
The only half of Marvell whose customer base is genuinely broad — by design.

Custom silicon is designed for exactly one buyer per program and re-competed each generation. Optical DSPs are the opposite: a part designed once and sold to every module manufacturer serving every hyperscaler. InnoLight sources its DSPs primarily from Marvell; Coherent sources heavily from it; the industry's module vendors collectively decide the market rather than any single one of them1. When Marvell wins a speed transition, it wins across the customer base at once — and no individual customer's decision to build in-house can remove the market.

There is a second-order reason this base stays broad, covered on the Competitors page: Marvell does not sell lasers or finished modules, so it does not compete with the customers it supplies2. That neutrality is why several of them prefer it.

The limits are real. These buyers are consolidating, they second-source deliberately, and at the low-cost end some are already shifting sockets to cheaper DSPs3. But the structure is sound: many buyers, repeat purchases, and a product whose value resets upward at each speed grade.

Watch DSP share at the largest two or three module makers through the 1.6T transition. Holding it is what keeps this the diversified half of Marvell.

Moat trajectory: Widening

The one part of the customer picture that is improving. Every speed transition brings a new generation of modules and a fresh round of purchases across the whole vendor base, and the 1.6T ramp is expanding the number of programs Marvell's DSPs sit inside. The consolidation among module makers is a real offset, and the low-cost sockets are being contested — but on balance this base is getting broader and better while the rest of the customer picture narrows.

The number that tests this moat
Moat Explorer calc
Revenue from outside the ten largest customers
18% in fiscal 2026

Module makers buy the same DSP designs, which spreads Marvell's merchant revenue more widely than its custom work. The share outside the top ten growing would show that diversification increasing.

How it's calculated: 100% less the 82% of fiscal 2026 net revenue from the ten largest customers.
Source: Marvell Form 10-K, FY2026 ↗
References
  1. Third-party estimateInnoLight sources DSPs primarily from Marvell and Coherent sources heavily from it; some low-cost 800G sockets are shifting away.
    Optical module market analysis — Zhongji InnoLight sources its DSPs primarily from Marvell and Coherent sources heavily from Marvell; module vendors favour Marvell in part because it does not compete with them by selling lasers, allowing them to choose their own laser suppliers and preserve margin; InnoLight is estimated to hold roughly half of NVIDIA's optical module wallet and as much as 80% of Google's orders for modules above 800G in 2026; at the low-cost Gen-2 800G multimode end some vendors are shifting from Marvell's DSP to Broadcom or MaxLinear — 2026 · publ. 2026 · source ↗
  2. Third-party estimateModule makers favour Marvell partly because it sells no lasers and so does not compete with them.
    Optical module market analysis — Zhongji InnoLight sources its DSPs primarily from Marvell and Coherent sources heavily from Marvell; module vendors favour Marvell in part because it does not compete with them by selling lasers, allowing them to choose their own laser suppliers and preserve margin; InnoLight is estimated to hold roughly half of NVIDIA's optical module wallet and as much as 80% of Google's orders for modules above 800G in 2026; at the low-cost Gen-2 800G multimode end some vendors are shifting from Marvell's DSP to Broadcom or MaxLinear — 2026 · publ. 2026 · source ↗
  3. Third-party estimateAt the low-cost Gen-2 800G multimode end some vendors are shifting from Marvell's DSP to Broadcom or MaxLinear.
    Optical module market analysis — Zhongji InnoLight sources its DSPs primarily from Marvell and Coherent sources heavily from Marvell; module vendors favour Marvell in part because it does not compete with them by selling lasers, allowing them to choose their own laser suppliers and preserve margin; InnoLight is estimated to hold roughly half of NVIDIA's optical module wallet and as much as 80% of Google's orders for modules above 800G in 2026; at the low-cost Gen-2 800G multimode end some vendors are shifting from Marvell's DSP to Broadcom or MaxLinear — 2026 · publ. 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 23, 2026