Photonic Fabric (ex-Celestial AI) by Marvell Technology: status and timeline

Photonic Fabric (ex-Celestial AI)

Photonic fabric platform replacing copper with optical links for AI scale-up. Enables disaggregated compute and memory with 16 Tbps per chiplet.

ProtoStage 2 of 5

Acquired Feb 2026. Revenue contribution targets H2 FY2028; $1B annualized by FY2029.

Updated 2 Feb 2026Checked 10 Oct0 updates this week

Milestones

Next · Revenue contribution begins

Celestial AI founded2020Complete.
Photonic Fabric technology demonstrated2024Complete.
Marvell acquires Celestial AI2 Feb 2026Complete.
Revenue contribution beginsTarget Jun 2028Not yet reached.
$500M annualized run rateTarget Q4 2028Not yet reached.
$1B annualized run rateTarget Q4 2029Not yet reached.

Most important updates

Marvell completes $3.25B acquisition of Celestial AI2 Feb 2026
Marvell showcases optical interconnect portfolio at ECOC 202525 Sep 2025

Upcoming

Q1 2027First customer samples of photonic fabric (next)
Jun 2028Revenue contribution begins
Q4 2028$500M annualized run rate
Q4 2029$1B annualized run rate

Current obstacles

Manufacturing at scaleCo-packaged optics require new assembly processes, testing equipment, and supplier partnerships to move from engineering samples to high-volume production.
System integration complexityCustomers must redesign server and rack architecture to take advantage of optical fabrics; retrofit into existing data centers is not straightforward.
Optical module reliability in data center environmentsTemperature, humidity, and thermal cycling stresses on co-packaged optics must be managed; qualification standards are still being established.

Physics limits

Optical modulation rate limits bandwidth per wavelengthEven with advanced modulation schemes (e.g. PAM-8), a single wavelength can only transmit so many gigabits per second; multiple wavelengths per fiber increase cost and complexity.
Thermal budget for integrated photonicsOptical components generate and dissipate heat; co-packaging with high-power AI chips creates hotspots that challenge cooling in dense systems.

How it works

3 parts

Optical chiplets

Silicon photonics integrated with electrical logic

Optical transceivers and electrical interfaces in one co-packaged module placed directly with compute or memory.

Any-to-any fabric

High-bandwidth, low-congestion interconnect

Optical fabric replaces electrical backplanes, letting any processor reach any memory with minimal latency.

Disaggregated systems

Flexible compute-memory pooling

Optical fabric lets each GPU reach shared memory across multiple nodes, improving hardware utilization.

Spec sheet

Spec	Photonic Fabric (ex-Celestial AI)
Bandwidth per chiplet	16 Tbps^R (reported)
Marvell acquisition price (upfront)	$3.25B^R (reported)
Target annualized revenue Q4 FY2028	$500M^R (reported)
Target annualized revenue Q4 FY2029	$1B^R (reported)

^R reported by the company

Papers & demos

1 item

Feb 2026demo
Celestial AI Photonic Fabric demonstrated at scale (opens marvell.com)16 Tbps per chiplet optical interconnect technology validated for multi-rack AI systems with disaggregated compute and memory.

Update log

2 updates

Mon 2 Feb

Major: Marvell completes $3.25B acquisition of Celestial AIPressCommercial

Thu 25 Sep 2025

Minor: Marvell showcases optical interconnect portfolio at ECOC 2025PressResearch

About Marvell Technology

The team behind Photonic Fabric (ex-Celestial AI)

Marvell Technology

Semiconductor, optical interconnect, data center chips

Semiconductor designer for data centers, cloud, and storage. Acquired Celestial AI Feb 2026 for optical AI interconnect. FY2026 revenue $8.2B; Nasdaq-traded.

FY2026 revenue: $8.2B. Leads in 800 Gbps and 1.6 Tbps DSP interconnect chips.
Acquired Celestial AI Feb 2026 for $3.25B to add photonic fabric for optical AI scale-up.
Photonic fabric replaces electrical with optical links for disaggregated compute and memory.

marvell.com (opens marvell.com)Company profile →

Founded: 199531 yrs
Headquarters: United States
Status: Public
Valuation: $34Best. market capOct 2026estimate
Staff: ~7,500
Works in: ComputingAI accelerators & CPUs
Coverage: 1 program · 3 updateslatest 2 Feb 2026checked 10 Oct
Customers: NVIDIA (opens marvell.com)Hyperscale cloud providers (opens marvell.com)
Acquired by: Celestial AI (opens marvell.com)
People: Matt Murphy (opens marvell.com)Chairman and CEO

Spec

Photonic Fabric (ex-Celestial AI)

Bandwidth per chiplet

16 Tbps^R (reported)

Marvell acquisition price (upfront)

$3.25B^R (reported)

Target annualized revenue Q4 FY2028

$500M^R (reported)

Target annualized revenue Q4 FY2029

$1B^R (reported)