SoftBank Group earlier this year explored a potential deal to acquire US chipmaker Marvell Technology, aiming to merge it with its chip design subsidiary ARM to create a semiconductor giant in the artificial intelligence race.

On November 6th, Bloomberg, citing sources with knowledge of the matter, reported that SoftBank had made an acquisition proposal to Marvell several months ago, but the two sides failed to reach a consensus on the terms. Currently, no active negotiati

Following the news, Marvell's stock price rose 13% at one point during the Asian trading session on Blue Ocean, an alternative trading platform. Year-to-date, the company's stock price has fallen by 18% with a market value of around $80 billion. In c

Sun Zhengyi's AI Vision

Driven by the construction boom of artificial intelligence data centers, the AI chip market has enormous potential, providing strong impetus for SoftBank's layout.

According to media reports citing sources with knowledge of the matter, Sun Zhengyi has been intermittently studying the feasibility of Marvell as a potential acquisition target for years.

Even if SoftBank restarts the negotiation, this deal still faces significant obstacles.

First of all, the transaction price could be close to 100 billion USD, which is a huge investment.

Secondly, the transaction will face strict regulatory review. Although Son has close ties with U.S. President Trump, it is still uncertain whether the U.S. government will approve a Japanese company's acquisition of a key U.S. chipmaker as it is comm

Moreover, antitrust review is also a huge challenge. Previously, regulatory agencies in the United States, Europe, and China had forced NVIDIA to abandon its acquisition of ARM in 2020.

Finally, media sources citing informed sources revealed that ARM and Marvell have not reached a consensus on how to integrate their management teams. ARM's CEO, Rene Haas, who is 63 years old, and Marvell's CEO, Matthew Murphy, who is in his early 50

Marvell's Opportunities and Challenges

Marvell was once highly sought after by the market for its custom chip business prospects, which served clients including Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.

Led by CEO Matthew Murphy, Marvell focuses on designing and developing semiconductors and related technologies for data centers, and reported a record-breaking revenue of $2 billion in the quarter ended August 2nd.

However, its performance has not been smooth sailing. In March of this year, Marvell's stock price suffered the worst single-day decline in more than 20 years due to the company's revenue forecast failing to meet expectations.

Meanwhile, Broadcom, Marvell's major competitor in the customized AI chip field, has successfully gained new clients such as OpenAI. Some analysts expressed concerns about the predictability of Marvell's future business performance.

In September this year, due to customer uncertainty, TD Cowen lowered its rating on ARM to 'hold'. With a market value of around 80 billion US dollars, ARM has already reached a market value of approximately 170 billion US dollars.