Marvell’s AI Megadeal Hands Wall Street Multiple M&A Milestones

Marvell Technology Inc.’s $115 billion takeover of data center laser maker Lumentum Holdings Inc. will move Wall Street past a number of mergers and acquisitions milestones in a year already chock-full of megadeals.

On an equity basis, it’s the top M&A deal of the year and the largest ever in the global technology sector, excluding the SpaceX-xAI tie-up, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It also means 2026 now has the record for most announced M&A deals valued at $10 billion or more, the data show.

Marvell is paying $1,132 a share for its Californian peer, according to a statement Monday, in by far its biggest purchase to date. That’s a roughly 23.9% premium to where Lumentum closed on Oct. 28, the day before Bloomberg News reported a deal was close.

There are new highs too for some of the banks working on the transaction.

It’s the biggest M&A win to date for Qatalyst Partners, the specialist tech investment banking firm and lead financial adviser to Marvell, the Bloomberg-compiled data show.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which is also working with Marvell, has now notched more than $1.1 trillion of global M&A in a year for the first time. The New York-based bank had already landed roles on many of the major tie-ups of 2026, including NextEra Energy Inc.’s roughly $67 billion purchase of Dominion Energy Inc. and the $10 billion-plus take private of utility and power producer AES Corp.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the third bank with Marvell. Meanwhile, it’s among the biggest-ever M&A mandates for both of Lumentum’s banks, Citigroup Inc. and Evercore Inc. Citigroup has been aggressively hiring investment bankers from rivals in a bid to secure roles on more blockbuster deals.

Marvell-Lumentum highlights the extent to which the global boom in artificial intelligence is driving transactions across almost all major sectors, from chipmakers and other specialist tech suppliers to data center operators and power utilities. This is helping to fuel one of the best years for overall dealmaking.