Marvell CEO Optimistic on 5G, Notes Other Chip Shortages; Stock Down

most “end markets,” he said on a fiscal Q4 call Wednesday. The supply chain “needs time to increase capacity,” and the “supply gap” seems likely to persist “at least” through Marvell’s fiscal year ending January 2022, he said. The chipmaker downplayed its revenue growth outlook for fiscal Q1 ending late April. It's forecasting $800 million, plus or minus 5%, which would mean flat sequential growth at the midrange. The stock closed 12% lower Thursday at $40.10. Marvell’s “growth initiatives” in 5G and cloud helped drive a 24% revenue increase in its networking business for Q4 ended Jan. 30, said Murphy. “We delivered our sixth straight quarter of sequential revenue growth” in 5G, “driven by standard and semi-custom product shipments to Samsung and Nokia,” partially offset by a decline in application-specific 5G ICs “as deployments in China take a pause,” he said. Factoring out the “typical lumpy nature of individual regional rollouts,” said Murphy, 5G infrastructure deployments “are expected to continue to strengthen worldwide.” That the recently concluded first phase of the FCC C-band spectrum auction was the “highest grossing” in the U.S. was “a clear indicator of the potential revenue opportunities carriers expect from 5G technology,” he said. “Other regions around the world are also opening up spectrum for 5G services.” Marvell’s open radio access networks platform, launched in December, has Facebook and Fujitsu as customers, he said.