Key Highlights

  • Marvell Technology climbed on Friday, landing among the Nasdaq-100's top gainers, with no company-specific announcement found as the stock was carried by a sector-wide surge in AI hardware names.
  • Nvidia hit a record high with its Market Value topping roughly $5.7 trillion intraday, after Morgan Stanley named it the firm's top semiconductor pick with an Overweight rating and $300 target.
  • The rally was selective: hard-drive makers Seagate and Western Digital plunged on a separate Toshiba capacity report, while Marvell's data-center connectivity peers Semtech, Applied Optoelectronics and MACOM all climbed.
  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise jumped after booking a $1.2 billion order from Vultr for AMD-based AI racks, a reminder that AI spending is spreading beyond the largest cloud providers.

Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) climbed on Friday, October 2, landing on the list of the Nasdaq-100's top gainers as investors rushed back into the chipmakers that power AI data centers. Marvell designs custom chips for cloud giants, plus the networking, storage and optical-connectivity silicon that moves data between servers. No company-specific announcement was found to explain Friday's gain. Instead, the stock was carried by a sector-wide surge in AI hardware names.

The AI Chip Complex Lit Up

The tone was set by the biggest name in the group. Nvidia hit a record high during the session, with its market value topping roughly $5.7 trillion intraday, after Morgan Stanley named it the firm's top semiconductor pick with an Overweight rating and a $300 target.

Broadcom, Marvell's closest rival in custom AI chips, also climbed by the close. A report said a Broadcom financing syndicate is amassing about $60 billion to fund chips for Anthropic and other AI companies. Broadcom was trading lower when that report landed in the morning but reversed to finish higher.

Arm Holdings was the Nasdaq-100's second-best performer behind Rocket Lab, while AMD, Intel, ASML, KLA and Lam Research all advanced. Market commentary listed Marvell alongside Analog Devices, AMD, KLA and Lam as chip stocks trading up after the jobs data.

Why the Jobs Report Mattered

The broad backdrop was a surprisingly weak September employment report. Payrolls rose by just 29,000, against expectations of about 84,000, and earlier months were revised down by a combined 60,000. Wage growth slowed too, with average hourly Earnings at $37.81.

That softness knocked back expectations for another Fed rate hike in October. The Central Bank raised rates on September 16 for the first time since 2023 as the Iran war drove fuel prices higher. Traders sharply cut their bets on a repeat move at the October 27-28 meeting, which helped high-valuation technology stocks, including AI names.

The result was a record close for the Nasdaq-100 at 30,807.93, up 306.37 points. The Nasdaq Composite gained 319.27 points to 27,190.86, setting an intraday record but not a closing one.

Not Every Hardware Name Joined In

The rally was selective. Hard-drive makers Seagate and Western Digital plunged after a report said Toshiba plans to double its hard-drive production capacity. Memory maker Micron barely moved. That split shows investors were rewarding the compute and networking side of AI spending, where Marvell sits, rather than storage.

There was also a cautionary note from the bond market. Treasury yields dipped after the jobs report but reversed to close higher, with the 10-year near its highest level since 2002. Rising long-term yields can pressure richly valued growth stocks.

Marvell's peers in data-center connectivity also had a strong day. Semtech hit a 52-week high after Oppenheimer lifted its target, citing strong Demand across artificial intelligence data centers, while Applied Optoelectronics and MACOM Technology Solutions both climbed. Hewlett Packard Enterprise jumped after booking a $1.2 billion order from Vultr for AMD-based AI racks, a reminder that AI spending is spreading beyond the largest cloud providers.

Watching Whether the Momentum Carries Into Earnings

Investors will track whether the AI-infrastructure trade keeps its momentum into third-quarter earnings season, which starts with PepsiCo on October 8 and Delta on October 9 before the big banks report on October 13 and 14. The Fed's October 27-28 decision is the key macro event. Any further detail on Broadcom's financing for Anthropic, or new spending plans from cloud providers, could also shape sentiment around custom AI chip designers such as Marvell.