Jensen Huang called a California chipmaker the 'next trillion-dollar' company, and its shares spiked 20%

• Shares in semiconductor producer Marvell Technology spiked in premarket trade on Tuesday.
• The surge comes after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called Marvell the "next trillion-dollar company."
• The AI boom has minted a new set of mega-cap firms, with rampant demand pushing share prices skywards.

Shares in US-based semiconductor manufacturer Marvell Technology surged in premarket trading on Tuesday after glowing praise from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

During an appearance onstage at a conference in Taiwan on Monday, Huang told the crowd and Marvell CEO Matthew Murphy that the California chipmaker would be the "next trillion-dollar company."

"Whoa, that would be exciting! Let's do it together," Murphy replied.

Huang, speaking as part of Murphy's keynote, went on to explain the reasoning behind his view, saying that Marvell has enabled greater connectivity across AI systems.

"Useful AI has arrived. It's the reason your demand is going through the roof," Huang said.

"When you take a computing problem, and you disaggregate it into a lot of parts, and you distribute it across the entire data center, what's necessary is connectivity," he added.

"That's the reason why Matt's doing so well. That's the reason why Marvell is so essential."

Huang's comments saw Marvell's share price surge more than 20% in out-of-hours trading. As of around 7:30 a.m. ET, the company's share price was 23% higher in premarket trade, and set to open at $269.80 per share. It closed Monday trading at $219.

Marvell's share price has rocketed over the past 12 months, climbing nearly 260% since June 2025 and 145% so far in 2026.

Earlier in 2026, Nvidia announced a $2 billion investment in Marvell, bumping the company's stock price 11%. The deal enabled Marvell to connect its products to Nvidia's AI systems.

The AI boom has minted a fresh set of $1 trillion companies, with huge demand for AI infrastructure contributing to ballooning share prices in the tech sector.

Just last week, two chipmakers — US-based Micron and South Korea's SK Hynix — passed the $1 trillion mark in market capitalization, while Taiwanese chip titan TSMC has also hit the trillion-dollar mark amid the AI boom.

14 companies worldwide are currently worth over $1 trillion, with 10 based in the US, two in South Korea, one in Taiwan, and one in Saudi Arabia. Of those 14, 13 are either tech or tech infrastructure companies, with Saudi oil giant Aramco the only exception.

Nvidia is the world's most valuable company by market capitalization, worth more than $5.4 trillion as of Tuesday morning.