The Ledger ResearchPrivate

The Front Office

Scouting report · MRVL

Matthew J. Murphy

  • Chairman & CEO, MRVL since 2016-07src

Marvell CEO since July 2016 after 22 years at Maxim; Chairman since 2023

B−66 / 100

Ranked #18 of 23

Scouting sheet

as of 24 Sep 2026
Delivers guidance693 beat · 11 met · 3 missed · 1 withdrawn
Answers the question887 dodges in 114 answers on 8 calls
Capital allocation60company five-year record: neutral
Pay design3569% performance-conditioned · revenue, margin, relative tsr, eps, time only · 55.9% for · 0.94% of net income
Skin in the game73stake worth $203.5m, 8× last year's pay
Age
53src
In the role
10 yr
Promises scored
18
Hit rate
78%
Dodges / 100 answers
6.1
Airtime on calls
71%
Every promise, oldest firstMMMMMMMMXXBMBMMBXW

What to weigh

Red flag 1

  • Say-on-pay got only 55.9% support at the 2026-06-25 meeting (327.6m for, 258.6m against), down from about 83% in 2025src

Watch 5

  • He has been both Chairman and CEO since June 2023. A shareholder proposal for an independent chair drew 36.9% of votes cast in 2026src
  • Per the dossier's dodge log he answered every scored dodge. The same topic, Marvell's position and exclusivity in its XPU programs, was dodged in six quarters, once on a date he had set himselfsrc
  • His FY2026 AI-revenue target (to 'very significantly exceed' $2.5bn) was never reported against; the company dropped the metric (S8 row 20, withdrawn)src
  • The April 2023 special PSU vested on stock-price hurdles of $60/$80/$100 (a fourth at $120 remained open). 605,780 shares vested on 2026-04-15, of which 318,944 were withheld for tax. It explains most of the $41.8m FY2024 stock awardsrc
  • Compensation actually paid in FY2026 was -$69.7m against a $25.1m SCT total. The proxy puts Marvell's FY2026 TSR at 46.2 points behind the S&P 500src

In their favour 2

  • Bought 13,600 shares on the open market on 2025-09-25 at a $77.09 weighted average ($1.05m)src
  • Hedging and pledging are banned. The CEO ownership guideline is 6x salary, and all executive officers met or were on track at FY2026 year endsrc

Career

  1. 2023 – now
    Marvell Technologysrc
    Chairman & CEO
    Chairman since June 2023; also President until July 2025
  2. 2016 – 2023
    Marvell Technologysrc
    President & CEO; director
    Effective 2016-07-11, hired from Maxim at age 43
  3. 2015 – 2016
    Maxim Integrated Productssrc
    EVP, Business Units, Sales and Marketing
    May 2015 to June 2016; company-wide P&L responsibility per DEF14A-2026
  4. 2011 – 2015
    Maxim Integrated Productssrc
    SVP, Communications and Automotive Solutions Group
    September 2011 to May 2015; group named in DEF14A-2026
  5. 2006 – 2011
    Maxim Integrated Productssrc
    VP, Worldwide Sales & Marketing
  6. 1994 – 2006
    Maxim Integrated Productssrc
    Business unit management and customer operations roles
    Start year inferred from the proxy's '22 years' at Maxim before July 2016; roles before 2006 are not itemised

Not located: Maxim roles before 2006 not itemised in any source searched; Franklin & Marshall graduation year not located

Achievements

  • Hired from Maxim as President & CEO effective 2016-07-11 and has run Marvell for ten years sincesrc
  • GAAP net income went from losses in FY2022-FY2025 (FY2025: -$885.0m) to +$2,670.1m in FY2026src
  • Custom silicon grew from zero revenue to $1.5bn in FY2026, beating his own December 2024 target of about $1bnsrc
  • Proxy credits him personally with the March 2026 NVIDIA partnership, which came with a $2bn NVIDIA investment in Marvellsrc
  • Elected 2018 Chair of the Semiconductor Industry Associationsrc

Education

  • Franklin & Marshall College, BAsrc
  • Stanford University, Stanford Executive Programsrc

Background

  • Family The 2026 proxy states there are no family relationships among director nominees and executive officerssrc
  • Other Hired two months after an April 2016 agreement that added four directors to the board, among them Starboard Value's Peter Feldsrc
  • Other His 2016 offer letter priced his sign-on equity from the date Marvell became current with its SEC periodic reports, which it was not when he was hiredsrc
  • Boards Director of eBay Inc., March 2019 to June 2022src
  • Boards SIA board member and its 2018 Chair; named Global Semiconductor Alliance board chair in December 2022src
  • Other Severance agreement from 2016, extended to 2028-04-15: two times salary plus 100% of target bonus and 18 months of equity acceleration on a termination without cause; Tier 1 in the change-in-control plansrc
  • Other Recommends pay for the executives who report to him but not his ownsrc

The promise ledger

18 scored · 0 open
ResultWhat was promisedWhere it is scoredHow
M MetQ3 FY25 revenue $1,450m ±5%; non-GAAP EPS $0.40 ±0.05MRVL row 1written outlook
M MetQ4 FY25 revenue $1,800m ±5%; EPS $0.59 ±0.05MRVL row 2written outlook
M MetQ1 FY26 revenue $1,875m ±5%; EPS $0.61 ±0.05MRVL row 3written outlook
M MetQ2 FY26 revenue $2,000m ±5%; EPS $0.67 ±0.05MRVL row 4written outlook
M MetQ3 FY26 revenue $2,060m ±5%; GM 59.5–60.0%; EPS $0.74 ±0.05MRVL row 5written outlook
M MetQ4 FY26 revenue $2,200m ±5%; GM 58.5–59.5%; EPS $0.79 ±0.05MRVL row 6written outlook
M MetQ1 FY27 revenue $2,400m ±5%; GM 58.25–59.25%; EPS $0.79 ±0.05MRVL row 7written outlook
M MetQ2 FY27 revenue $2,700m ±5%; GM 58.25–59.25%; EPS $0.93 ±0.05MRVL row 8written outlook
X MissedQ3 FY25 GAAP EPS $(0.09) ±0.05MRVL row 9written outlook
X MissedQ1 FY27 GAAP EPS $0.31 ±0.05MRVL row 10written outlook
B BeatFY26 custom revenue ~$1bn — "about $500 million from custom going to $1 billion next year"MRVL row 11said it
M MetSBC as a share of revenue down — "We are also focused on reducing our stock-based compensation expense as a percent of revenue, and we expect significant improvement in this metric going forward."MRVL row 14said it
B BeatAutomotive-Ethernet sale to close "within calendar 2025"MRVL row 15said it
M MetCelestial AI close — "The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of next year"MRVL row 16said it
M MetLead-customer 3nm follow-on XPU — "expect to start production in calendar 2026"MRVL row 17said it
B BeatFY27 revenue ~$9.5bn (first guide, September 2025)MRVL row 18said it
X MissedInvestor Day on 2025-06-10MRVL row 19said it
W WithdrawnFY26 AI revenue — "we also expect to very significantly exceed our $2.5 billion target in fiscal 2026"MRVL row 20said it

Questions dodged

6.1 per 100 answers

  1. FY25 Q3 (2024-12-03) · next-generation XPU vendor · Harlan Sur (JPMorgan). Asked "is it fair to assume that you will be the ASIC vendor supporting your customer on this next-gen 3-nanometer training ASIC targeted to ramp late next year?" Matt Murphy answered with the $40bn custom TAM, the 20% share target and the AWS agreement; the vendor question was not addressed. CALL-FY25Q3.

    from MRVL · dossier-2026-09-24.md

  2. FY26 Q1 (2025-05-29) · second-sourcing protection · Quinn Bolton (Needham). Asked "Do you guys have guarantees that you don't get blanked at the end of the year if they, you know, take the other path?" Matt Murphy referred back to his earlier answer and to revenue confidence; guarantees were not addressed. CALL-FY26Q1. (To Vivek Arya's exclusivity question on the same call he gave an unusually direct answer:…

    from MRVL · dossier-2026-09-24.md

  3. FY26 Q2 (2025-08-28) · status of two programs management itself had dated · Harlan Sur. Asked whether the 3nm follow-on at the lead customer — for which Murphy had said in May "we have now secured three-nanometer wafer and advanced packaging capacity and expect to start production in calendar 2026" (CALL-FY26Q1) — and the third XPU customer's back-half-2026 ramp were on track: "Is this program still tracking…

    from MRVL · dossier-2026-09-24.md

  4. FY26 Q2 · growth next year vs a ~50% industry · Vivek Arya (BofA). Matthew J. Murphy: "We don't do an annual guide, and we typically just guide a quarter at a time", then enterprise-networking and carrier recovery. Four weeks later (2025-09-24) the company gave an FY27 revenue outlook on an investor call. CALL-FY26Q2.

    from MRVL · dossier-2026-09-24.md

  5. FY26 Q4 (2026-03-05) · exclusivity at the new XPU customer · Vivek Arya. Asked "How would you handicap kind of your exclusivity at the large new XPU customer you plan to start at next year?" Matthew Murphy answered on engagement depth and multigenerational planning; exclusivity was not addressed. CALL-FY26Q4.

    from MRVL · dossier-2026-09-24.md

  6. FY27 Q1 (2026-05-27) · exclusivity at the new XPU program · Vivek Arya. "Do you expect to be exclusive in this?" Matthew J. Murphy answered on milestones and the program's third of custom growth; exclusivity was not addressed. CALL-FY27Q1.

    from MRVL · dossier-2026-09-24.md

  7. FY27 Q2 (2026-08-27) · size of the new XPU program · Vivek Arya (partial). Matthew Murphy: "without quantifying it", then "probably the most meaningful part of the next year raise is actually from the scale-up optics switching in other areas". CALL-FY27Q2.

    from MRVL · dossier-2026-09-24.md

Calls reviewed

  • FY2025-Q3.roic.json — 18 answers, 68% of the words
  • FY2025-Q4.roic.json — 16 answers, 72% of the words
  • FY2026-Q1.roic.json — 22 answers, 69% of the words
  • FY2026-Q2.roic.json — 17 answers, 58% of the words
  • FY2026-Q3.roic.json — 8 answers, 77% of the words
  • FY2026-Q4.roic.json — 14 answers, 77% of the words
  • FY2027-Q1.roic.json — 10 answers, 75% of the words
  • FY2027-Q2.roic.json — 9 answers, 68% of the words

Sources

18
  1. Filing Marvell Technology DEF 14A, 2026 annual meeting (accession 0001104659-26-060253) · 2026-05-13
  2. Filing Marvell Technology 8-K Item 5.07, 2026 annual meeting results (0001628280-26-045564) · 2026-06-25
  3. Filing Marvell Technology Group 8-K Item 5.02, Murphy appointed President & CEO (0001193125-16-626575) · 2016-06-20
  4. Filing Marvell Technology Group 8-K Items 1.01/5.02, Starboard agreement and four new directors (0001193125-16-557852) · 2016-04-27
  5. Filing SEC XBRL companyconcept us-gaap/NetIncomeLoss, CIK 1835632 (FY2026 10-K, 0001835632-26-000011) · 2026-03-11
  6. Filing SEC XBRL companyconcept dei/EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding, CIK 1835632 (Q2 FY2027 10-Q cover, 876.9m at 2026-08-21) · 2026-08-28
  7. Filing Form 4, Matthew J. Murphy (reporting CIK 1381430), open-market purchase of 2025-09-25 (0001628280-25-042718) · 2025-09-25
  8. Filing Form 4, Matthew J. Murphy, RSU vesting and a gift of 2025-10-17 (0001628280-25-045413) · 2025-10-17
  9. Filing Form 4, Matthew J. Murphy, 10b5-1 sale, vesting of the 2023 price-target PSUs and new grants of 2026-04-15 (0001628280-26-025675) · 2026-04-17
  10. Filing Form 4, Matthew J. Murphy, 10b5-1 sale of 2026-09-15 (0001628280-26-062124); the latest of the seven 10b5-1 sale filings read (0001628280-26-021531, -025675, -034988, -043503, -048541, -057525, -062124) · 2026-09-15
  11. Call transcript MRVL Q3 FY2025 earnings call (2024-12-03), ROIC.ai
  12. Call transcript MRVL Q4 FY2025 earnings call (2025-03-05), ROIC.ai
  13. Call transcript MRVL Q2 FY2026 earnings call (2025-08-28), ROIC.ai
  14. Call transcript MRVL Q4 FY2026 earnings call (2026-03-05), ROIC.ai
  15. Call transcript MRVL Q2 FY2027 earnings call (2026-08-27), ROIC.ai
  16. Web search result WebSearch: Marvell board of directors page for Matt Murphy (eBay director March 2019 to June 2022); page itself egress-blocked, summary only · 2026-09-24
  17. Web search result WebSearch: SIA release, Marvell President and CEO Matt Murphy elected 2018 Chair of SIA · 2026-09-24
  18. Web search result WebSearch: Business Wire 2022-12-08, Matt Murphy new GSA board chair · 2026-09-24