Astera Labs and Marvell outpace Nvidia as AI connectivity trade broadens

Astera Labs and Marvell Technology outperformed Nvidia in trading on 4 September, highlighting investor interest in the broader AI connectivity market. Nvidia rose 0.8%, compared with gains of 9.8% for Astera and 7.1% for Marvell, according to Yahoo Finance.

The moves were associated with growing attention on components such as retimers, switches, optical links and custom silicon, which help AI systems move data between processors. Astera is focused on rack-scale connectivity, while Marvell has a broader portfolio spanning custom compute, electro-optics, switching and interconnect.

Astera’s rally coincided with speculation that it could be added to the S&P 500, although the company was not selected in the September rebalance. Its second-quarter update also pointed to a third-quarter production ramp for the Scorpio X-Series 320-lane fabric switch, which was expected to support a future revenue inflection.

Investor interest had increased before the rally. Insider Monkey counted 73 hedge funds holding Astera at 30 June, up from 53 at 31 March, while its count for Marvell rose to 96 from 79. The filings do not establish whether those investors participated in the September moves.

Astera’s reported short interest fell 3.9% to 8,753,228 shares, with 1.85 days to cover, weakening a pure short-squeeze explanation. The companies still face risks including customer concentration, product-transition timing, lumpy custom programmes, valuation, inventory and changing interconnect standards. Design wins remain leading indicators rather than booked sales.