Lumentum stock rises on report of possible merger with Marvell

What happened: Marvell Technology ( MRVL ) stock dropped 12% on Thursday on reports that the AI chipmaker is in advanced talks to purchase optical parts maker Lumentum ( LITE ). Shares of Lumentum surged as much as 5% before trimming gains.

What's behind the move: The potential multibillion-dollar mega deal between the semiconductor designer and Lumentum was first reported by Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.

An agreement could be announced as soon as next week. Lumentum has a market value of about $83 billion, compared with Marvell's roughly $221 billion.

What else you need to know: The acquisition would give Marvell greater access to optical technologies and manufacturing capacity, which have become critical bottlenecks of the AI infrastructure build-out.

Lumentum makes lasers and other optical components as increasingly powerful AI systems require faster connections. Marvell, which competes with Broadcom ( AVGO ), designs high-speed infrastructure and custom chips that enable AI computers to communicate with one another.

Earlier this year, Marvell stock rallied sharply after AI chip heavyweight Nvidia ( NVDA ) CEO Jensen Huang described the chip designer as "the next trillion-dollar company.

The company joined the S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) index in June. Marvell shares are up more than 190% year to date. Lumentum shares have rallied 140%.

Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance.