AI accelerators get the headlines, but the money increasingly flows to the plumbing. Every new GPU or XPU cluster multiplies the volume of data that must move between chips, racks, and now entire data centers. That is where the connectivity layer wins. Ethernet switching, optical interconnects, and custom networking silicon are quietly becoming the choke point (and the profit pool) of the AI buildout (we pulled together seven suppliers benefiting from exactly this dynamic, from power to cooling to networking, in a free report you can grab here).
Three US-listed names sit at the center of this niche heading into September 2026. Each just posted a strong quarter, each has raised its AI outlook, and each addresses a different slice of the data movement problem.
Arista Networks: The Ethernet Pure-Play Scaling Across Data Centers
Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET | ANET Price Prediction) is the cleanest way to own AI Ethernet. Shares closed at $190.94 on August 25, 2026, up 45.72% year to date and 43.52% over the past year.
Q2 FY26 hit a milestone. Revenue reached just over $3 billion, up 37.7% year over year, with non-GAAP EPS of $1.02 and operating margin of 49.9%. Management raised full-year revenue guidance to approximately $12.6 billion, implying 40% annual growth, and set an AI Fabrics target of at least $3.5 billion.
CEO Jayshree Ullal framed the opportunity bluntly: "Our AI fabrics momentum with EtherLink switches now exceeds 100 cumulative customers from the initial four to five customers I spoke of in 2024." She also sized the emerging scale-across market at $15 to $20 billion in 2030. Arista is layering in the 7060XE7 with liquid cooling, MRC multipath routing, and SRv6, all aimed at keeping expensive XPU cycles utilized.
The bull case: analysts skew heavily positive, with 7 strong buys and 22 buys against a single hold and a $241.82 target. Model-based forecasts imply 26.56% upside to a $241.66 base case.
Risk to watch: valuation is stretched at a trailing P/E of 60x, and Ullal cautioned that industry supply constraints are "going to be a two-year problem" not resolved until 2028.
Broadcom: Custom Silicon Plus Networking at Hyperscaler Scale
Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) is the diversified powerhouse of the group. Shares traded at $356.74 on August 25, up 22.14% over the past year but down 6.59% in the past month, offering a rare pullback in an otherwise vertical AI complex.
Q2 FY26 revenue was a record $22.2 billion, up 48% year on year. AI semiconductor revenue reached $10.8 billion, up 143% year-over-year. Critically for this thesis, CEO Hock Tan noted that "Networking represented almost 40% of our Q2 AI revenue" and that "Demand for XPUs and networking is simply insatiable."
The forward numbers are where conviction builds. Q3 guidance calls for AI semi revenue of $16 billion, up over 200% year on year, with a fiscal 2026 AI target of $56 billion and a fiscal 2027 target in excess of $100 billion. Visibility now runs "all the way to 2028", backed by over $30 billion in AI semiconductor bookings.
Product breadth is the moat: Tomahawk 6 100T switches, Jericho fabric, 1.6T DSPs, and co-packaged optics. The Google TPU partnership, Meta MTIA deal, OpenAI silicon program, and a planned 20 gigawatts of compute capacity through 2028 with Apollo and Blackstone all funnel into Broadcom’s networking silicon.
Risk to watch: customer concentration in a handful of hyperscalers, and the recent drawdown reflects sensitivity to any hint of order slippage. Analyst sentiment remains 92% bullish with a consensus target of $526.30.
Marvell Technology: The Interconnect Specialist With Accelerating Growth
Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) is the smallest of the three by market cap and the most explosive year to date. Shares closed at $240.38 on August 25, up 183.27% year to date and 230.22% over the past year. The one-week move alone was 11.29%.
Q1 FY27 delivered record revenue of $2.418 billion, up 28% year-over-year, with Data Center at $1.83 billion, or 76% of total revenue. CEO Matt Murphy raised the fiscal 2027 interconnect growth outlook to more than 70% year over year, up from a prior 50%, saying: "Our networking products, including interconnect and switching, are driving strong revenue growth as networking becomes increasingly critical with each new generation of AI infrastructure."
The company sees fiscal 2027 revenue near $11.5 billion and fiscal 2028 near $16.5 billion, with custom silicon on track for over $10 billion in fiscal 2029. The Celestial AI and Polariton acquisitions position Marvell for scale-up optics and next-generation photonics, and the expanded NVIDIA partnership around NVLink Fusion bridges custom and merchant silicon.
Analysts show 88% bullish sentiment with a $266.36 consensus target and 16.78% modeled upside.
Risk to watch: beta of 2.25 means volatility cuts both ways, and hyperscaler concentration plus integration risk from back-to-back acquisitions leave less margin for execution slips.
Positioning Into September
The connectivity layer is where AI capex meets recurring silicon and optical content per gigawatt. Arista owns the pure Ethernet story, Broadcom owns the scaled hyperscaler stack, and Marvell owns the accelerating interconnect and custom silicon ramp. All three sit inside the same secular buildout, but each answers a different question about how investors want to express the trade.
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