The Marvell Technology S&P 500 inclusion announcement landed like a starting pistol for options traders, touching off a wave of bullish positioning across semiconductor names at a moment when the sector was already raw from two weeks of violent swings.
The Marvell Technology S&P 500 Inclusion Trade
S&P Dow Jones Indices confirmed, via a S&P Dow Jones Indices press release, that Marvell Technology and contract electronics manufacturer Flex would join the index prior to the open on 22 June 2026, coinciding with the quarterly rebalance. Pool Corp and The Campbell’s Company are the two names being removed to make room.
The market’s reaction was swift. RTT News reported Marvell trading at $298.84, up $35.37 or 13.42%, on the Nasdaq the morning the announcement landed. Sherwood News noted Marvell had risen 7% and Flex 3% in premarket trading on the Monday following Friday’s announcement.
In the options market, calls outnumbered puts three to one in Marvell, with more than 80% of premiums tied to the bullish side. Buyers were largely targeting the $300 level across June, July, and September expirations. Those bets are not cheap: thirty-day implied volatility in Marvell sat in the 98th percentile, meaning premiums are highly elevated relative to the stock’s own history.
Marvell, founded in 1995 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, started life making components for spinning disk drives, according to CNBC. Its addition to the index all but guarantees a mechanical wave of buying from passive funds that track the S&P 500, which explains why options traders were staking out the $300 level so aggressively.
Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group, framed the wider backdrop: ‘Even for a volatile index like the [PHLX Semiconductor Index], the last two weeks have been pretty crazy. And after the moves we’ve had to both the upside and now the downside, I wouldn’t expect it to immediately sell down. Prepare for more pre-July 4th fireworks!’
Intel and Cerebras Join the Frenzy
Marvell was not the only name drawing a crowd. Intel saw options volume trending at nearly twice its daily average on Monday morning, with more than 70% of that volume tied to calls. Nearly three times more calls were bought at or above ask, and more than 60% of those calls were more than 5% out of the money.
The catalyst: a report from The Information, cited by Yahoo Finance, that Google had commissioned Intel to produce more than 3 million tensor processing units (TPUs), with production scheduled for 2028. The report cited people with direct knowledge of the discussions. Intel’s shares had already surged more than 13% in premarket trading when that story broke.
The potential order book around Intel’s manufacturing capabilities is broadening. Nvidia has been evaluating whether Intel’s technology can produce a processor that combines four graphics chips into a single unit, though no order has yet been placed, according to the same reporting. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said in April that Tesla plans to use Intel’s next-generation 14A manufacturing process to produce chips at its Terafab project, which Musk described as an advanced AI chip complex in Austin.
Cerebras Systems, the AI chip start-up still in the pre-IPO phase, also drew striking options interest. More than $50 million in premiums changed hands, overwhelmingly on the call side. All ten of the most popular contracts by dollar amount were calls, with more than 60% of those more than 5% out of the money. Cerebras filed an amended Form S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in April 2026 relating to a proposed initial public offering of its Class A common stock, with the number of shares and price range not yet determined at the time of filing, according to the SEC filing.
Taken together, the positioning tells a consistent story: despite the sector’s wider turbulence, a cohort of traders is making directional bets that the next leg for select chip names is higher. Whether the passive-fund buying triggered by Marvell’s index entry on 22 June delivers that catalyst is the number to watch.
