Corning CEO Wendell Weeks at Corning’s cable manufacturing unit in Hickory, North Carolina, on Jan. 9, 2026.
Magdalena Petrova | CNBC
Amazon is paying Corning billions of {dollars} for optical fiber to energy and join its quickly increasing U.S. information facilities, the newest megadeal that includes two firms on the heart of the substitute intelligence increase.
The settlement, introduced Monday, will play out over a number of years and create 1,000 jobs at Corning’s North Carolina factories, the businesses mentioned. Corning’s fiber optic cable and networking options have gotten important components of AI infrastructure as a result of they allow quick connections between information facilities and the racks and chips they home.
Shares of Corning popped 4% on Monday. Amazon inventory was little modified.
“Amazon’s information facilities energy the companies tens of millions of individuals and companies depend on daily,” the businesses mentioned in a press launch. “Corning’s fiber optics are a vital piece of that infrastructure, and collectively, these investments assist gasoline the U.S. financial engine.”
The deal additionally expands a Corning coaching program for fiber optic technicians in North Carolina. Amazon Net Companies CEO Matt Garman mentioned within the press launch that the corporate’s investments within the state have created over 26,000 jobs. Final yr, Amazon dedicated to spend $10 billion on new information facilities in North Carolina.
Contemporary demand from AI is reinvigorating the 175-year-old Corning as hyperscalers and AI labs scramble to satisfy their exploding wants for computing energy. Corning’s shares have greater than doubled up to now this yr and are up nearly sixfold because the finish of 2023.
In Could, Nvidia dedicated to investing as much as $3.2 billion in Corning as a part of a deal that includes the glass firm constructing three new superior manufacturing crops totally dedicated to the chipmaker. And in January, Meta mentioned it will spend as much as $6 billion because the flagship buyer serving to Corning construct out its optical cable plant in Hickory, North Carolina, an growth that is anticipated to create round 1,000 jobs.
Corning is well-known for making all of the show glass for Apple‘s iPhone, however optical communications stays its largest and fastest-growing enterprise. Since inventing optical fiber for long-range communication in 1970, Corning has supplied tens of millions of miles of cables to attach racks collectively in AI information facilities from all the foremost gamers.
The Trump administration has referred to as on Large Tech to onshore as many steps within the AI provide chain as potential, and Corning helps reply that want. The vast majority of Corning’s enterprise occurs abroad, which CEO Wendell Weeks instructed CNBC earlier this yr is not altering. However he additionally mentioned “subsequent yr the hyperscalers will probably be our greatest prospects.”
“This settlement with Amazon represents a big milestone for Corning and for American manufacturing,” Weeks mentioned in Monday’s press launch, including it should “paved the way towards constructing a resilient U.S. manufacturing base.”
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