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Nvidia and Corning announced a long-term partnership Wednesday to build three advanced manufacturing facilities in North Carolina and Texas dedicated to optical technologies for AI infrastructure, the companies said in a joint statement.
According to the companies, the new plants are projected to generate a minimum of 3,000 jobs while multiplying Corning's domestic optical manufacturing capacity by ten. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Shares of Corning climbed 14% following the announcement, while Nvidia's stock was up close to 3%.
"AI is driving the largest infrastructure buildout of our time — and a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvigorate American manufacturing and supply chains," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement. "Together with Corning, we are inventing the future of computing with advanced optical technologies — building the foundation for AI infrastructure where intelligence moves at the speed of light while advancing the proud tradition of Made in America."
"What Nvidia is doing is nothing short of extraordinary, not just for the future of AI, but for the American advanced manufacturing workforce," Corning CEO Wendell Weeks said in a statement.
Central to the partnership is optical fiber, a technology in which data travels as light through glass cables — a method that outpaces copper wiring in both speed and energy efficiency, according to CNBC. Though neither company offered details about the products being developed, analysts expect Nvidia to integrate Corning's glass fiber into its rack-scale AI platforms — displacing copper connections through an approach called co-packaged optics.
Co-packaged optics was described by Huang as indispensable to AI infrastructure during Nvidia's 2025 GTC conference. Earlier this year, Nvidia put $4 billion into Coherent and Lumentum, firms whose technology handles the conversion of data between optical and electrical formats.
Corning, which has been producing optical fiber since 1970, has seen its optical communications segment become its largest and fastest-growing business. The segment recorded first-quarter net sales of $1.85 billion, a 36% increase year over year, driven by demand for fiber products tied to AI data center construction. Two additional hyperscaler customers — beyond Meta — have also entered into long-term supply agreements with Corning, each similar in scale and length to the up-to-$6 billion deal with Meta announced earlier this year.
Wednesday's announcement coincides with a Corning investor day held at the New York Stock Exchange, one day ahead of the company's 175th anniversary.