The American tech manufacturing success story hiding in plain sight

On Wednesday, Nvidia and Corning announced a $500 million deal to build fiber-optic cables to power AI data centers. For Nvidia, which manufactures graphics processing units key to building and training top-tier AI models, the partnership will help the chipmaker reduce latency and energy consumption for AI systems and likely accelerate its move to co-packaged optics. This would have fiber connections more directly integrated with chips. 

Per a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Nvidia now has a pre-funded warrant to purchase 3 million shares in Corning and the option to purchase 15 million more. As part of the agreement, Corning says it will increase its optical connectivity manufacturing tenfold and add more than 3,000 jobs, including at new factories in Texas and North Carolina.

“Their commitment is directly fueling the expansion of our U.S. manufacturing footprint and creating more than 3,000 new high-paying jobs for American workers,” Corning CEO Wendell Weeks said in a statement. 

This is all, no doubt, evidence that the AI race is heating up. But it’s also just the latest deal for Corning, a New York-based aspects and materials science company that now plays a critical role in the U.S. technology manufacturing industry. As U.S. officials and tech investors look to pivot to hard tech and bolster the domestic supply chain for advanced manufacturing, it’s notable that Corning has already become integral to this sector. The Nvidia deal is only the latest example. 

This is all the more impressive considering that Corning was founded back in 1851 and has remained relevant, even amid remarkable evolution. Its résumé includes designing bulbs for Thomas Edison’s incandescent lamps, introducing the world to Pyrex cooking glassware, and now developing glass used in virtual reality headsets. By modern standards, companies are lucky if they last a few decades. Manufacturing comes with added challenges, including high up-front investments in production lines that can quickly become outdated. This makes Corning a unicorn of sorts.

Consider that earlier this year, the company announced a new deal, worth up to $6 billion, to provide optical cabling and connectivity to Meta, and soon began construction on a new plant in Hickory, North Carolina, that will support its work for the tech company. Corning has also said it has two additional agreements with hyperscale customers that are “similar in size and duration” to the one with Meta, though it hasn’t revealed which ones. 

The company has had a spate of deals with a range of other technology companies working to develop next-generation tech. These include agreements with Lumen Technologies (to make optical cables for data centers), Xanadu (a Canadian quantum chip manufacturer), Broadcom (again, to build co-packaged hardware), and solar companies Suniva and Heliene (to make silicon wafers and polysilicon for the only solar panels assembled entirely in the U.S.). 

Generally, Corning stands to profit as companies look to phase out copper for fiber.

And then, of course, is the company’s massive business making glass for smartphones and other electronic devices, including its robust Gorilla Glass business. Corning is a major supplier for Apple, and last year the two companies officially agreed to manufacture all iPhone and Apple Watch cover glass in Kentucky. Corning also makes glass for Samsung and Nokia, and has plenty of other business lines, too, including automotive and life sciences work. 

Not bad for a 175-year-old company.

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