Dive Brief:
- Corning announced on Monday that it has signed a multiyear, $6 billion agreement with software developer Meta Platforms to expand manufacturing capabilities across its North Carolina facilities.
- Corning’s optical cable factory in Hickory will benefit from “significant capacity expansion,” where Meta will serve as the anchor customer, according to the Jan. 27 press release. Additionally, the agreement will increase Corning’s employment growth by up to 20% and sustain a workforce of over 5,000 workers in the state.
- The manufacturer will supply Meta with the latest in optical fiber, cable and connectivity products. Furthermore, it will help accelerate the build-out of Meta’s data centers in the United States, which will support its apps, technologies and artificial intelligence goals.
Dive Insight:
Corning’s optical communications segment operates two fiber manufacturing plants in Wilmington and Concord, North Carolina, John Arwood, senior manager, executive and external communications at Corning, said in an email on Thursday. Corning also has five cable plants located in Newton, Winston-Salem, and Hickory, the latter of which has multiple facilities.
In October 2025, Corning announced plans to invest between $170 million and $267.9 million to expand its manufacturing operations in Hickory. The company acquired a lot in the Trivium Corporate Center in Hickory, and the investment would hire and maintain a minimum of 132 jobs.
Arwood said that the previously announced Hickory initiative is part of the Meta announcement. He declined to provide further details of the expansion.
The Meta agreement reflects Corning’s commitment to develop, create and manufacture critical technologies to power new data centers in the U.S., Wendell Weeks, chairman, president and CEO, said in an earnings call on Wednesday.
“Together with Meta, we’re strengthening domestic supply chains and helping ensure that advanced data centers are built using U.S. innovation and U.S. advanced manufacturing,” Weeks said.
The manufacturer saw its fourth quarter net sales increase 20% year over year to $4.2 billion, according to a securities filing. Net sales for the full year of 2025 increased 19% to $15.6 billion.
Sector-wise, Q4 sales under Corning’s optical communications business were $1.7 billion, up 24% YoY. Sales for the full year totaled $6.3 billion, up 35% from 2024. Edward Schlesinger, executive VP and CFO, said on the earnings call that the majority of the growth was driven by “outstanding” adoption of Corning’s new Gen AI products.
“For the full year, our enterprise business, where we capture sales for inside the data center grew 61% year-over-year, and the hyperscale data center portion of our business grew significantly faster,” Schlesinger added. “We also saw year-over-year sales growth in our carrier networks business, which was up 15% for the full year. This growth was primarily driven by sales to interconnect data centers.”
Meta is just one of the major customers Corning has secured agreements with over the past few months, particularly for expanding its U.S. manufacturing footprint. In August 2025, Apple announced it was committing $2.5 billion through its new American Manufacturing Program to fund the production of all iPhone and Apple Watch cover glass at Corning’s Harrodsburg, Kentucky, manufacturing facility.
Furthermore, Corning will shift the facility’s focus entirely to manufacturing for Apple. The two companies also plan to establish an Apple-Corning Innovation Center at the Harrodsburg plant, which will prioritize the development and engineering of advanced materials and new manufacturing platforms for Apple’s future products.
“Taken together, these agreements enable Corning to provide our customers with secure U.S. origin production of our most advanced Gen AI high-density innovations,” Weeks said.
The Meta and Apple deals support Corning’s “Springboard” growth strategy, which Weeks said the company launched in January 2024. Initially, the company set an annualized sales goal of $6 billion by the end of 2026. Now, executives upgraded the plan to $6.5 billion by the end of the year. The company also raised its original $8 billion goal of incremental annualized sales to $11 billion by 2028.
“The growth we are seeing in optical communications is an important component of the Springboard upgrade we are providing today,” Schlesinger said. “We expect this segment to continue to drive significant growth. Our recent Meta announcement is a great proof point.”
The multiyear partnership bolsters Meta’s $600 billion investment to construct AI data centers across the country. To date, 26 data centers are under construction or operational in the U.S., Meta said in its press release.
“As digital tools and generative AI continue to transform our economy — in fields like healthcare, finance, agriculture, and more — the demand for fiber connectivity will continue to grow,” the Facebook app developer said in a statement.
While Corning was not mentioned during Meta’s earnings call on Wednesday, CFO Susan Li said the company is continuing to prioritize “long-term flexibility” to adapt to the evolving market.
“We’re doing so in several ways, including changing how we develop data center sites, establishing strategic partnerships, contracting cloud capacity and establishing new ownership structures for some of our large data center sites,” Li said.
