Fibre-optic gear producer, Corning, has set out plans to extend its variety of manufacturing vegetation in North Carolina, in a cope with Meta Platforms, the guardian firm of Fb and Instagram. The settlement will see Corning provide its fibre optic expertise to Meta’s knowledge centres.
Meta has reportedly agreed to a deal wherein it would pay Corning $6 billion between now and 2030. To satisfy the provision calls for of this settlement, Corning plans to increase its manufacturing facility in Hickory, North Carolina, along with additional unnamed websites within the state.
In accordance with Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief international affairs officer, Meta chosen Corning for its means to provide “high-performance fiber optic cables to our AI infrastructure wants.”
The elevated demand for knowledge centres is clear all through the tech business, with firms together with Google, Amazon, and Microsoft investing billions of {dollars} to improve and develop new amenities.
Within the US, Meta has introduced it will likely be spending between $115 billion and $135 billion in 2026 on new knowledge centres. Two of the most important knowledge centre initiatives will probably be developed in New Albany, Ohio, and Holly Ridge, Louisiana, based on Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
Corning is without doubt one of the few survivors of the dot-com period, as demand for its fibre-optic provides soared. Though the corporate skilled a downturn in fortunes as soon as the dot-com bubble burst, it has come again efficiently, with gross sales rising 13% in 2025 and shares climbing 103% in worth throughout the identical interval. With the AI growth now on the forefront of buyers’ minds, Corning seems higher positioned than many opponents, drawing on its expertise surviving the dot-com period.
Corning launched a spread of latest merchandise in March 2025, specializing in the emergence of the AI sector. It introduced a set of cables and {hardware} that would “accommodate 36 occasions extra fiber connections in an information centre rack unit than a legacy connector.”
As Meta plans to “increase the dimensions of [its] infrastructure primarily via knowledge centres, subsea and terrestrial fibre optic cable techniques,” Corning might but see elevated and sustained demand for its fibre optic choices.
(Picture supply: “Fiber Optic Globe” by JaredZammit is licensed underneath CC BY-SA 2.0.)
Wish to be taught extra about Cloud Computing from business leaders? Take a look at Cyber Security & Cloud Expo going down in Amsterdam, California, and London. The excellent occasion is a part of TechEx and co-located with different main expertise occasions. Click on here for extra data.
CloudTech Information is powered by TechForge Media. Discover different upcoming enterprise expertise occasions and webinars here.
