LAS VEGAS - Corning has entered into a multiyear, $6 billion agreement with Meta Platforms aimed at expanding U.S. manufacturing capacity and accelerating the build-out of domestic data center infrastructure, the companies announced Monday.
Under the deal, Corning will significantly expand operations at its optical cable manufacturing facility in Hickory, North Carolina, where Meta will serve as an anchor customer. The agreement also supports employment growth of up to 20% across Corning’s North Carolina operations, sustaining a workforce of more than 5,000 employees statewide.
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The partnership positions Corning as a key supplier of advanced optical fiber, cable and connectivity products used in Meta’s expanding U.S. data center network, which underpins the company’s artificial intelligence development and digital services.
Corning’s optical communications business already operates two fiber manufacturing plants in Wilmington and Concord, North Carolina, along with five cable plants across Newton, Winston-Salem and Hickory. The Hickory site includes multiple facilities and will see the most direct impact from the Meta agreement, according to the company.
In October 2025, Corning announced plans to invest between $170 million and $267.9 million to expand manufacturing operations in Hickory after acquiring land at the Trivium Corporate Center. That project included a commitment to hire and maintain at least 132 jobs. Company officials confirmed that the previously announced Hickory expansion is part of the broader Meta partnership, though additional details were not disclosed.
“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 of Corning, said during an earnings call.
“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 manufacturing expansion comes as Corning reports strong financial growth tied to rising demand for data center connectivity. The company posted fourth-quarter net sales of $4.2 billion, up 20% year over year, while full-year 2025 sales rose 19% to $15.6 billion.
Corning’s optical communications segment posted Q4 sales of $1.7 billion, up 24% year over year, with full-year revenue totaling $6.3 billion, a 35% increase from 2024.
Edward Schlesinger, executive vice president and CFO, attributed much of the growth to increased adoption of the company’s next-generation AI-related 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 said.
“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.”
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The Corning partnership aligns with Meta’s broader $600 billion investment to construct artificial intelligence data centers across the U.S. Meta currently has 26 data centers that are either operational or under construction nationwide.
“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,” Meta said in a statement.
Meta CFO Susan Li added during the company’s earnings call that the firm is prioritizing long-term flexibility as it scales its infrastructure footprint.
“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.
The Meta agreement follows a series of major domestic manufacturing deals for Corning, including a $2.5 billion commitment from Apple announced in August 2025 to manufacture iPhone and Apple Watch cover glass at Corning’s Harrodsburg, Kentucky facility. That partnership also includes plans for a joint Apple-Corning Innovation Center.
“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.
Both the Meta and Apple deals support Corning’s “Springboard” growth strategy, launched in early 2024. Executives recently raised the company’s annualized sales target to $6.5 billion by the end of 2026 and increased its long-term goal for incremental 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.”
Originally reported by Sara Samora, Reporter in Construction Dive.
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