Nvidia is allying with glassmaker Corning to construct three new optical fiber production plants.
The companies are positioning the factories — to be built in North Carolina and Texas — as advancing U.S. AI supply chains. Under the agreement, Corning will increase its U.S.-based optical connectivity manufacturing capacity tenfold and expand its U.S. fiber production capacity by more than 50%.
Financial terms of the deal, which gives Nvidia the option to invest up to $2.7 billion in Corning, were not disclosed.
“AI is driving the largest infrastructure buildout of our time — and a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvigorate American manufacturing and supply chains,” Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said in a release. “We are … building the foundation for AI infrastructure where intelligence moves at the speed of light while advancing the proud tradition of Made in America.”
Optical connectivity is a central component of AI infrastructure, used to move data at ever-expanding speed and scale as companies ramp up deployment of the technology.
Within this, fiber-optic cables (thin, flexible strands of glass) transmit data as photons, offering faster speeds and lower energy consumption than traditional copper wires. They also reduce signal loss, improving reliability and enabling tighter clustering of the hundreds of thousands of GPUs inside modern data centers.
“This partnership is proof that AI is not just a technology story. It is a manufacturing story, and it is happening here in the United States,” Wendell P. Weeks, CEO and president of New York state-based Corning, said in the release. “We are ensuring the critical technologies powering AI are invented, engineered and built in America.”
The development is the latest in a spate of deals from Nvidia, with the AI chip giant striking billions of dollars’ worth of deals across the AI industry as it pushes market expansion.
On Wednesday, Nvidia bought $500 million in rights to Corning shares, Bloomberg reported, and Corning shares rose sharply. Earlier this year, Nvidia agreed to $4 billion in deals with optical technology companies Lumentum and Coherent, which manufacture components that convert data between light and electrical signals.