Corning, one of the world's largest makers of fiber-optic equipment, is planning to upgrade its manufacturing facilities in North Carolina after reaching an agreement with technology giant Meta Platforms to supply equipment for the social media titan's data centers.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, agreed to pay Corning $6 billion through 2030 to supply optical fiber and cables for its new data centers. To meet the terms of the agreement, Corning would expand its optical-cable manufacturing plant in Hickory, North Carolina, and its other properties in the state.
The largest tech companies — namely Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle — are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to develop data centers to power their businesses. Meta plans to spend between $115 billion and $135 billion this year to build new data centers in the United States, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
The financial capital would be applied to items including construction of electric power plants and developing advanced water-cooling systems that prevent overheating in computer servers running artificial intelligence applications.
Meta decided to partner with Corning because it can supply "the high-performance fiber optic cables our AI infrastructure needs," Joel Kaplan, Meta's chief global affairs officer, said in a news release.
For Corning, a 175-year-old company headquartered in Corning, New York, the agreement with Meta represents how the age-old technology of making glass remains relevant in the digital age. Corning's stock has climbed 103% over the past year, to $104.28 per share as of Jan. 28, on enthusiasm tied to growth projections from AI, Investor's Business Daily reported Wednesday.
Corning did not respond to CoStar News' requests for comment.
Manufacturing demand
During the dot-com boom, demand soared for Corning's fiber-optic equipment. The company suffered after the dot-com bubble burst when demand tanked, but it has since made a comeback. Sales in 2025 rose 13% to $16.4 billion, compared to 2024, and net income climbed 29% to $2.2 billion.
Corning is one of the largest makers of glass screens for mobile phones and video monitors, and its fiber optics are an essential part of the broadband cables used for online communications, according to the company. Corning's products are also used to make pharmaceutical glass vials and tubes, automotive glass, and ceramic filters for gasoline and diesel fuel.
Corning continues to roll out new products aimed at the emerging AI sector. In March, Corning introduced a suite of products, including cables and hardware, "that can accommodate 36 times more fiber connections within a data center rack unit than a legacy … connector," according to a news release.
Other than the city of Hickory, Corning did not disclose which specific North Carolina locations would be expanded because of the Meta agreement. Corning occupies at least eight industrial and office properties in the state, including in the Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Wilmington markets.
Meta has several "titan clusters" of data centers under construction, or in development, across the U.S., CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a 2025 presentation. Two of Meta's largest projects are in New Albany, Ohio, and Holly Ridge, Louisiana.
"We plan to continue to significantly expand the size of our infrastructure primarily through data centers, subsea and terrestrial fiber optic cable systems," Menlo Park, California-based Meta said in its latest annual report, issued on Jan. 29.