Amazon strikes multibillion-dollar Corning deal for optical fiber to power AI data centers

Amazon strikes multibillion-dollar deal with Corning to power AI data centers in U.S.

Amazon is paying Corning billions of dollars for optical fiber to power and connect its rapidly expanding U.S. data centers, the latest megadeal featuring two companies at the center of the artificial intelligence boom. The agreement, announced Monday, will play out over several years and create 1,000 jobs at Corning's North Carolina factories, the companies said. Corning's fiber optic cable and networking solutions are becoming essential elements of AI infrastructure because they enable fast connections between data centers and the racks and chips they house. "Amazon's data centers power the services millions of people and businesses rely on every day," the statement said. "Corning's fiber optics are a critical piece of that infrastructure, and together, these investments help fuel the U.S. economic engine." The deal also expands a Corning training program for fiber optic technicians in North Carolina. In the press release, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said the company's investments in the state have created over 26,000 jobs. Last year, Amazon committed to spend $10 billion on new data centers in North Carolina.

Amazon's Corning deal shows fibre is AI's new bottleneck

The AWS agreement is Corning's third AI megadeal of 2026, after Meta and Nvidia, turning a 175-year-old glassmaker into one of the boom's quietest winners. The AI boom runs on chips and electricity. It also runs on glass. Amazon is paying Corning billions of dollars for optical fibre to wire up its rapidly expanding US data centres, the two companies said on Monday. The multi-year agreement will create about 1,000 jobs at Corning's North Carolina factories, though neither side disclosed its total value or length. Corning's shares jumped 9 per cent on the news; Amazon's rose about 1 per cent. Fibre-optic cable has become an unglamorous but essential layer of AI infrastructure. Training and running large models means shifting enormous volumes of data at high speed between data centres and the racks and chips inside them, and that traffic travels over glass. As compute demand explodes, so does the need for the cable that connects it all. For Corning, the deal caps a remarkable year. The 175-year-old company, best known for the display glass on Apple's iPhones, has quietly become one of the AI boom's biggest beneficiaries. The Amazon agreement follows up to $6bn from Meta in January and up to $3.2bn from Nvidia in May, the latter to build three plants dedicated entirely to the chipmaker. Corning's stock has more than doubled this year and is up almost sixfold since the end of 2023. "Next year the hyperscalers will be our biggest customers," chief executive Wendell Weeks told CNBC earlier this year, a prediction the Amazon agreement brings closer. He called the deal "a significant milestone for Corning and for American manufacturing." For Amazon, it is one more line in an enormous infrastructure budget. The company is spending around $200bn this year on the data centres, chips, and networking behind its AI push, having pledged $10bn for North Carolina data centres alone and committed up to $25bn to Anthropic to lock in demand for that capacity. The fibre is what ties the build-out together. There is a political dimension too. The Trump administration has pressed Big Tech to bring as much of the AI supply chain onshore as possible, and a US glassmaker hiring 1,000 American workers to feed domestic data centres is exactly the story the White House wants to tell. Most of Corning's business is still overseas, Weeks has said, and that is not changing, but the AI-driven, US-made slice is growing fast. The wider point is where the constraints in AI are moving. The race began as a contest for chips and capital, then for power. Increasingly it is also a contest for the physical plumbing, the fibre, connectors, and factories, that turns a warehouse of GPUs into a working data centre. Corning, improbably, sits in the middle of all three, as hyperscalers keep racing to build faster than the supply chain can keep up.

Amazon, Corning sign multi-billion-dollar deal to boost fibre optics manufacturing in US

Amazon has partnered with Corning in a multi-billion dollar deal. This collaboration aims to significantly increase the production of optical fibre and connectivity products within the United States. The partnership will create 1,000 jobs in North Carolina. It also includes a training program for fiber optic technicians. Corning's products are vital for AI data centres. Amazon said on Monday it has signed a multi-billion-dollar deal with specialty glass maker Corning aimed at boosting US production of optical fibre and connectivity products that are used in data centers. Amazon, however, did not disclose ⁠any ⁠further financial details on the partnership. Shares of Corning rose about 7% in early trading, as the partnership came as a fresh boost to the company's fast-growing fiber optics unit, at a time when weak consumer electronics demand has weighed ⁠on the segment that makes Gorilla glass. Here are more details on the partnership: The multi-year ⁠partnership will create 1,000 jobs at Corning's North Carolina facilities, Amazon said. Amazon and Corning will work together on a new initiative that will expand Corning's fiber optic technician training program with the Catawba Valley Community College in North Carolina to train students for roles in the facilities. Corning's optical fiber products are crucial in moving data between thousands of ⁠processors in AI data centers. The company has already announced plans to increase U.S.-based optical connectivity manufacturing capacity tenfold and expand domestic fiber production capacity by more than 50%. Last month, Corning signed a partnership with Nvidia to expand US manufacturing of fibre optics.

Amazon, Corning Sign Multibillion-Dollar Optical Fiber Deal for Data Centers -- Update

Amazon.com said it entered a multibillion-dollar agreement with Corning to get optical fiber, cable and connectivity solutions to support its growing data center footprint. The investment, disclosed Monday, will allow Corning to expand production and create 1,000 new jobs at its manufacturing facilities in North Carolina, the companies said Monday. Shares of Corning gained 5.7% to $187.70 Monday. The stock has more than doubled this year. Corning--known for making specialty glass, ceramics and fiber-optic products--has gained steam lately amid a race to build enough computing power to power the artificial intelligence boom. The company, which once manufactured light bulbs for Thomas Edison, has attracted demand from many hyperscalers for its fiber-optic cables, a key connective tissue for AI infrastructure. Last month, Corning notched a $500 million investment from Nvidia as part of a partnership to expand its manufacturing of fiber optics. Earlier this year, the company also struck a deal worth up to $6 billion with Meta to supply fiber-optics to support the tech company's data center buildout. Companies are facing pressure in the race to build out massive data centers. Key challenges include approval from grid operators and power companies to connect data centers to the system, given power-hungry facilities threaten to strain the grid during times of high electricity demand. The agreement with Corning adds to Amazon's existing plans, disclosed last year, to invest $10 billion to expand its cloud computing infrastructure in North Carolina. Corning and Amazon also plan to work together on a program aimed at training students for careers in fiber optic manufacturing and related technical roles.