How Corning Invented A New Fiber-Optic Cable For AI And Landed A $6 Billion Meta Deal

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: At the very center of the AI infrastructure boom, there's a 175-year-old glass making company that's quietly become one of the biggest winners. Corny, famous for making Gorilla Glass for Apple devices, also turns its glass into tiny strands of optical fiber, an essential component of AI data centers that sent the legacy American company's stock soaring. [00:00:24] Speaker 2: Almost every phone call I get from my customers is trying to see how do we get them more. [00:00:31] Speaker 1: We came here to Concord, North Carolina to see this, the biggest fiber factory in the world, and to its cable factory in Hickory, where Cornyn is expanding fast to meet the demands of generative AI. [00:00:43] Speaker 3: By the time we're all the way done with the expansions, this is going to be one of the largest cable facilities in the U.S. [00:00:50] Speaker 1: And that's because people like META have such need right now because of AI. [00:00:55] Speaker 3: Totally. [00:00:56] Speaker 1: It's supplying millions of miles of fiber optic cable to new data centers from all the major players. NVIDIA, OpenAI, AWS, Google, and META, which just committed up to $6 billion to fill its data centers with Cornyn Optical Fiber in a new deal we're reporting here first. [00:01:13] Speaker 4: We've got 30 data centers in our fleet, 26 of them are right here in the United States, and we want to have a domestic supply chain that's available to support that. [00:01:23] Speaker 1: But as META's AI strategy appears scattered and fears of an AI bubble lurk, what happens to Cornyn if massive AI data center plans falter? And if it is full steam ahead, can Cornyn adapt and keep up with skyrocketing demand? [00:01:36] Speaker 5: We have made, since 1970, over 1.3 billion miles of optical fiber, which is a large percentage of what's been deployed in the world. [00:01:45] Speaker 1: We go behind the scenes to see how Cornyn turns massive cylinders of blast into billions of miles of optical fiber, including a brand new type invented specifically for generative AI. [00:01:55] Speaker 2: All of these now equals this, with CEO Wendell Weeks as one of the names on the patent. I think next year, the hyperscalers will be our biggest customers. [00:02:06] Speaker 1: And leaders at META and Cornyn say the massive expansion here in North Carolina is crucial to meet the ever-growing needs of AI. [00:02:13] Speaker 6: AI giants like OpenAI racked up more than a trillion dollars worth of compute deals in 2025 alone. And although there's serious questions about whether all these AI data centers will actually get built, the spending spree has created a flurry of big winners outside of big tech, across energy, real estate, construction, and now glass. [00:02:47] Speaker 7: It's made of pyroceram, a remarkable new glass ceramic material with exciting new properties. [00:02:53] Speaker 6: For a company founded in the gold rush era to become a crucial supplier of the AI boom, Cornyn has had to reinvent itself time and time again, from the glass for Edison's light bulbs, to Pyrex cookware, car filters, to spacecraft windows, television screens, to vials for COVID vaccines, and of course, the iPhone. [00:03:10] Speaker 8: What we're going to do is get rid of all these buttons and just make a giant screen. [00:03:16] Speaker 6: But when Steve Jobs asked Cornyn to make all the glass for that first iPhone in 2007, Weeks told him it wasn't possible. [00:03:23] Speaker 2: He goes, no, you're just afraid. You're keeping your people from working on what will be the most important product they'll ever work on. You're taking away their chance to be heroes because of your fragile ego. And I was like, we were right. So we went back and we did it. [00:03:38] Speaker 6: Fast forward to 2025 and Cornyn announced its Gorilla Glass factory in Kentucky will be 100% devoted to making glass for Apple. But Cornyn's largest and fastest growing business is optical communications. Fiber-based broadband makes up the majority of the Internet's backbone, with billions of miles of cable, some subsea, connecting continents, data centers, businesses and homes and transmitting information at nearly the speed of light. Unlike traditional copper phone lines that transmit information as electrical signals, fiber optic cables are tiny bendable strands of glass where data is sent through as photons, lasers emitting pulses of light at far higher speed. [00:04:15] Speaker 2: Using less energy moving photons is between five and 20 times lower power usage than moving electrons. So basically, as power becomes a bigger and bigger issue, fiber inevitably gets closer and closer and closer to the compute. [00:04:33] Speaker 6: In 1970, Cornyn invented the first glass fiber so pure it had low enough signal loss to be useful for long distance communication. Fiber brought Cornyn huge success in the dotcom boom. Then the stock tanked when the bubble burst. [00:04:46] Speaker 2: We had a lot of long, hard years in fiber optics, but we're so dedicated to it that whenever investors would say, you should spin off your fiber business or sell it and say, out of my cold, dead fingers, will you pry optical communications? And so now it's just so great to see that belief really works out. [00:05:10] Speaker 6: Could Cornyn withstand something like that again if AI proves to be a similar bubble that bursts? [00:05:15] Speaker 2: What we learned then was that it wasn't enough to do great innovations, but we'll have synergy and tension by proactively slowing our growth, by having some more stable, high cash flow businesses in our mix. And as a result, we're built to withstand bad weather. [00:05:34] Speaker 9: There is volatility on the fiber side. It's something that they have managed before and probably would be able to manage again. The market will still need TVs and phones and cars and auto glass and vials for medications. [00:05:49] Speaker 6: The pandemic brought a new spike in demand for connectivity and therefore fiber, which dipped briefly again until the Gen. AI craze of the last three years heightened the need again. Why does Gen. AI need so much more fiber than traditional data centers? [00:06:03] Speaker 2: Well, because you need a whole separate network. And so it's literally trying to create the connections just like it is between the neurons in your brain. And so since you want to connect every GPU to every other GPU, it creates a need for a high degree of networking, most of which is fiber optics. [00:06:23] Speaker 6: Enter Contour. That's the name Cornyn's given to its latest invention released in Mark. Research. Fiber optics made specifically for AI. [00:06:30] Speaker 5: Why Contour? Well, inside of a data center, when you have tens of millions of connections now, you need a fiber that is flexible, that can bend all over the place. [00:06:40] Speaker 6: Including inside Meta's giant AI data centers. In November, Meta committed to spending $600 billion in the US by 2028 on data centers and the infrastructure they require. [00:06:50] Speaker 4: And we wouldn't be able to do that without the agreement that we're making with Corning to provide the fiber optic cable necessary to connect these data centers and the computers inside them. [00:07:00] Speaker 6: To understand how Corning invented Contour and Enticed Meta, let's go behind the scenes to see each step where the mini layered cable is made. Starting at Corning's fiber factory in Concord, North Carolina. Mike O'Day has been with Corning 27 years and now heads up the company's fiber optics business. [00:07:20] Speaker 5: All throughout this factory are the processes to make that optical fiber, all of which were invented by Corning to industrialize fiber so that it could be made at scale at cost. [00:07:31] Speaker 1: This is the first step of the manufacturing process for fiber where Corning actually invented a process called vapor deposition. It's where they use combustion to deposit glass soot on the outside of a rod. Then we use extreme heat to purify the glass so when it comes out, it's clear. If we were to fill the Indian Ocean with our glass, you could see clear to the bottom. Please close the tractor on redraws. We are here at the third and final step of the manufacturing process. What do we see happening here? So what we've done is we've taken that purified glass and we've loaded it into the furnace above us. We are now going to take this glass and stretch it out into optical fiber at 125 microns, which is smaller than a human hair. [00:08:12] Speaker 6: This ultra-pure glass core gets covered by a thin coat of color to help customers identify it in the field. Then spools upwards of 31 miles long are sent to Corning's cable factories, like this one 70 miles northwest. [00:08:24] Speaker 1: Here at Corning's cable plant in Hickory, North Carolina, we got to see its newest invention. Contour. And this is the fiber optic cable that's going to go inside Gen AI data centers like Meta. Behind me you can see the individual fibers getting woven together into what eventually will be the full cable. [00:08:40] Speaker 6: Up to 288 glass fibers are bound together into one subunit. Then... [00:08:45] Speaker 8: We're straining them together to make a core, which we then would put an outside plant or flame-retardant jacket over top. [00:08:52] Speaker 1: Then on either end, the customer is opening it up to access those fibers inside. How many fibers? [00:08:58] Speaker 10: It could be upwards of 6,912 fibers in an individual cable, but they'll access the ends either to splice it to another cable or arrive at their end termination point that usually has connectors on the outside. [00:09:10] Speaker 6: Those connectors are part of what Corning reimagined for its new, smaller, denser cables for AI. [00:09:16] Speaker 2: Here you have 16, two fiber connectors and they just plug in to the switch. This is what was predominant in most of the data centers. What we did when we reinvented that is all of these now equals this. [00:09:31] Speaker 6: As for how much smaller and denser the new optical cable is... [00:09:34] Speaker 2: This is 1728 fibers the way we used to do it and most of the world does it. This is our new contour product. This is the same 1728. So this now equals that. So much smaller. So much smaller. And we've improved the fiber and the cable so that the optical performance is superior in every way. So when you're trying to connect data centers or on a campus, it goes through these conduits. Now we can fit two of these in. So now we're literally doubling the amount you can do in the same space. [00:10:19] Speaker 6: Corning typically keeps quiet on customer details, but it does provide fiber to all the customers. They provide fiber to all the major hyperscalers and AI giants. Think NVIDIA, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, AWS, Apple. And this new Meta deal is big. [00:10:33] Speaker 4: Up to $6 billion to provide the fiber optic cable that we need for our data centers through 2030. [00:10:40] Speaker 6: O'Day says the deal's been a long time in the making. [00:10:43] Speaker 5: We traveled to a data center, Wendell and I did, in 2018, believe it or not, in Dallas. And we toured a data center with Meta. It's not an AI data center that actually didn't exist at the time. But what that spawned was a conversation of what we're thinking about, AI roadmap into the future that would require perhaps a whole new set of innovations. [00:11:03] Speaker 6: Fast forward to 2026 and Contour will go inside Meta's biggest AI data centers under construction now. Like its 1 gigawatt Prometheus in Ohio and its biggest 5 gigawatt Hyperion coming to Louisiana. [00:11:15] Speaker 2: In this one data center, there's going to be 8 million miles of fiber. 8 million miles. That's enough to go around the equator of the planet 320 times. [00:11:28] Speaker 6: If these data center plans, there's a lot of them planned. Yes. And not all of them might come to fruition. True. If they falter, where all this cable is meant to go, what happens? [00:11:39] Speaker 2: So fiber optic demand has grown at about 7% sort of CAGR over the sweep of time since we invented it. Okay. So we'll find a good use for it. [00:11:51] Speaker 6: CNBC's reporting has shown that Meta's AI strategy has been scattered. Does that concern you at all? [00:11:57] Speaker 2: No. There will be all sorts of lead changes and different approaches to doing it. But in the end, really technical excellence, willingness to commit to the infrastructure, compute matters. If we know nothing else about transformer technology, it is that. And so I am not concerned about Meta being successful in this space. [00:12:19] Speaker 6: Is Meta your largest AI customer? [00:12:22] Speaker 2: No, but they will move to the top of the list. [00:12:25] Speaker 6: With the Corning deal, among others, Meta is answering President Trump's call to source more of its AI needs in the U.S., as it also taps prominent Republicans like Kaplan for big leadership roles. What's at stake here? Are you worried that China could win the AI infrastructure race if we're not careful? [00:12:46] Speaker 4: I think if we as a country don't make the right policy choices and the right investments, that's a real risk. And it's certainly a risk that the administration has been really focused on since they came back into office. [00:12:57] Speaker 6: Corning is U.S. made, but won't be Meta's only provider of fiber. Meta wouldn't disclose who else it relies on. Who are some of the other big players to look at when it comes to fiber optic? [00:13:08] Speaker 2: With only U.S. flag that does everything. Fiber, cable, connectivity. Other players to look at, the Japanese are really strong players in this space. So think of people like Fujikorov, Furukawa, Sumitomo. [00:13:24] Speaker 6: Corning itself has a lot of manufacturing outside the U.S. too, making fiber in China, India and Poland, cable in Poland and Mexico, and other glass products in 10 more countries. The majority of its business happens overseas, which Fujik says isn't changing and helps insulate it from risk. [00:13:41] Speaker 2: 80% of our revenues in China are made in China. In the U.S., 90% of the products we sell in the U.S. are U.S. origin products. This tends to buffer us from geopolitical issues around tariffs. [00:13:58] Speaker 6: Back in Hickory, Corning wouldn't say just how big its expansion is, but it's added this brand new factory building and has plans to expand it even further to make more cable for Meta and other AI giants. And its employee count in North Carolina will go from 5,000 up to nearly 6,000. Big AI data centers are also springing up in the state. [00:14:17] Speaker 11: We have plenty of available electricity and water. [00:14:20] Speaker 6: Did you have to reallocate any of those resources from homes or farms or anything? Absolutely not. [00:14:26] Speaker 11: And I think that's another thing that is attractive not only to Corning, but some of our other recent announcements such as Microsoft and Apple and Google. They're all located right here in the Hickory, Catawba County region. And they are a customer of Corning. [00:14:44] Speaker 6: Right, right. Keeping up with demand from these data center customers is Corning's next big challenge. To make enough optical cable, just like that push to make enough iPhone glass nearly two decades ago. [00:14:56] Speaker 2: Let's go back to the Steve Jobs story. The best thing he taught me was belief. [00:15:01] Speaker 6: And I want to know if you've had a similar moment like that with any of the big CEOs in Gen AI who want your product and want it now. [00:15:08] Speaker 2: Working deeply with some of the leaders in Gen AI. I had one with, I'm not going to remain unnamed, where they're saying, listen, you need to put in a lot more capacity. And I'm like, you have like no idea how big we are. He's like, no, you totally don't get it. This is what's going to happen and how much compute is going to be needed, how the scaling laws are working. And so as a result, we've been working for five years or more on all these new products that you see today. And he was absolutely right. [00:15:38] Speaker 6: So that conversation was pre-Chat GPT? [00:15:42] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:15:43] Speaker 6: Indeed, Corning's been good at predicting tech's biggest needs. Like, for instance, when fiber may replace copper inside server racks like Nvidia's. Right now, copper wires still dominate when it comes to connecting chips within a server. But when that becomes fiber, demand will soar even higher. [00:15:58] Speaker 2: I think it is a matter of being inevitable. Today in a server, you probably have about two and a half miles of copper in them. And ultimately, as these AI nodes start to have more and more GPUs in them, we start to, we're like sub 100 now. Once you start to go up to hundreds, the distances will climb. And when those distances climb, fiber optics become much more economical and much more power efficient. [00:16:28] Speaker 9: Nvidia has tried to say that they think that there's about five more years life of copper. Probably towards the tail end of this decade, we start to see more fiber within the server. [00:16:40] Speaker 6: Corning's also getting into the business of another AI bottleneck. Power. By producing solar components not made in the U.S. for a decade. From the guy that has led through multiple reinventions, been ahead of these technology curves. What is the next big thing? [00:16:56] Speaker 2: Beyond gen AI, that's a pretty big thing. So for Corning, the next leg that we're seeing activate just this year is solar. And that's really a need for domestic source for energy. We're working right now, fundamentally with all the different chip folks, on glass core. And how glass will be part of semiconductor packaging going forward. We talked about replacing that copper inside those servers. That's co-packaged optics. That's us. So right now, the future looks pretty bright.