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An optical cable dealer will benefit from the surge in data center development with a billion-dollar deal that will expand its North Carolina manufacturing.
Corning Inc. will boost its optical cable manufacturing presence in North Carolina through a $6B data center deal with Meta Platforms Inc., the Charlotte Business Journal reported.
The multiyear deal, which spans through 2030, aims to provide specialized cable to facilitate data center development for Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Corning CEO and Chairman Wendell P. Weeks said in a press release that the investment will significantly expand the company’s footprint across North Carolina and boost its headcount in the state by 15% to 20%.
"Together with Meta, we’re strengthening domestic supply chains and helping ensure that advanced data centers are built using U.S. innovation and advanced manufacturing,” Weeks said.
In October 2025, Corning announced it would expand at its 378-acre cable plant at the Trivium Corporate Center in Hickory, an hour northwest of Charlotte in Catawba County. When Corning announced the Hickory expansion, it stated investment would total between $170M and $268M.
Corning’s plans will reportedly make its Hickory facility the largest fiber-optic plant in the world.
In addition to the Hickory plant, Corning has manufacturing plants in Newton, Concord, Wilmington and Winston-Salem.
Shares of Corning, which have reportedly risen more than 75% in the past year, rose 16% on Jan. 27th with news of the deal to close to reach a new 52-week high of $110.
Meta announced in November it would commit to spending $600B on data centers and infrastructure in the U.S. by 2028.
The company’s two largest data center clusters currently under construction are the 1-gigawatt Prometheus site in Ohio and the 5-gigawatt Hyperion site in Louisiana. Both will feature Corning fiber-optic cable, CNBC reported.
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