Corning, the American company that helped create Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb, is gaining attention as a key component supplier in the artificial intelligence era. After enduring two decades of losses in its fiber optic cable business while continuing to invest, Corning has emerged as the "Cinderella of the AI industry" by securing a $6 billion supply contract with Meta.
According to the Wall Street Journal on the 9th, Corning recently signed a fiber optic cable supply agreement with Meta. The deal comes as demand for fiber optics has surged amid the rapid expansion of Meta's AI data centers. The company is also in discussions for large-scale contracts with other Big Tech firms.
Corning's fiber optic cables transmit data using light instead of electricity, enabling faster speeds and lower energy consumption. Each cable contains hundreds of ultra-thin glass fiber strands, with individual fibers as thin as human hair drawn to lengths exceeding 48 kilometers.
Corning's AI fiber optic business began by chance. In 2018, CEO Wendell Weeks visited a Facebook (now Meta) data center in Dallas and discovered the facility was using a mix of copper cables and conventional fiber optics. This prompted Corning to develop thinner, more durable cables—an effort that proved successful.
The company established the "Corning Way," designing its own cable manufacturing equipment and reassigning rather than laying off engineers when business directions shifted, thereby accumulating expertise. Despite six consecutive quarters of declining revenue following the pandemic, Corning hired 4,000 to 5,000 new employees annually, expanding its workforce to 56,000—an investment preparing for surging fiber optic demand. When ChatGPT launched in 2023 and data center demand exploded, the fiber optic cables finally had their moment, and company performance rebounded.
Corning is now exploring new growth opportunities by integrating its "co-packaged optics" technology directly into Nvidia servers. This technology would extend fiber optic applications beyond server-to-server connections to internal server components.
Corning's stock price continues to hit record highs. As of the 6th, shares stood at $122.16, up 43.3% in one month and more than double the price from a year ago ($53.05). Securities firms are raising their price targets in succession. UBS increased its target from $109 to $125 late last month, while Morgan Stanley raised its target from $98 to $103.