Jan 27 (Reuters) - Facebook parent Meta Platforms will pay Gorilla Glass maker Corning up to $6 billion over the next several years in a deal to provide fiber-optic cables for its AI data centers, the companies said on Tuesday.
Corning will supply advanced optical fiber, cable and connectivity products to Meta, while expanding its manufacturing capacity in North Carolina, including at its cable factory in Hickory, where Meta will be the anchor customer.
Corning's optical connectivity products are among key components required to support the massive computing and data transmission demands at data centers.
Their rising demand from Big Tech customers like Meta, Microsoft and Alphabet's Google drove a more than 84% surge in Corning's shares in 2025. The stock jumped about 7% in premarket trading.
CNBC, which first reported the news, said Meta will pay Corning through 2030.
Meta has been spending aggressively on building out data center infrastructure as it races to roll out competitive AI technologies.
The agreement with Corning also builds on tech giants' push to beef up domestic manufacturing capacity under President Donald Trump's administration.
The social media giant, which has struggled in Silicon Valley's AI race, has committed to spend about $600 billion in U.S. tech infrastructure and jobs over the next three years.
Earlier this month, it also announced its "Meta Compute" initiative to expand AI infrastructure and oversee its global fleet of data centers and supplier partnerships.
The agreement will aid Corning's projection to boost its employment levels in North Carolina by 15% to 20% and support its workforce of more than 5,000 people in the state, the companies said.
"Together with Meta, we're strengthening domestic supply chains and helping ensure that advanced data centers are built using U.S. innovation," Corning CEO Wendell Weeks said.
Both Meta and Corning are due to report their quarterly results on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
