CORNING, New York, June 8, 2026, 13:03 (EDT)
Amazon.com said Monday it struck a multiyear, multibillion-dollar deal with Corning to buy optical fiber, cable and connectivity equipment for its U.S. data center buildout. Detailed terms weren’t shared.
Cloud firms are rushing to boost capacity for artificial intelligence, driving up demand for data to move quickly across huge computing centers. That’s made optical fiber — glass strands that send data as light — a key piece of the infrastructure, beyond its old telecom role.
Corning shares climbed 6.3% to $188.85 late Wednesday morning in New York, after reaching $197.72. Amazon was flat, last up 0.1% at $246.36.
Amazon is set to add 1,000 jobs at Corning’s North Carolina plants, with the announcement also pegging several hundred construction jobs to the expansion. The companies said they will work with Catawba Valley Community College to grow their fiber-optic technician training.
Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services, said the agreement will push money into “American manufacturing” and help bring jobs to areas near Amazon data centers. AWS, Amazon’s cloud unit, is among the world’s largest data-center infrastructure buyers. Corning
Corning CEO Wendell Weeks said the deal is a “significant milestone” for both Corning and U.S. manufacturing. Weeks said Amazon’s investment will let Corning ramp up production and create more advanced manufacturing jobs. Corning
Amazon keeps expanding in North Carolina. The company pointed to last year’s $10 billion cloud investment plans in the state and said it has invested over $20 billion since 2010, resulting in more than 26,000 jobs.
Corning has picked up another big deal with the Amazon contract, as its fiber unit sees more focus from investors following the AI story this year. The Optical Communications segment remains the largest driver for Corning, bringing in about 40% of last year’s revenue, according to Investopedia.
Meta in January signed a deal to pay Corning as much as $6 billion for fiber-optic cables to build out AI data centers. Reuters said Monday that Corning last month also reached a partnership with Nvidia to boost fiber-optics manufacturing in the U.S.
Corning is looking to ramp up its U.S. optical connectivity manufacturing by ten times and lift domestic fiber production by over 50%. That’s a big increase, and the market is betting on strong delivery.
But Corning said the result isn’t set. The company listed risks in its release—customer demand, competition, supply-chain trouble, trade strain, raw-material prices, and matching capital spending to real orders. A slowdown in AI data-center spending or delays to buildouts could mean the fiber run isn’t as strong as Monday’s stock gains might imply.
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