NVIDIA and Corning announced a major partnership on May 6 that will change how artificial intelligence systems communicate. NVIDIA will invest up to $3.2 billion in the 175-year-old materials company to build three new manufacturing facilities in North Carolina and Texas. These factories will produce optical fibers, the ultra-pure glass strands that carry data as light instead of electricity.
Corning's share price jumped 14 percent on the announcement day and reached an all-time high. The company, famous for Pyrex bowls and Gorilla Glass on smartphones, is now at the center of AI infrastructure development.
Why does NVIDIA need glass? As artificial intelligence systems grow larger, they require thousands of computer chips to communicate constantly. Copper wires, which were used before, cannot handle the power and heat demands of modern AI clusters. Optical fibers solve this problem by using light to transfer information much more efficiently.
Under the partnership, Corning will increase its optical-connectivity manufacturing capacity tenfold and boost fiber production by over 50 percent. The new factories will create more than 3,000 high-paying American jobs. This deal is part of NVIDIA's broader strategy to secure the entire supply chain for optical technology. Earlier in 2026, NVIDIA invested roughly $4 billion in other optical component companies. Together, these investments show that NVIDIA is preparing for the future of AI infrastructure by controlling the glass and light technologies that will power it.