Nvidia, the chip giant at the core of the artificial intelligence wave, has reached a cooperation with glass manufacturing company Corning to build three advanced manufacturing plants in North Carolina and Texas to develop and produce optical technology products specifically for the world's most valuable semiconductor company. The new factory will create at least 3,000 jobs and increase Corning's U.S. optical product production capacity by 10 times, the two companies said in a joint announcement on Wednesday.


The specific financial amount of this cooperation was not disclosed. As soon as the news came out, Corning's stock price soared 14%, and Nvidia's stock price rose nearly 3%.

This multi-year cooperation brings together two major infrastructure giants that have emerged since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022. ChatGPT triggered an industry boom in investment in high-end AI models and computing systems.

The two parties have not yet announced specific R&D product details, but it is generally believed in the industry that NVIDIA plans to use Corning optical fiber to completely replace traditional copper wires in AI rack-level systems, which is what the industry calls co-packaging optical technology.

NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang stated at the 2025 GTC conference that co-packaging optical technology is a core and necessary technology for AI computing infrastructure construction.

Corning CEO Wendell Weeks said in the announcement: "The business done by NVIDIA is of great significance. It is not only related to the future of artificial intelligence, but also will boost high-end manufacturing employment in the United States."

As of Tuesday's close, this company has 175 An established company with a history of more than 20 years has taken advantage of the trend to transform into the new economic track, and its stock price has increased by more than 250% in the past year.

In January this year, Meta officially announced that it would become a core customer of Corning’s Hickory optical cable factory in North Carolina, with a maximum investment of US$6 billion. This expansion is expected to create approximately 1,000 jobs.

NVIDIA has long consolidated its leading position in AI. Its GPU is the core hardware for the development of large language models and also supports the large-scale expansion of data centers by technology giants such as Google and Meta.

Nvidia’s stock price has increased approximately 14 times in the past five years; however, the recent growth has slowed down, and investors have begun to diversify the entire AI infrastructure industry chain, increasing their holdings in the stocks of companies such as Intel, Micron, and Corning.

Analysts have long been looking forward to NVIDIA's large-scale implementation of co-packaged optical technology, which is expected to significantly increase data transmission speeds while reducing AI computing power consumption.

Corning’s most well-known business is the supply of complete display glass for Apple’s iPhone, and its optical communications business is still its largest and fastest-growing segment.

Since the invention of optical fiber for long-distance communications in 1970, Corning has provided millions of miles of fiber optic cable to interconnect server racks in the AI ​​data centers of major technology companies around the world.

Replace copper wire with optical fiber

By partnering with Nvidia, Corning is expected to apply glass fiber optics directly to interconnects between chips, eventually replacing up to 5,000 traditional copper cables within AI rack systems such as Vera Rubin.

Optical fiber is made of thin, bendable glass filaments and transmits data in the form of photons, which is faster and consumes less energy than traditional copper wires.

Weeks said in an interview with CNBC in January this year: "Using photons to transmit data consumes 5 to 20 times less energy than electronic transmission."

Market research agency Omdia Enterprise infrastructure analyst Vlad Garabov pointed out: "Placing the photoelectric conversion module close to the chip can significantly reduce energy consumption. Data is only transmitted within a few millimeters, which is far more energy-saving than long-distance transmission on a circuit board."

TAGP H7He also added: “NVIDIA is promoting the entire industry ecosystem to accelerate innovation.”

Compared with copper wires, optical fiber signal loss is lower, communication stability is stronger, and it can also shorten the data center by hundreds of thousands of times. The interconnection distance between GPUs.

NVIDIA Jensen Huang said in the announcement: "Artificial intelligence is spurring the largest wave of infrastructure construction in modern times and is also a once-in-a-century opportunity to reshape the U.S. manufacturing and supply chain.

We will join hands with Corning to create the future of computing with advanced optical technology and build a solid foundation for AI The infrastructure foundation allows intelligence to flow at the speed of light while inheriting the fine tradition of American manufacturing.”

NVIDIA has launched two network switches equipped with similar technology in 2025, which can be deployed close to the AI main chip. Competing products such as Broadcom and Marvell Electronics have also launched similar products, and Intel is also developing co-packaging optical solutions.

In March this year, NVIDIA invested a total of US$4 billion in two optical communications companies, Coherent and Lumentum. The two companies are mainly engaged in photoelectric signal conversion lasers and components. After signal conversion, the signals can be transmitted through Corning optical fiber.

Weeks revealed to CNBC during an exclusive factory visit in January this year that the company is cooperating with major chip manufacturers to develop glass core technology and explore the application of glass in future semiconductor packaging.

He said that as the problem of computing power consumption becomes more and more prominent, the distance between optical fibers and computing chips will inevitably become closer and closer. As the number of GPUs in a single server increases to hundreds, the interconnection distance will lengthen, and the economic and energy efficiency advantages of fiber optics will become more obvious.

Corning will celebrate its 175th anniversary by hosting an investor day at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday and ringing the closing bell the next day.