Meta Signs Up to $6 Bn Fibre Supply Deal With Corning

Meta has announced an up to $6 billion, multi-year agreement with Corning to source fibre optic cables for its US data centres, a move the companies say will strengthen domestic manufacturing and support job growth in North Carolina.

Under the agreement, Corning will expand its manufacturing operations in the state, including a significant capacity increase at its Trivium Corporate Center in Catawba County. The partnership is expected to support a 15–20% increase in jobs at Corning’s North Carolina facilities.

Two of Meta’s largest data centres under construction—the one-gigawatt Prometheus facility in New Albany, Ohio, and the five-gigawatt Hyperion site in Richland Parish, Louisiana—will use Corning fibre-optic cable under the agreement.

“Building the most advanced data centres in the US requires world-class partners and American manufacturing,” said Joel Kaplan, chief global affairs officer at Meta. “We’re proud to partner with Corning for the high-performance fibre optic cables our AI infrastructure needs. This collaboration will help create skilled US jobs, strengthen local economies, and support US leadership in the global AI race.”

Fibre optic cables are a core component of data centre infrastructure, enabling high-speed data transfer across servers and networks. Meta said the connectivity supports its technologies, including AI systems, wearable devices such as Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, and its consumer applications used globally.

Both companies said demand for fibre connectivity is expected to grow as generative AI and digital tools are adopted across sectors such as healthcare, finance, and agriculture.

Corning said the agreement reinforces its focus on domestic manufacturing and long-term investment in optical connectivity. “This long-term partnership with Meta reflects Corning’s commitment to develop, innovate, and manufacture the critical technologies that power next-generation data centres here in the US,” said Wendell P. Weeks, chairman and chief executive officer of Corning Incorporated. 

Weeks added that Corning employs more than 5,000 people in the state, including scientists, engineers, and production teams working across two major optical fibre and cable manufacturing facilities.

Meta said it currently has 26 data centres under construction or in operation across the US. The company stated that its data centre projects have supported around 30,000 skilled trade jobs during construction and about 5,000 operational roles, including electricians, network technicians, engineers, and safety personnel.

The company recently announced the launch of a new top-level initiative called Meta Compute to build a large-scale computing infrastructure for its long-term AI plans. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company plans to build “tens of gigawatts” of computing capacity this decade, with capacity expected to grow to “hundreds of gigawatts or more over time.