(The Center Square) – Within a national $6 billion deal announced Tuesday, another of the Big Five tech companies is investing in North Carolinians for jobs.
Corning, with eight manufacturing locations and its Optical Communications headquarters in Charlotte, is poised to add an estimated 750 to 1,000 jobs at its optical cable manufacturing facility in Hickory. The 175-year-old New York-based materials science company has a deal with Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, it says will supply “optical fiber, cable and connectivity products designed to meet the density and scale demands of advanced artificial intelligence centers.”
The $6 billion package supports buildout of the most advanced data centers nationwide, with expectation to impact Ohio and Louisiana. Meta will be anchor customer in Hickory at the Trivium Corporate Center.
In addition to high-powered computer chips, fiber optics moving large amounts of data efficiently between thousands of servers is crucial to artificial intelligence.
Expanded production capacity will happen across other locations in the state, though Corning did not name them. Corning also has facilities at Newton, Concord, Midland, Winston-Salem, Durham, Wilmington and Tarboro.
Corning, global market share leader in optical fiber and cable production, said the workforce was expected to increase 15%-20%. There’s about 5,000 in the state today.
The Economic Investment Committee within the Commerce Department met on Tuesday and went into executive session. No announcement followed. First-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, regularly cheering on economic development news, prior to publication was yet to issue a release or post on social media about the jobs increase.
The company added a note of caution to its statement.
It said in part, “Some of the risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: global economic trends, competition and geopolitical risks, or an escalation of sanctions, tariffs or other trade tensions between the U.S. and other countries, and related impacts on our businesses’ global supply chains and strategies.”
In a release, Chairman and CEO Wendell Weeks of Corning said, “Together with Meta, we’re strengthening domestic supply chains and helping ensure that advanced data centers are built using U.S. innovation and advanced manufacturing.”
Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, agreed on putting together “world-class partners and American manufacturing.”
He also said, “This collaboration will help create good-paying, skilled U.S. jobs, strengthen local economies, and help secure the U.S. lead in the global AI race.”
The Big Five tech companies, as they are colloquially known, are Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Alphabet. Former names were Facebook rather than Meta, and Google rather than Alphabet.
In June, Amazon said it would invest $10 billion toward its Amazon Web Services data center supply chain innovation campus in Richmond County along the South Carolina border. Earlier in the month, Jet Zero’s $4.7 billion investment had shattered the previous state record.
Corning’s sales growth in optical communications was 58% in third quarter of 2025 fueled by artificial intelligence demand. Core sales in the quarter were $4.2 billion; for 2024, core sales were $14.47 billion.
Meta’s revenue growth for third quarter of 2025 was $51.24 billion, up 26% year over year. Annual revenue in 2024 was $164.5 billion. The 2025 report and fourth quarter analysis will be released after the market closes on Wednesday.
