Corning unveils long-term deal with Nvidia to boost optical connectivity, build US plants

Corning (GLW) shares surged more than 16% in early trading last Wednesday after it and Nvidia (NVDA) unveiled a new long-term deal to boost optical connectivity capacity by 10 times. In addition, the two companies will build three new manufacturing plants in the U.S., resulting in the creation of more than 3,000 high-paying American jobs, while Corning will expand its U.S. fiber production capacity by more than 50%. The plants will be located in North Carolina and Texas, and Corning's expanded capacity will provide hyperscale data centers the optical connectivity they need to deploy Nvidia's accelerated computing at scale. In conjunction, Nvidia received a warrant to purchase up to 15M shares of Corning at an exercise price of $180 a share, according to an 8-K filing. It also received a pre-funded warrant to purchase up to 3M shares at $0.0001 a share, for an aggregate price of $500M. “AI is driving the largest infrastructure buildout of our time – and a once-in-a-generation opportunit