Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has signed a multiyear agreement to purchase billions of dollars’ worth of optical connectivity solutions from Corning (NYSE: GLW), the latest hyperscale giant to commit to the 175-year-old glassmaker.
The deal places Amazon alongside Meta Platforms and Nvidia, both of which have recently made major purchasing commitments with Corning for its fiber-optic products.
Meta plans to buy around $6 billion worth of Corning’s optical connectivity solutions over the next several years, establishing a benchmark for the scale of these agreements.
Corning CEO Wendell Weeks, during an April 28 investor conference call, referenced two newly signed deals of similar size and scope to the Meta agreement, which analysts now link to Amazon and another hyperscale customer.
The surge in demand is being driven by a broader industry shift away from copper cables toward fiber-optic alternatives, which transmit data faster and over greater distances while consuming significantly less energy.
Nvidia’s flagship NVLink 72 data center rack currently uses two miles of copper cables to connect 72 GPUs and 36 CPUs, but the transition to fiber is accelerating across the sector.
Corning recently launched a product called Multicore Fiber, which packs four cores into a single 125-micron strand, delivering the same performance as single-core solutions with 75% fewer cables.
In May, Nvidia signed a separate agreement to help Corning expand its U.S.-based optical connectivity manufacturing capacity tenfold, signaling how much supply will be needed to meet hyperscale demand.
Corning’s optical communications segment posted $1.8 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2026, a 36% jump from the same period a year earlier, growing at twice the pace of the company’s total core revenue.
Total core revenue for the quarter rose 18% to $4.3 billion, while the optical communications segment alone contributed $387 million in net income, a 93% increase year over year.
That segment accounted for more than half of Corning’s total core net income of $612 million for the quarter, reflecting the pricing power the company now holds in a supply-constrained market.
Core earnings per share grew 30% year over year in the first quarter, and core operating margin reached 20.2%, a milestone Corning hit a full year ahead of its own internal schedule.
For the full year 2025, adjusted earnings per share grew 29%, and the company has since extended its long-range financial targets at a May investor event.
Corning is now targeting a $40 billion annualized sales run rate by the end of 2030, doubling the $20 billion annualized run rate it expects to achieve by the close of 2026.
Despite the strong fundamentals, valuation remains a concern, with the stock trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of roughly 90 after more than doubling in 2026 alone.
That premium multiple already implies years of continued strong growth, leaving little margin for error if AI infrastructure spending slows or competition in the optical fiber market intensifies.
Analysts caution that investors should be prepared to hold the stock for at least five years to ride out any near-term volatility that the elevated valuation could bring.
For investors looking to gain exposure to the AI infrastructure build-out through the optical side of the trade rather than semiconductors, Corning presents a compelling but high-risk opportunity.
