Corning Shifts Strategy to Optical Fiber for AI Centers

The company expects a transition to 160 fibers per GPU by 2028 to replace existing copper-based data center architectures.

Updated on Oct. 28, 2026 in Telecommunications

Isometric editorial illustration of a dense bundle of glass fiber optic strands radiating from a central connector. — Corning expects a surge in demand for optical fiber interconnects as data centers transition from copper-based architectures to handle growing GPU clusters. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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Corning reported third-quarter revenue for its Optical Communications segment rose 44% to $2.38 billion, bolstered by significant long-term supply agreements with AT&T, Verizon, and Zayo. The company now expects a major shift toward optical-based GPU scale-up to begin accelerating in 2028.

Why it matters

As AI data centers reach limits with current copper-based architectures, the industry is transitioning to optical interconnects to link processors. Corning projects this shift will trigger a 10-fold increase in fiber demand, significantly expanding the market for data center connectivity solutions.

Optical scale-up aims to replace copper by requiring 160 fibers per GPU to link processors within a server or rack. This transition represents a major departure from existing architectures that currently rely on copper wiring for high-speed data transfer.

The players

Corning

A materials science firm specializing in glass, ceramics, and optical fiber products for global communications networks.

AT&T

A major American telecommunications carrier providing broadband, mobile, and digital entertainment services.

Verizon

A multinational telecommunications conglomerate providing wireless, fiber-optic, and business network services.

Zayo

A communications infrastructure company providing fiber bandwidth and network connectivity for data centers and enterprises.

The details

Scale-up refers to the method of linking processors inside a single server or rack to create a unified compute domain. By utilizing fiber optics instead of copper, data centers can achieve significantly higher bandwidth and lower latency. Corning provides the specialized fiber and connectivity hardware required to handle these higher-density links, which are necessary to prevent throughput bottlenecks as GPU clusters grow in size and complexity.

May 2026: Corning initial forecast for optical scale-up acceleration.
Q3 2026: Corning reported earnings and secured major customer agreements.
2028: Projected acceleration of optical scale-up architecture.
2030: Target year for AT&T broadband goals and Zayo route expansion.
2032: Conclusion of the Verizon optical fiber supply agreement.

The Tech Race

The move to 160 fibers per GPU marks a clear industry shift away from copper as the bottleneck for high-performance computing. Corning is positioning its supply chain to dominate this infrastructure change as data centers race to handle increasing Gen AI workloads.

The transition to optical fiber is primarily an industrial scaling effort that will affect data center capacity rather than consumer-facing hardware. Users will see the benefits through increased AI performance and the expansion of broadband access to 60 million Americans by 2030.

The takeaway

Corning is betting heavily on the industry transition to 160 fibers per GPU to sustain long-term growth as current copper limits are hit. Investors and engineers should watch for the 2028 deployment window when optical-heavy AI data center designs are expected to reach commercial scale.