Inside the Trivium Corporate Center manufacturing site in Catawba County, the air buzzed with the hum and loud drill sounds of production. And brightly colored spools of bare fiber in green, blue and orange offered a glimpse into the digital threads that will power the future of artificial intelligence and data centers around North Carolina and the country.
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This vibrant, noisy scene was part of a groundbreaking on Tuesday of a massive new $6 billion partnership between Corning Inc. and tech giant Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook and Instagram.
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The deal, which will supply fiber optic cables for Meta data centers for the next five years, is set to make the Hickory area facility the largest optical cable plant in the world, Corning Optical senior vice president and general manager Mike O’Day said.
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Corning and Meta leaders touted the partnership, first announced in January, as crucial to America’s technological leadership. The initiative involves a capacity expansion at Corning’s optical cable manufacturing facility in the Hickory area, about an hour north of Charlotte.
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Corning does not provide square footage by location for competitive reasons, the company said.
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Hal Nelson, Corning executive vice president and chief operating officer, emphasized that Corning invented the first low-loss optical fiber more than 50 years ago, which revolutionized telecommunications.
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“Without optical connectivity, there is no AI,” Nelson said. “This investment helps sustain and grow highly skilled manufacturing and engineering roles across the state.”
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1,000 new jobs coming to NC from Corning, Meta project
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The $6 billion investment will create about 1,000 jobs across North Carolina, including roles for scientists, engineers and production workers.
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This represents a 15% to 20% increase in Corning’s current employment of more than 5,000 workers in the state; average annual salaries for the new jobs expected to be over $65,000.
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For Meta, the partnership is critical for its rapidly expanding infrastructure as the company builds some of the most advanced data centers in the world, said Dan Sachs, vice president of public policy for Meta. Corning’s high-performance fiber optic cables are a key part of that work, he said.
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He noted that inside a data center are millions of miles of cables — a sprawling, intricate network that connects everything Meta has built, including apps and wearable technology like the Meta glasses he was wearing.
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“What it takes to bring our technologies to life, it starts with infrastructure,” Sachs said. The facilities depend on powerful servers and hardware, and “at the heart of this connectivity are fiber optic cables.”
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NC pumps up global fiber optics
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The partnership also highlights North Carolina’s role in the global fiber-optic supply chain. Annetta Taylor, deputy secretary for broadband and digital opportunity for the NC Department of Information Technology, called Hickory “the fiber capital of the country”.
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“This isn’t just a groundbreaking for a building,” Taylor said, “it’s for the future of American connectivity. That impact changes lives.”
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Hickory Mayor Hank Guess said as the anchor supplier of optical technology for Meta’s data centers, Corning will provide new opportunities throughout the region including manufacturing jobs.
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“The work that will happen on this site is not only about meeting the demands of a rapidly evolving AI economy, he said,” it’s about ensuring places like Hickory remain at the forefront of emerging technologies.”
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Mike O’Day, Corning Optical senior vice president and general manager, explained the urgent need for expansion: the data demand for AI “continues to climb, accelerating even faster.” He talked about a single Meta data center in Manhattan that requires 8 million miles of fiber optics inside that facility alone.
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That’s why Corning and Meta are expanding the Hickory facility and across the state to meet the demands of AI, with a push for smaller cables that can handle a lot more fiber in the same footprint..
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“It positions Hickory to play an even bigger part in the AI infrastructure that impacts the entire world,” O’Day said.
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About Corning Optical and Hickory
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Scott Millar, president of Catawba County Economic Development Corp., provided a historical perspective on the 33-acre site. It was once a dairy farm that was a mainstay of the county’s economy and supplied the Biltmore creamery.
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When the Trivium business park opened, Corning became the first tenant in 2018. “Now, less than eight years later, there are thousands of jobs that have been created in this business park,” Millar said.
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Corning Optical, a division of New York-based Corning Inc., is headquartered in an 82,170-square-foot facility at Riverbend Village in northwest Charlotte. Corning Optical has other manufacturing facilities in Wilmington, Concord, Winston-Salem and Newton.
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The Hickory expansion builds on a previous plan announced in October to hire at least 132 people and invest between $170 million and $268 million in the facility.
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Catawba County and the NC ‘Data Center Corridor’
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Catawba County is considered the catalyst for the modern data center boom in North Carolina, establishing a “Data Center Corridor” in the early 2000s, which includes Caldwell, Rutherford, and Cleveland counties.
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Catawba’s largest data center opened in 2010 with Apple’s 500,000-square-foot facility. It now has four main buildings and several smaller ones totaling over 1 million square feet.
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Data centers have become a hot-button topic over the past couple of years in the Charlotte region as well as nationally.
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That’s tied to the surge in artificial intelligence fueled by apps, websites and other tech, which has created the need for the rapid expansion of massive data centers to handle demand. The Carolinas, with Charlotte at the center, are now seen nationally as a rising hub that’s helping expand that supply.
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Data centers are giant warehouse-like facilities full of computers and related equipment for storing, processing and distributing digital information or data.
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In Catawba County, Microsoft also has begun work on a $1 billion data center project.
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Several commercial building permits were issued to the tech giant between November and December for sites in Conover, Hickory, Maiden and Newton, according to Catawba County permit records. Those communities are about 40 to 60 miles north of Charlotte.
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The project would create at least 50 jobs and has to be completed in 10 years. Microsoft has until 2032 to fulfill its investment agreement. The four data centers will cost Microsoft a combined $909 million, according to the construction permits.
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Data center tax benefits have been substantial, with Maiden seeing its tax rate drop from 40 cents to 38 cents, while funding a community center, town hall and emergency services, Millar previously told The Charlotte Observer.
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This story was originally published March 31, 2026 at 3:18 PM.
Catherine Muccigrosso
Charlotte Spectator
Catherine Muccigrosso covers retail, banking and other business news for The Charlotte Observer. An award-winning journalist, he has worked for numerous newspapers in the Carolinas, Missouri and New York.
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