Inside Corning’s Mission To Become Bubble-Proof

0:00UKG is the workforce operating platform with unified HR, payroll and workforce management. built to solve the unique challenges of frontline work. Powered by People First AI and decades of labor data, UKG turns workforce intelligence into real-time decisions around staffing, pay, compliance, and productivity, enabling every worker to confidently take action as work happens. Because when work works, everything works. Learn more at ukg.com slash work. UKG, HR, pay, and workforce management. Buy stocks to sell. You might be missing the opportunity to hear. You're not repositioning it right now. My guy says now's the time to go all in.

0:36Real traders still hear the noise. They just know when to stop listening to it. Find and research opportunities to fit your strategy with thinkorswim trading platforms from Schwab. Discover features like robust charting, nearly unlimited customization, and built-in risk management technology. Plus, get 24-7 support from real trading specialists. That's Schwab Trading. Learn more at schwab.com slash trading. Today on Forbes, inside Corning's mission to become bubble-proof. The AI boom runs on NVIDIA chips, staggering amounts of electricity and water, and a lot of glass. Corning makes more of it than anyone else.

1:20More precisely, the 175-year-old glass company makes the hair-thin optical fiber that hauls data between servers, buildings, and data centers. Demand has become so intense that Corning has recently signed multi-billion dollar agreements with Amazon, NVIDIA, Meta, and Verizon. Just a few weeks ago, AT &T announced a$3 billion deal with Corning to upgrade its home internet service. And Apple has committed another$2.5 billion for Corning's Gorilla Glass, the tough, hard-to-scratch stuff used in iPhones and Apple Watches. AI infrastructure is a lively third act for one of the nation's OG technology companies.

2:06Corning was founded in 1851 and was responsible for everything from the glass in Thomas Edison's light bulbs to the cookware known as Pyrex. As of early October, Corning's stock had nearly doubled in the last 12 months, dramatically outperforming the S &P 500's 16%. In 2025, the company posted net income of$1.6 billion on sales of$15.6 billion. That was up 19 % over 2024. This year, analysts expect revenue to jump nearly 25 % to$19.3 billion and net income to double. And Wendell Weeks, Corning's 67-year-old CEO, aims to hit$40 billion in revenue by 2030. Weeks says, quote, Fiber optics and all the products that are being used today for generative AI were originally invented for telecom.

3:05Weeks, a Harvard MBA who prefers tailored suits to the jeans and sneakers favored by West Coast tech tycoons, adds, quote, we invented a lot of them decades ago and we're seeing a total reinvention of that product set. Yet amid Corning's best year in a generation, there are reminders of its volatile and sometimes ugly past. Its stock surged nearly 200 % during the first half of 2026, only to plummet 50 % in July based on little more than analysts' worries over its inflated valuation and the expanding AI bubble. For weeks, who joined Corning in 1983 and took over its optical fiber business in 1996, it must have felt like deja vu.

3:51During the telecom bubble of the late 1990s and early 2000s, many thought the network build-out from the rapidly expanding Internet would go on for decades. During that period, Corning borrowed heavily, spending$10 billion on acquisitions. After optical fiber orders from its best customers, including Nortel, suddenly dried up when the bubble burst in 2001, Corning's stock nosedived from$113 to$1.10 in under two years. Weeks, who was named CEO in 2005, says, When I took over, we were at a spot that was relatively dark. We were coming off of the dot-com crash, which ended up devastating a lot of our customers.

4:39Ultimately, what saved Corning was its treasure trove of innovations in material science. First to the rescue were ultra-thin flat-panel LCD television displays, made with Corning Glass, which consumers began buying en masse in the early 2000s. Then came Gorilla Glass, developed at Corning in the 1960s. During a late 2006 meeting, Steve Jobs persuaded Weeks to begin producing millions of tiny scratch-resistant screens for the iPhone's launch in June 2007. From then on, Gorilla Glass turned into a blockbuster for the company. Other scientific miracles made of glass and ceramics continue to replenish and fill Corning's till, including pollution filters for cars and diesel trucks, specialty glass for the medical industry, and ever-thinner glass for TVs and laptops.

5:31In a flashback to the late 1990s, optical fiber sales are once again leading the charge, contributing 45 % of Corning's$8.6 billion in revenue in the first half of the year. Weeks thinks it's going to keep growing for years, but insists Corning won't get caught in another tailspin because he's seen that movie before. He's now obsessing over diversification. One idea is to convince automakers to start making their windshields out of Gorilla Glass. They would be pricey, yes, but they would also be resistant to cracking and rock damage, and weigh significantly less. Another idea is to supply all the components needed to make solar panels, polysilicon wafers and ingots, solar cells, and modules at American factories.

6:20Currently, nearly all are made in Asia. Research and development has always been a top priority for Corning. This year's budget should total about$1 billion, or 7 % of revenue. Because Corning prioritizes research, it gives its team beautiful facilities, like the 2 million square foot Sullivan Park Center, which sits on 400 acres just outside Corning, New York. Chief Technology Officer Jamin Amin says that because of Corning's R &D priority, company scientists and engineers often stay for decades, even their entire careers. For full coverage, check out Alan Owensman's piece on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

7:06Thanks for tuning in.

7:22UKG is the workforce operating platform with unified HR, payroll, and workforce management. Built to solve the unique challenges of frontline work. Powered by People First AI and decades of labor data, UKG turns workforce intelligence into real-time decisions around staffing, pay, compliance, and productivity, enabling every worker to confidently take action as work happens. Because when work works, everything works. Learn more at ukg.com slash work. UKG. HR, pay, and workforce management. Thank you.