Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Corning
Search every verified Wendell Weeks interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Wendell Weeks, chairman and CEO of Corning, has been active in discussing the company's expansion in fiber-optic production for data centers, driven by demand related to artificial intelligence. In June 2026, Corning announced a partnership with Amazon to expand fiber-optic manufacturing sites in North Carolina, with Amazon making investments to support the expansion and create 1,000 jobs. Weeks described the deal as "multibillion dollars, multi-year" and said Amazon is "an absolute leader in both cloud and A.I." He also stated that the AI story is "also a manufacturing story," adding that pro-manufacturing policies create "an opportunity to reestablish the preeminence of American manufacturing." During Corning's first-quarter 2026 earnings call in April, Weeks said the company is seeing "very robust demand" and is entering "very long-term agreements" with hyperscale customers, similar in size and duration to a prior agreement with Meta. He noted that Corning aims to double its revenue run rate from around $20 billion at the end of 2026 to $40 billion by the end of 2030. Weeks also indicated that the company is seeking to share the risk of expansions with customers and that optical margins could potentially eclipse display margins, depending on adoption rates and the value of innovations.
“We need dramatic improvement in training and inference cost to make Gen AI into a highly sustainable business model and more importantly the productivity driver that we all hope it'll be. So we need sort of order of magnitude type improvements and so we should always do is expect there to be significant innovations are...”
“We're pursuing growth across the company of $8 billion in annualized sales run rate by the end of 2028, driven by the convergence of upward cyclical and secular trends in our markets. And we've taken this internal non-risk adjusted plan and created a high confidence plan for investors. First, we focused on a three-year...”
“I think one of the things that's missed about the A.I. story, we tend to tell it as a technology story, but it also is a manufacturing story. The amount of infrastructure that A.I. is going to require linked with pro-manufacturing policies from this administration create an opportunity to reestablish the preeminence of...”
“Taken together we've laid out an overall plan between now and the end of 2030. What we're trying to do is double our run rate from around $20 billion of revenue run rate at the end of this year to $40 billion by the end of 2030.”
“It's multibillion dollars, multi-year. But what also is important is Amazon's an absolute leader in both cloud and A.I. So for us to take the lead in helping design the optical networks of the future for them, it's a big deal for us.”
“We now have concluded two more large long-term agreements with hyperscale customers and they are each similar in size and duration to the Meta agreement. I can share that these deals are very significant and they share the risk and rewards of the required expansions with our strategic customers.”
“We took a business where we had a minority ownership and we were receiving about $50 million a year in cash flow in the form of dividends and we've turned it into almost a $1 billion revenue business. And we've been able to do all of this with customer funding and government support all while generating positive cash f...”
“The simple answer is yes [to whether optical margins could eclipse display margins]. And what'll be critical for that will be the rate of adoption and the value of the innovations that we create here and really the size of the competitive moats that we're able to build. Our goal is to create so much value that you know...”
“We are seeing a very robust demand for our innovation sets. What we're doing is entering into these very long-term agreements because the growth rate is accelerating so robustly... we seek to appropriately share the risk of the required expansions to support this rapidly accelerating growth.”
“We will be increasing our sales plan for the solar map as part of our springboard upgrade on May 6th. We will share our improved springboard plan and the key drivers as well as a particular focus on the latest developments in our Gen AI portfolio.”
“We are tracking well above our high competence plan and we're tracking very well on our internal plan. Through the end of the third quarter, we've added $4 billion of incremental annualized sales since the launch of Springboard. Looking ahead, we expect fourth quarter sales of $4.35 billion, which will add another $300...”
“As we look to the fourth quarter, we now anticipate achieving the 20% target a full year ahead of plan. So since the beginning of springboard, we have significantly increased our sales. We have grown operating profit at twice the rate of sales and we have increased EPS more than double the rate of sales.”
“In optical communications, we are expanding our innovation and technology leadership in Gen AI. First, in our enterprise business, where we report sales for inside the data center, we grew sales 58% year-over-year. The primary technical driver behind that growth is what the industry calls the scale out of the network.”
“We have built the largest solar ingot and wafer facility in the United States, colllocated with our polysilicon manufacturing facility in Hemlock, Michigan. We've sold out our polysilicon and wafer capacity in 2025 and now have more than 80% of our capacity committed for the next 5 years.”
“Because of our growing confidence in Springboard, we started to buy back shares again in the second quarter of 2024, and we have continued to do so every quarter since then, and we expect to continue buying back shares going forward. Over the last decade, we've repurchased 800 million shares, close to a 50% reduction i...”
... you and good morning welcome to Corning's fourth quarter 2024 earnings call with me today are Wendell Weeks chairman and ...
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Corning chairman and CEO Wendell Weeks discusses the company's newly announced partnership with Amazon to expand fiber-optic production for data centers on 'The Claman Countdown.' #fox #media #breakingnews #us #usa #new #news #breaking #foxbusiness #amazon #ai #artificialintelligence #technology #business #economy #datacenter #infrastructure #fiber #fiberoptic #cloud #innovation #manufacturing #growth #investment #markets #amazonwebservices #leadership Subscribe to Fox Business: https://bit.ly/2D9Cdse Watch more Fox Business Video: https://video.foxbusiness.com Watch Fox Business Network Liv…
Corning is everywhere: from the fiber optic cables powering the internet to the Gorilla Glass on your iPhone. Now, the 175-year-old company is making domestic manufacturing profitable. In this week’s episode of Bold Names, CEO Wendell Weeks sits down with WSJ's Christopher Mims to discuss how he plays the long game with technology investments and why his company is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the Trump administration’s tariffs and industrial policy. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Corning and Its Historical Significance 01:12 The Telecom Boom and Bust 03:04 Corning's Recovery and…
When Steve Jobs called Wendell Weeks, CEO of Corning, he had one mission — to create a tougher, lighter glass for the iPhone.
10/28/2025 Q&A: 35:45 Corning Incorporated operates in optical communications, display technologies, environmental technologies, specialty materials, and life sciences businesses. The company provides optical fibers and cables; and hardware and equipment products, such as cable assemblies, fiber optic hardware and connectors, optical components and couplers, closures, network interface devices, and other accessories for the telecommunications industry, businesses, governments, and individuals. It also offers glass substrates for flat panel displays, including liquid crystal displays and organi…
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