Optical fiber prices rise: Corning lands 80 million-mile long-term order as domestic procurement unit prices climb nearly 90%

C114, September 9 — Once dismissed as "traditional telecom infrastructure" and mired in price wars, optical fiber is now becoming the "hard currency" of the AI computing era.

Yesterday, Corning's ten-year supply deal with Verizon, combined with a nearly 90% jump in unit prices in China Mobile's domestic tender, points to one fact: the supply-demand balance in the optical fiber industry has fully reversed.

Optical fiber major Corning announced a multi-year, multibillion-dollar fiber supply agreement with US telecom carrier Verizon running through 2032. Under the deal, Corning will deliver more than 80 million miles of high-density optical fiber and associated connectivity solutions to Verizon between 2027 and 2032, covering both home broadband FTTH and AI data center backbone networks. Corning shares rose 5% in early trading on the news.

North American market surge: Verizon's long-term order combines broadband expansion with AI backbone buildout

The Verizon long-term supply agreement serves two goals. First, it supports the expansion of Verizon's fiber-to-the-home coverage, targeting an additional 40 million to 50 million broadband subscribers and stronger local access for business and government customers. Second, the new fiber infrastructure will carry AI traffic, linking multiple data centers along long-haul trunk corridors to enable cross-node compute scheduling.

Kyle Malady, CEO of Verizon Business, said the company is building a converged network architecture in which a single network carries both residential and enterprise traffic while providing hyperscale AI customers with a high-capacity, low-latency backbone transport platform. Corning's supply includes Corning Contour Flow Cable, which fits more fiber into existing duct resources, cutting trenching costs and improving deployment efficiency.

Mike O'Day, senior vice president and general manager of Corning's optical communications business, said the supply plan addresses two major markets at once: meeting U.S. household demand for high-speed fiber access and matching the need for high-speed connections within and between AI data centers. Unlike a simple broadband network expansion project, this order has a key driver: the massive data traffic generated by AI has become the core driver for carriers upgrading their backbone fiber networks. As large models and multimodal AI applications spread, the volume of data exchanged within and between data centers — what we call DCI/Scale-across scenarios — is growing exponentially, forcing carriers to build up trunk fiber capacity ahead of time.

Domestic market confirms the trend: China Mobile tender closes, fiber prices rise sharply

Large overseas carrier orders confirm the restructuring of fiber demand, and the domestic market is also seeing significant changes. The bid evaluation results for China Mobile's 2026-2027 centralized procurement of standard optical cables have been published, with a project budget of 7.0998 billion yuan (excluding tax) and a procurement volume equivalent to 69.222 million fiber-km. China Mobile's first tender failed; after the price cap was raised and a second tender was held, the deal was finalized with 18 manufacturers shortlisted and all 17 companies bidding at the maximum allowed price, signaling a clear ebb in the industry's years-long price war.

Calculations show that the optical cable in this procurement works out to about 102.56 yuan per fiber-km, up nearly 90% from the previous round — a landmark event for the fiber industry as both volumes and prices rise. Spot prices for G.652.D single-mode fiber have also climbed, reaching a range of 85-120 yuan per fiber-km. Although the total volume in this round is lower than the last, the sharp price increase clearly reflects a reversal in the supply-demand balance.

The underlying logic mirrors overseas markets: AI compute buildouts are generating new fiber demand, and manufacturers are prioritizing preform and fiber capacity for specialty data center fiber and overseas compute orders, tightening supply. Faced with persistently tight supply, carriers have shifted their procurement approach — moving away from simply driving down purchase prices toward securing long-term, stable supply first.

Demand structure reshaped: carriers become the second growth curve after cloud providers

Corning has previously signed a multi-year optical fiber agreement with Meta worth up to $6 billion; partnered with NVIDIA to expand optical connectivity manufacturing capacity in the US, boosting fiber capacity by more than 50%; and signed a multi-billion-dollar data center optical fiber supply agreement with Amazon.

Behind this wave of long-term contracts, AI is reshaping the underlying logic of fiber demand. Corning estimates that an AI data center node uses about 16 times as much optical fiber as a conventional switch scenario. In the past, fiber demand was driven mainly by telecom operators' FTTH and backbone network buildouts; over the past two years, however, computing industry players such as Meta, Amazon and NVIDIA have moved first, locking in fiber capacity through multi-year framework agreements.

At the current stage, industry demand has entered a second phase: telecom operators are beginning to follow with capacity expansion. Operators must continue upgrading traditional communications networks such as FTTH and dedicated enterprise lines, while long-haul interconnection demand between AI data centers is forcing them to expand backbone fiber. With the two types of demand叠加, the fiber industry cycle is no longer tied solely to traditional telecom capital expenditure.

Amid tight supply and demand, "multi-year long-term contracts to lock in capacity" has become common practice across the global supply chain. With spot supply tight and manufacturers' capacity expansion cycles lengthy, cloud providers, overseas carriers and domestic operators are all inclined to sign long-term agreements to secure fiber supply for the coming years and hedge against delivery risks from future capacity shortages and raw material price increases.

It is fair to say that AI compute-driven optical interconnect demand is moving from "supporting communications" to "driving intelligence." Whether through Scale-up, Scale-out or Scale-across expansion, all-optical interconnection is becoming a reality. In particular, new fiber technologies represented by G.654.E, multi-core fiber, polarization-maintaining fiber and hollow-core fiber have become key variables determining the efficiency and cost of intelligent computing infrastructure.

Final Thoughts

Knowledge gained from books is always shallow; true mastery comes only from practice.

To experience the red-hot fiber optic market firsthand and grasp future industry and technology trends, you are welcome to attend the "AI + New Optical Fiber Application Forum," co-hosted by C114 and the China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE) on September 11, 2026 at the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center.

Under the theme "Light Enables Intelligence, Fiber Connects the Future," the forum focuses on four core topics: high-density optical interconnect for AIDC, hollow-core fiber, G.654.E backbone deployment, and testing and O&M. Heavyweight guests from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), the three major carriers, State Grid, internet cloud providers and the capital markets will gather under one roof, aiming to align technology and selection criteria among optical fiber and cable companies, internet architects, intelligent computing center owners, carriers and investors.

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Light Enables Intelligence ·  Fiber Connects the Future: AI + New Optical Fiber Application Forum

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