Prysmian Doubles Down on U.S. Fiber With $1.2B Expansion
Claremont, N.C., will get the bulk of the investment spanning facilities in three states.
WASHINGTON, August 14, 2026 – Cable and fiber giant Prysmian is pouring more than $1.2 billion into expanding its U.S. optical fiber and cable manufacturing capacity.
The Milan, Italy-based company says the investment will more than double its total U.S. output. It follows a separate 10-year agreement Prysmian signed last month with Molex, a Koch Inc. subsidiary, to supply optical fiber cables for use inside data centers. That deal is worth up to $6.3 billion and includes a $620 million upfront payment.
Prysmian said it is targeting more than $11.4 billion in cumulative revenue from hyperscalers and data center infrastructure providers through 2035, including as much as $1.26 billion annually starting in 2031.
“The agreements and capacity investments strengthen our leadership in data centers, with every part of our business benefiting,” Prysmian CEO Massimo Battaini said.
Most of the money, $1.02 billion, is earmarked for doubling fiber production capacity at Prysmian’s Claremont, North Carolina campus, expected to create 300 jobs.
It adds a new glass preform facility, where large glass structures are manufactured and then drawn into optical fiber, integrating the raw material stage of fiber production, a capability the Claremont site has not previously held in-house.
It also adds expanded fiber draw lines, production lines where the glass used to make optical fiber is heated and drawn down into extremely thin strands of fiber, and a larger research and development center.
A second, $48 million investment will expand the campus’s separate optical cable operations plant, adding another 85 jobs.
The new positions will carry an average annual salary of $60,870, above Catawba County’s average of $56,937, for an estimated regional payroll impact of more than $23.4 million a year.
A groundbreaking is planned for mid-September, and the state has proposed at least a $1 million performance-based grant tied to the project, according to an announcement from North Carolina Governor Josh Stein’s office on Wednesday.
Claremont has been a repeat target for Prysmian investment: the company spent $20 million there in 2016 to expand fiber preform production and add 50 jobs, then followed with a $54 million expansion in 2024 that increased plant capacity by 60 percent. This year’s investment dwarfs both.
Claremont isn’t the only site getting a boost. Prysmian will also spend $100 million to double the footprint of its Jackson, Tennessee facility, and $80 million will expand capacity for its FlexRibbon cable line at its Lexington, South Carolina plant.
The expansions altogether are expected to generate 615 new U.S. jobs. The company’s regional operations are based in Highland Heights, Kentucky.
Part of a broader fiber arms race
Prysmian’s U.S. buildout places it squarely in a manufacturing race that rival Corning has also been aggressively pursuing.
Corning has partnered with Nvidia on plans to build three new optical plants in North Carolina and Texas, and has struck major fiber supply agreements with Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon.
CommScope, the third major U.S. fiber manufacturer, expanded its North Carolina operations in 2023 and announced further growth plans in 2024.
Just five months ago, Prysmian and three other major fiber suppliers said the industry had enough domestic capacity to serve both the federal government’s $21 billion broadband buildout and rapidly growing demand from artificial intelligence hyperscaler.
In a March statement, executives from Prysmian, Corning, AFL and Lightera told the National Telecommunications and Information Administration that peak BEAD deployment would represent less than 5 percent of U.S. fiber capacity. They pledged to maintain enough American-made fiber and cable to serve the program.
Founded in 1879, Prysmian North America has grown to become one of the world’s largest cable and fiber manufacturers, operating more than 100 plants across six continents, including more than 50 locations and 9,000 associates in North America.
