Corning Incorporated (Corning) is a provider of high-performance glass for notebook computers, flat panel desktop monitors, display televisions and other information display applications; carrier network and enterprise network products for the telecommunications industry; ceramic substrates for gasoline and diesel engines in automotive and heavy-duty vehicle markets; laboratory products for the scientific community and specialized polymer products for biotechnology applications; advanced optical...
Corning Incorporated (Corning) is a provider of high-performance glass for notebook computers, flat panel desktop monitors, display televisions and other information display applications; carrier network and enterprise network products for the telecommunications industry; ceramic substrates for gasoline and diesel engines in automotive and heavy-duty vehicle markets; laboratory products for the scientific community and specialized polymer products for biotechnology applications; advanced optical materials for the semiconductor industry and the scientific community; polycrystalline silicon products and other technologies.
Corning’s markets include optical communications, mobile consumer electronics, display, automotive, solar, semiconductor and life sciences. Corning’s industry-leading products include damage-resistant cover materials for mobile devices; precision glass for advanced displays; optical fiber, cable and connectivity solutions for advanced communications networks, such as fiber to the home and data centers, enabling artificial intelligence and connections around the world; trusted products to accelerate drug discovery and delivery; and clean-air technologies and technical glass for cars and trucks.
Corning manufactures products at 124 plants in 15 countries and operates in five reportable segments: Optical Communications, Display Technologies, Specialty Materials, Environmental Technologies, and Life Sciences.
Optical Communications Segment
The company has continued to pioneer optical fiber, cable and connectivity solutions. The company’s experience puts the company in a unique position to design and deliver optical solutions that reach every edge of the communications network.
The Optical Communications segment is divided into two main product groupings – carrier network and enterprise network. The carrier network group consists primarily of products and solutions for optical-based communications infrastructure for services such as video, data and voice communications. The enterprise network group consists primarily of optical-based communication networks sold to businesses, governments and individuals for their own use.
The company’s carrier network product portfolio encompasses an array of optical fiber products, including Vascade optical fibers for use in submarine networks; LEAF optical fiber for long-haul, regional and metropolitan networks; SMF-28 ULL and TXF fiber for more scalable long-haul and regional networks; SMF-28e+ single-mode optical fiber providing additional transmission wavelengths in metropolitan and access networks and ClearCurve ultra-bendable single-mode fiber for use in multiple-dwelling units and fiber-to-the-home applications. For high performance across the range of long-haul, metro, access and fiber-to-the-home network applications, SMF-28 Ultra and SMF-28 Contour fibers deliver industry-leading attenuation, compatibility and improved macrobend performance in one fiber. A portion of the company’s optical fiber is sold directly to end users and third-party cablers globally. The company’s remaining fiber production is cabled internally and sold to end users as either bulk cable or as part of an integrated optical solution. The company’s cable products, including the RocketRibbon and miniXtend portfolios, support various outdoor, indoor/outdoor and indoor applications and include a broad range of loose tube, ribbon and drop cable designs with flame-retardant versions available for indoor and indoor/outdoor use, including 5G networks.
In addition to optical fiber and cable, the company’s carrier network product portfolio also includes hardware and equipment products, including cable assemblies, fiber-optic hardware, fiber-optic connectors, optical components and couplers, closures, network interface devices and other accessories. These products may be sold as individual components or as part of integrated optical connectivity solutions designed for various carrier network applications. Examples of these solutions include the company’s Evolv platform, which provides pre-connectorized solutions for cost-effectively deploying fiber-to-the-home and 5G networks; and the Centrix platform, which provides a fiber management system with industry-leading density and innovative jumper routing that can be deployed in a wide variety of carrier switching centers.
The company’s enterprise network portfolio leverages optical fiber products, including ClearCurve ultra-bendable multimode fiber for private and hyperscale data centers and other enterprise network applications.
The company’s hardware and equipment for enterprise network applications include cable assemblies, fiber-optic hardware, fiber-optic connectors, optical components and couplers, closures and other accessories. These products may be sold as individual components or as part of integrated optical connectivity solutions designed for various network applications, including hyperscale data centers. Examples of enterprise network solutions include the EDGE platform, which provides high-density pre-connectorized cabling solutions for data center applications, supporting a path to speeds of 400G and beyond and Everon Network Solutions, which provide next-generation cellular connectivity products for interior spaces of all sizes.
The company invented new fibers, cables and connectors to capture the generative AI enterprise demand. These components are being adopted by hyperscale data centers and others focusing on key technology vectors such as density, latency and sustainability.
The company’s optical fiber manufacturing facilities are in North Carolina, China, India and Poland. Cabling operations are in North Carolina, Poland, and smaller regional locations. The company’s manufacturing operations for hardware and equipment products are in Texas, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Poland and China.
The segment has an extensive portfolio of patents relating to its products, technologies and manufacturing processes. The segment licenses certain of its patents to third parties and generates revenue from these licenses, although the royalty income is not material to this segment’s operating results. The company is licensed to use certain patents owned by others, which are considered important to the segment’s operations.
Display Technologies Segment
The Display Technologies segment manufactures glass substrates for flat panel displays, including liquid crystal displays (‘LCDs’) and organic light-emitting diodes (‘OLEDs’) that are used primarily in televisions, notebook computers, desktop monitors, tablets and handheld devices. This segment develops, manufactures and supplies high quality glass substrates using technology expertise and a proprietary fusion manufacturing process, which the company invented and is the cornerstone of the company’s technology leadership in the display glass industry. The company’s highly automated process yields glass substrates with a pristine surface and excellent thermal stability and dimensional uniformity – essential attributes in the production of large, high-performance display panels. The company’s fusion process is scalable and it is the most cost-effective process for producing large size substrates.
The company is recognized as a world leader in precision glass innovations that enable the company’s customers to produce larger, thinner, more flexible and higher-resolution displays. Some of the product innovations the company has launched over the past ten years utilizing the company’s processes and capabilities include the following:
Corning EAGLE XG Slim Glass, Corning’s flagship display glass product enabling thinner televisions and monitors with larger-sized screens; it is trusted by the world’s leading panel makers for LCD displays with more than 30 billion square feet sold;
Corning Astra Glass, an innovative glass solution designed to meet the emerging needs for high-resolution displays. This glass has been optimized for oxide thin-film transistor (‘TFT’) backplanes, but enables a range of high-resolution applications from the top end of amorphous silicon (‘s-Si’) TFT backplanes through low temperature poly-silicon (‘LTPS’) backplanes, as well as other applications requiring precision glass;
Corning Lotus NXT Glass, a high-performance display glass designed to withstand the harshest panel manufacturing process enabling highest-resolution displays in smaller and flexible devices; and
The world’s first Gen 10 and Gen 10.5 glass substrate sizes in the support of improved efficiency in manufacturing large-sized displays.
The company has display glass manufacturing operations in China, South Korea and Taiwan; and services the company’s glass customers in all regions, utilizing the company’s manufacturing facilities throughout Asia.
Specialty Materials Segment
The Specialty Materials segment manufactures products that provide more than 150 material formulations for glass, glass ceramics and crystals, as well as precision metrology instruments and software to meet requirements for unique customer needs. Consequently, this segment operates in a wide variety of commercial and industrial markets, including materials optimized for mobile consumer electronics, semiconductor equipment optics and consumables, aerospace and defense optics, radiation shielding products, sunglasses and telecommunications components.
The company’s highly durable glass, known as Corning Gorilla Glass, is a chemically strengthened thin glass designed specifically to function as a cover, or back-enclosure glass, for mobile consumer electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops and smartwatches. Elegant and lightweight, Corning Gorilla Glass is durable enough to resist many real-world events that commonly cause wear or scratch damage and glass failure, while providing optical clarity, touch sensitivity and RF transparency, thus enabling exciting new applications in technology and design. In 2022, Corning unveiled its newest glass innovation, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2, which delivers improved cover glass drop performance on rough surfaces like concrete, while preserving the scratch resistance of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. Corning Gorilla Glass is manufactured in the United States (‘U.S.’), South Korea and Taiwan.
The company collaborated with Apple to deliver durable glass with infused color for the back of Apple's iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus devices. These devices also feature Ceramic Shield, a highly transparent, color-free glass-ceramic, which offers unparalleled durability and toughness for smartphones.
The company’s semiconductor optics include high-performance optical materials including Corning HPFS Fused Silica and Corning ULE Ultra-Low Expansion Glass, optical-based metrology instruments and custom optical assemblies for applications in the global semiconductor industry. Additionally, in 2024, the company introduced Corning EXTREME ULE Glass, a next-generation material that will support chip manufacturers in meeting the rapidly growing demand for advanced and intelligent technologies. The company’s semiconductor optics products are manufactured in New York.
The company also manufactures ultra-flat, ultra-thin glass wafers and substrates for a variety of applications, including augmented reality, advanced semiconductor packaging, 3D sensing and more. These products are manufactured in New York, France and China.
Other specialty glass products include tinted sunglasses and radiation shielding products that are made in France.
Environmental Technologies Segment
The Environmental Technologies segment manufactures ceramic substrates and filter products for emissions control in mobile applications around the world. The company develops an economical, high-performance cellular ceramic substrate that is now the standard for catalytic converters in vehicles worldwide. As global emissions control regulations tighten, the company has continued to develop more effective and durable ceramic substrate and filter products for gasoline and diesel applications, most recently launching low-mass Corning FLORA substrates and Corning DuraTrap GC gasoline particulate filters. The company manufactures substrate and filter products in New York, Virginia, China and Germany.
The company sells its ceramic substrate and filter products worldwide to catalyzers and manufacturers of emission control systems who then sell to automotive and diesel vehicle or engine manufacturers. Although most sales are made to the emission control systems manufacturers, the use of the company’s substrates and filters is generally required by the specifications of the automotive and diesel vehicle or engine manufacturers.
Life Sciences Segment
As a leading developer, manufacturer and global supplier of laboratory products, the Life Sciences segment works with researchers and drug manufacturers seeking to drive innovation, increase efficiencies, and compress timelines. Using unique expertise in the fields of materials science, polymer surface science, cell culture and cell biology, the segment provides solutions that improve productivity and enable breakthrough research for traditional small molecule, or chemical, drugs, biologics, vaccines and emerging cell and gene therapies.
Life Sciences products include consumables, such as plastic vessels, liquid handling plastics, specialty surfaces, cell culture media and serum, as well as general labware, glassware and equipment. These products are used for drug discovery research and development, compound screening, diagnostics, advanced cell culture research, genomics applications and mass production of cells for clinical trials and bioproduction.
The company sells life sciences products under the Corning, Falcon, PYREX and Axygen brands. The products are marketed globally, primarily through distributors, to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, contract manufacturing organizations, central testing labs, academic institutions, hospitals, government entities and other facilities. The company manufactures these products in California, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Utah, Virginia, China, France, Mexico, Brazil and Poland.
Hemlock and Emerging Growth Businesses
All other businesses that do not meet the quantitative threshold for separate reporting have been grouped as Hemlock and Emerging Growth Businesses. This group is primarily consisted of the results of Hemlock Semiconductor Group (‘HSG’). HSG is a leading provider of high-purity polysilicon products for the solar power and electronics industries. HSG operates in the solar power market, as polysilicon is needed in the manufacturing process to produce sustainable solar power cell, panels and arrays, and the electronics markets, as polysilicon is used to create fabricated wafers and integrated circuit chips used by leading semiconductor manufacturers.
Hemlock and Emerging Growth Businesses also includes the company’s pharmaceutical technologies business, which produces high-quality pharmaceutical glass tubing and vials to meet the rigorous needs of the pharmaceutical industry; the company’s automotive glass solutions business, which enhances vehicle exteriors and interiors with innovations that enable lightweight, damage-resistant windows and displays, as well as other businesses and certain corporate investments.
Competition
Optical Communications Segment
The company’s principal competitors include CommScope Holding Company, Inc. and Prysmian Group S.p.A.
Display Technologies Segment
The company’s principal competitors include AGC Inc. and Nippon Electric Glass Co., Ltd.
Specialty Materials Segment
The company’s principal competitors include Schott AG, AGC Inc., Nippon Electric Glass Co., Ltd. and Heraeus.
Environmental Technologies Segment
The company’s principal competitors include NGK Insulators, Ltd. and Ibiden Co., Ltd.
Life Sciences Segment
The company’s principal competitors include Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Avantor, Inc., Greiner AG, Eppendorf SE, Sarstedt AG & Co. KG and Danaher Corporation.
Patents and Trademarks
In 2024, the company was granted about 490 patents in the U.S. and over 1,240 patents in countries outside the U.S.
As of December 31, 2024, the company owned about 12,000 unexpired patents in various countries, of which about 4,510 were U.S. patents. Between 2025 and 2027, approximately 730, or 6%, of these worldwide patents will expire, while at the same time the company intends to seek patents protecting the company’s newer innovations. Worldwide, the company has about 5,880 patent applications in process, with about 1,780 in process in the U.S.
Important U.S. issued patents in the company’s reportable segments include the following:
Optical Communications: patents relating to (i) multimode and single mode optical fiber products including low-loss optical fiber, large effective area optical fiber and other high data rate optical fiber, and processes and equipment for manufacturing optical fiber, including methods for making optical fiber preforms and methods for drawing, cooling and winding optical fiber; (ii) optical fiber ribbons and methods for making such ribbon, indoor and outdoor fiber optic cable products and methods for making and installing optical fiber cable; (iii) optical fiber connectors and factory-terminated assemblies, hardware, termination and storage and associated methods of manufacture; and (iv) optical fiber and hybrid fiber-coax wireless communication systems.
Display Technologies: patents relating to glass compositions and methods for the use and manufacture of glass substrates for display applications.
Specialty Materials: patents relating to protective cover glass materials and coatings, ophthalmic glasses and polarizing dyes and semiconductor/microlithography optics and blanks, metrology instrumentation and laser/precision optics, glass polarizers, specialty fiber and refractories.
Environmental Technologies: patents relating to cellular ceramic honeycomb products, together with ceramic batch and binder system compositions, honeycomb extrusion and firing processes, and honeycomb extrusion dies and equipment for the high-volume manufacture of such products.
Life Sciences: patents relating to methods and apparatus for the manufacture and use of scientific laboratory equipment, including multiwell plates and cell culture products, as well as equipment and processes for cell and gene therapy research.
The company’s principal trademarks include the following: Axygen, Celcor, ClearCurve, Contour, Corning, DuraTrap, Eagle XG, Edge8, Everon, Evolv, Falcon, Gorilla, HPFS, Leaf, PYREX, RocketRibbon, SMF-28e, Steuben, UniCam, Valor, Velocity, Victus and Viridian.
Research and Development Costs
The company’s research and development costs totaled $0.8 billion for the year ended December 31, 2024.
History
The company was founded in 1851. It was incorporated in the state of New York in 1936. The company was formerly known as Corning Glass Works and changed its name to Corning Incorporated in 1989.
