Employers
Corning Incorporated will invest $585 million to expand its optical fiber manufacturing campus in Wilmington, North Carolina, and plans to add 414 jobs there over the next five years, Wilmington Business Development announced Wednesday, Oct. 21. The new positions are projected to average more than $85,000 a year.
The hiring is a five-year plan, not a set of openings available now. Corning already employs about 1,000 people at the Wilmington site, and the 414 positions would be added on top of that workforce as the expansion comes online. A Corning spokesperson told the Greater Wilmington Business Journal that the project is expected to come online in phases, “with the full capacity ramp extending over the next several years.”
The jobs, by type and pay
The economic development group’s release puts average pay for the new jobs above $85,000, compared with an overall New Hanover County average wage of about $70,000, which it attributes to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Once hiring is complete, it says, the expansion will add more than $35 million a year in payroll in the Greater Wilmington region.
A more detailed breakdown came from New Hanover County’s chief financial officer, Eric Credle, who told commissioners on Monday, Oct. 19, that the proposed roles include 15 support engineers with an average annual wage of $132,000, 60 salaried engineers averaging $119,000, and 339 production and maintenance employees averaging $77,000, according to the Business Journal. Those three groups add up to the 414 total. In other words, roughly four of every five new jobs are expected to be production and maintenance roles, and their projected average sits below the overall $85,000 figure that leads the announcement.
Incentives tied to performance
The incentives disclosed so far are local. New Hanover County commissioners voted Monday, Oct. 19, to approve up to $3 million, paid at up to $600,000 a year for five years from the county’s general fund, WECT reported. Wilmington City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday, Oct. 20, to approve up to $2 million, paid at $400,000 a year for five years. The combined package is $5 million.
The payments depend on Corning meeting job creation, wage and investment targets in the incentive agreement. Dennis LaCaria, the city’s chief of staff, said at Tuesday’s meeting that missed targets would reduce the incentive proportionally and that the agreement includes recapture provisions if the project fails, according to the Business Journal. None of the documents reviewed for this report described a state grant for the project.
Wilmington Business Development CEO Scott Satterfield said the company had considered other locations, including sites in South Carolina, Texas, India and China, the Business Journal reported. During its confidential phase, the site search was known as “Project Pearl 2.”
Why Corning is expanding
The release ties the expansion to demand for optical fiber from AI network operators and telecommunications companies building out their networks, and says the plant will supply fiber for next-generation networks and long-term customer agreements Corning has announced.
Corning first came to Wilmington in 1966, initially making electric resistors. After Corning engineers invented the first low-loss optical fiber in 1970, the Wilmington operation became the world’s first fiber optic manufacturing plant. The company, headquartered in Corning, N.Y., says it employs more than 70,000 people worldwide.
A training route already in place
For people interested in the production and maintenance roles, the release points to an existing pipeline: the Corning Technician Pipeline Program, a two-year apprenticeship run with Cape Fear Community College that graduated its first class in May 2023. At Tuesday’s council meeting, council member JC Lyle stressed preparing local residents for jobs like these and planning housing for workers the company recruits from elsewhere, the Business Journal reported. Corning has not published a hiring timeline by role or year, so the pace of hiring within the five-year window remains unclear.
Sources
- Wilmington Business Development, “Corning Expansion Brings $585 Million Investment to Wilmington Fiber Plant,” October 21, 2026. https://wilmingtonbusinessdevelopment.com/corning-expansion-brings-585-million-investment-to-wilmington-fiber-plant/
- Greater Wilmington Business Journal, “Corning Moves Forward With Wilmington Expansion,” October 21, 2026. https://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/government/2026/10/21/corning_moves_forward_with_wilmington_expansion/27956
- WECT, “Wilmington council backs $2 million deal to sweeten odds of landing Corning expansion,” October 20, 2026. https://www.wect.com/2026/10/21/wilmington-council-backs-2-million-deal-sweeten-odds-landing-corning-expansion/
- WECT, “NHC Commissioners approve incentive for Corning Inc. to expand in Wilmington,” October 19, 2026. https://www.wect.com/2026/10/19/nhc-commissioners-approve-incentive-corning-inc-expand-wilmington/
Featured photo: Corning Incorporated's manufacturing plant in Wilmington, North Carolina, seen from U.S. 117 on June 19, 2022. Photo: DiscoA340, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Cropped from the original.
