Welcome back to The Deep Dive, where we plunge
into the background stories of the global economy,
the companies and technologies that run your
world, but often stay just out of sight. And
today we are definitely pulling one of those
companies into the spotlight. We really are.
We're talking about a truly invisible giant,
Corning Incorporated. You know, when most people
hear that name, Corning, their minds probably
drift to... Pyrex measuring cups. Oh, absolutely.
Or maybe those opaque white casserole dishes
that, you know, your parents or grandparents
had. Exactly. They were everywhere. But that
familiarity, it's actually a bit of a historical
red herring. A huge one. We're talking about
a 174 -year -old multinational technology powerhouse.
Yeah. That is responsible for fundamental components
in, well, in everything. From the deepest space
telescopes to the fiber optic cables speeding
data to your home? And yes, the screen that you
might be holding in your hand right this second.
Absolutely. So our mission today is pretty straightforward.
We're tracing the stunning evolution of this
organization, which was founded way back in 1851.
And we're going to analyze its transformation
from, you know, a traditional glassmaker to this
industrial titan that specializes in advanced
optics, ceramics and specialty glass. And we
want to show you how a strategy based on disruptive
innovation and maybe more interestingly, how
surviving massive expensive failures paved the
way for today's essential technologies. The lineage
is just remarkable. It started as the Bay State
Glass Co. in 1851. Right. Then it became Corning
Glass Works, which is the name most people might
recognize, until 1989. And now. Now it trades
his GLW on the NYSE. It's a proud S &P 500 component.
And look, it's recognized globally as one of
the world's biggest and most critical glassmakers.
But the real hook here, the central aha moment
for you, the listener, is this. How exactly did
the company famous for kitchenware become the
exclusive supplier of Gorilla Glass, the screen
on your iPhone? That is the ultimate question
of corporate reinvention, isn't it? It really
is. And the key to understanding that radical
pivot lies in a single decisive. strategic move.
In 1998. Exactly. In 1998, when they divested
all of their consumer lines, Pyrex, Corningware,
Corel, to focus purely on industrial and scientific
applications. They just cut ties with nearly
a century of highly visible brand identity. It
seems almost crazy. It was a bold, almost ruthless.
Strategic amputation. I mean, think about it.
They looked at the brand equity they had built,
the kitchenware that defined American home life
for generations, and just decided it wasn't their
future. Why, though? They decided those products
simply weren't leveraging their core strength,
which was and still is proprietary material science.
And that one move defined their entire current
scope. Absolutely. Corning now operates across
five incredibly demanding high technology sectors.
Display technologies, telecommunications, environmental
tech, specialty materials, and life sciences.
And crucially, this wasn't just a random diversification.
This focus has been driven by a philosophy they
cemented after World War II. Right. It was about
aggressively pursuing... pursuing disruptive
and on -demand product innovation. Constantly
fueled by extensive, focused R &D spending, they
chase technological necessity, not just consumer
trends. And that commitment to R &D is something
we'll see repeated throughout their entire history.
It's a foundational commitment. It's in their
DNA. So I think we should start where it all
began. the nomadic origins of this company. Okay,
let's unpack this journey. It starts with the
founder, Amory Houghton. And in the 19th century,
glassmaking was heavily dependent on your location.
Completely. You needed to be close to raw materials,
and you needed fuel sources. So the company was
literally looking for the right place to put
down roots. It didn't start in Corning, New York.
Oh, not at all. The company started life in 1851
in Somerville, Massachusetts. It was called the
Bay State Glass House, founded by Amory Hewton
Sr. But Massachusetts didn't hold them for long?
Nope. They made a big jump next, landing in the
emerging industrial landscape of New York City.
To Brooklyn. That's right. The company moved
to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where they operated
as the Brooklyn Flint Glass Works. This was a
critical step, but they were still searching
for a long -term, stable environment. So it wasn't
until 1868 that they finally found their permanent
home. It was. Under the leadership of Amory Houghton
Jr., the company relocated to and settled in
Corning, New York. That's what gave the company
its final name and its permanent headquarters.
So why Corning, New York? What made that location
finally the right fit? It was all about logistics
and energy. Corny had great access to rail lines,
which was critical for transporting both raw
materials in and finished glass products out.
And the fuel. And natural gas, which was essential
for firing their furnaces consistently. The move
really solidified their identity, tying the company
physically and culturally to that town forever.
It's fascinating how quickly they recognized
that geographical stability needed to be paired
with intellectual stability. They set up a formal
research backbone incredibly early. Decades ahead
of the curve. We tend to associate these big
industrial research labs with, you know, Bell
Labs or Xerox PRC in the mid -20th century. But
Corning was way ahead of that. They established
one of the first industrial research labs in
the United States right there in Corning, New
York in 1908. And this wasn't just for quality
control, was it? Not at all. This was a dedicated
allocation of resources to pure scientific discovery
right inside the company structure. This decision
to invest systematically in chemistry and physics,
not just perfecting existing manufacturing techniques,
was absolutely foundational. I mean, you can
draw a straight line from that decision in 1908
to today. You really can. Without that 1908 commitment,
there is no fiber optic cable and there is certainly
no Gorilla Glass. So let's look at the foundational
products that came out of that R &D commitment
before World War II. The first major industrial
application that really cemented their importance
globally was illumination. Precisely. Early on,
Corning didn't invent the light bulb itself,
but they invented the process for making the
glass envelopes, the bulbs themselves, cheaply
and at a massive scale. Which is really the key
to commercialization, isn't it? It's everything.
They supplied the glass for Thomas Edison's original
light bulb, and this partnership was sustained.
After the 1892 merger that created General Electric,
Corning remained a core glass supplier for GE's
massive, growing lighting division. That's a
powerful early partnership, defining them as
a high -volume industrial supplier. But the next
product launch is the one that every single listener
probably knows. Oh, yeah. Even if they don't
connect it to the modern industrial giant we're
talking about today. The Kitchen Revolution,
brought to you by Pyrex. Exactly. The Pyrex launch
in 1915 was a total game -changer for the American
consumer, and it was a byproduct of material
science they developed for something completely
different. What was that? Railway lantern lenses.
Those lenses needed to withstand really rapid
temperature shifts, like a hot lantern being
splashed by cold rain without cracking. And that's
where the special glass formula came from. That's
it. That core borosilicate glass formula, with
its incredibly low coefficient of thermal expansion,
was adapted for the kitchen. So if I understand
the science here, standard glass shatters when
it heats unevenly because one part expands faster
than another, causing stress. You nailed it.
But borosilicate glass, like Pyrex, it resists
that expansion almost entirely. Right. Pyrex
holds the distinction of being the first ever
consumer cooking product made with temperature
-resistant glass. It allowed people to move food
directly from the oven to the refrigerator, which
revolutionized food prep, storage and cleaning.
Yeah. It basically democratized heat safe cooking.
It's incredible. So you go from the revolutionary
kitchen counter to the deepest reaches of the
cosmos. The Corning trajectory just keeps expanding.
It really does. The Palomar Observatory mirror
casting project, fabricated between 1934 and
1936, remains an unbelievable feat of engineering.
This project just goes to show you the company's
willingness to tackle challenges that others
deemed impossible. George Ellery Hale from the
California Institute of Technology approached
them with a task. To build a massive telescope
mirror? A massive 200 inch or 5 .1 meter telescope
mirror. And it wasn't just the size, it was the
material requirement. Low expansion borosilicate
glass. So why was that low expansion part so
critical for a massive telescope mirror? Thermal
stability is everything in high resolution optics.
I mean everything. If the mirror surface slightly
changes shape. Even by a tiny fraction of a millimeter
due to temperature fluctuations over the course
of a night, the star image will blur into nothing.
So a 200 -inch mirror made of standard glass
would be totally useless. It would warp catastrophically.
The only way to ensure perfect optical fidelity
was to use borosilicate glass, which barely changes
shape with temperature swings. They were attempting
to achieve optical perfection on a monumental
scale. And the casting process itself was fraught
with difficulty. I understand they failed on
the first attempt, which tells you just how steep
that learning curve was. It was a very high stakes
failure. Cording's first attempt resulted in
a cast blank with voids and structural imperfections.
So they had to scrap it. They had to scrap that
massive piece of glass. But true to their R &D
culture, they used the lessons learned. the cooling
rates, the furnace operation, the material flow
to inform the second attempt. And even after
the successful second casting, the logistics
were just staggering. It wasn't like, you know,
baking a cake. Oh, far from it. That massive
200 -inch blank couldn't just be pulled out of
the furnace. It had to cool incredibly slowly
and carefully to prevent internal stresses from
shattering it. How slowly? The cooling process
for that single piece of glass took a full year.
A whole year. Wow. A whole year. And during that
year, while it was delicately sitting in its
annealing oven, the whole facility in Corning,
New York, was almost lost to a devastating flood.
You're kidding. The idea that a technological
marvel, which took a year to cool, was threatened
by a natural disaster is just an incredible anecdote.
It really highlights the vulnerability of these
large -scale scientific undertakings. And for
those interested in the, you know, the archaeology
of technology, that failed first blank still
exists. It does. It now resides in the Corning
Museum of Glass. A physical monument to a scientific
attempt that provided the necessary knowledge
for the eventual success. It's a perfect symbol
of their commitment, isn't it? Failures aren't
just discarded, they are artifacts of learning.
Exactly. And before we move into the post -war
era, we should briefly mention the 1935 partnership
with Owens, Illinois. This collaboration led
to the formation of Owens Corning. Which became
its own giant. It did. It spun off in 1938 and
became a leader in building materials and fiberglass.
It just shows Corning's early, broad involvement
in material science that extended far beyond
traditional lighting or consumer goods. So by
the 1940s, Corning was established as a master
of precision glass fabrication, a reliable supplier
to giants like GE, and a consumer icon with Pyrex.
The next few decades, however, would be defined
by the high stakes, internal R &D projects that
changed absolutely everything. Yeah, this is
where things get really interesting. The 1960s
bring us to the centerpiece of Corning's modern
resurrection story. The Chem Corps project, introduced
in 1962. This project, intended for the automotive
industry, is the absolute prime example of a
costly commercial failure that later provided
crucial, highly valuable intellectual property.
This is the part of the story that connects the
past and the future of the company so perfectly.
Chemcor was designed to create a new, toughened
automobile windshield. Right. The goal was to
make glass that was thinner, lighter, and shatter
-resistant. It was designed to break into small,
harmless granules when smashed, which would vastly
reduce injuries compared to standard laminated
glass. So they were trying to disrupt the gigantic
auto market. A huge market. But the technology
wasn't just physical tempering. It was a sophisticated
chemical process. We should probably unpack that
a bit. Yeah. What was the technological innovation
behind Chemcor? The key was something called
an ion exchange process, and that was paired
with what Corning called its fusion process.
How does ion exchange work? Okay, so you take
a piece of specialized glass, and you immerse
it in a hot bath of molten potassium salt. The
smaller sodium ions in the glass migrate out,
and the larger potassium ions from the bath rush
in to replace them. So you're swapping a small
ion for a bigger one. Why does that matter so
much? Well, when those larger potassium ions
squeeze into the space previously occupied by
the smaller sodium ions, they create this immense
permanent compressive stress on the glass surface.
And glass breaks under tension, not compression.
Exactly. Glass breaks when the surface is pulled
or in tension. So by putting the surface permanently
under compression, you make it far, far harder
to crack or scratch. And what about the fusion
process? That was Corning's proprietary method
for drawing the glass into extremely thin, flat,
and pristine sheets. They invested massive capital
and bespoke infrastructure for this, building
special furnaces in their Christiansburg, Virginia,
facility dedicated specifically to this innovative
Chemcor manufacturing. So it was a complete end
-to -end investment in a radical new material
and a new manufacturing technique. Totally. They
had superior technology, massive investment,
and a gigantic market opportunity. So where did
the commercial failure actually happen? The market
just didn't care about superiority. It cared
about cost. Chemicore was installed as side glass
in some limited runs. You could find it in some
1968 Plymouth Barracudas and Dodge Darts. Okay.
And the Chemcor windshields debuted on the 1970
AMXs and Javelins built by American Motors Corporation.
But the big automakers, like GM and Ford, they
had zero financial incentive to switch. And why
was that? Because there were no mandatory safety
standards requiring this kind of glass yet, right?
That's the whole story. They invented a better,
safer product. But if the cheaper existing product
met the current regulations, the automakers just
wouldn't absorb the higher cost. So the investment
was sunk. The investment was sunk. The market
refused to pay. And Corning terminated the project
in 1971. It was officially labeled, both internally
and externally, as one of the company's biggest
and most expensive failures. They invested in
R &D, built specialized furnaces, and then walked
away after losing millions and millions of dollars.
They did. But what this all means for our listener,
this failure is the key to understanding the
company's entire modern identity. It really is.
It's the ultimate case study in technological
patients and IP synthesis. Exactly. The unique
processes, the ion exchange and the fusion techniques
that were developed and perfected for this failed
1960s auto glass were later resurrected. Decades
later. And they became the technical foundation
for two of Corning's most profitable ventures.
Their LCD display glass business. And most critically,
the material science was reborn as Gorilla Glass.
The failure was never in the material, only in
the timing in the application. That is the crucial
takeaway. The glass on your 2024 smartphone is
based on a failed 1960s attempt to upgrade a
Dodge Dart. I mean, when you put it like that.
It proves that the proprietary material science
is the company's real product, not the finished
consumer good. It absolutely secured their resilience.
But the 1970s also brought a second, equally
monumental disruption. And this one was an immediate
overwhelming success. The dawn of optical communications.
This truly reshaped the modern world, perhaps
more than any other single invention of that
era. This is the moment they stopped using copper
and started using light to transmit information
across the globe. So in late 1970, four Corning
researchers, and we should name them, Robert
Moore, Donald Keck, Peter Schultz, and Frank
Simar, they demonstrated a monumental breakthrough.
An optical fiber with incredibly low optical
attenuation. We need to spend a moment on attenuation
because that is the critical factor here. It's
basically signal loss over distance. Before Corning's
work, fiber optics were a theoretical curiosity.
Right. Unusable for telecommunications. Completely
unusable. Earlier fiber designs had extremely
high signal loss. We're talking about attenuation
rates that would drop the signal strength by
ninety nine percent within just a few hundred
meters. So is impractical outside of a lab bench.
Totally. Corning's initial finding, which they
achieved by doping silica glass with titanium,
was 17 decibels per kilometer. And why was 17
dbc so revolutionary? It was revolutionary because
it proved that light could carry data. over useful
distances, seven kilometers, which meant the
technology was no longer just theoretical. It
was the proof of concept that scaling was possible.
The target for true telecommunication feasibility
was generally considered to be 20 dB kilometers
or less. And Corning just smashed that goal on
their first real attempt. They did. And the refinement
came almost immediately, which confirmed their
lead. Right. They soon produced an even better
fiber, achieving a remarkable attenuation of
only four dB kilometers. This time, they used
germanium oxide as the core dopant. And that
was the true game changer. That was it. That
4 dB kilometer loss meant data could travel thousands
of kilometers with only periodic signal boosting.
It was the technical step that made transcontinental
and transoceanic networking scalable. And the
impact was instantaneous and permanent. They
didn't just invent the material. They secured
their position as the manufacturing leader. They
invented the processes required to draw that
high purity glass into kilometers of hair thin,
perfect fiber. And that made them the world's
leading manufacturer of optical fiber. Immediately.
And they still are. They laid the foundation
for the high -speed data backbone of the modern
Internet infrastructure. Now, before we leave
the 70s, it's worth noting that these technical
triumphs were often accompanied by some internal
operational struggles. We should mention the
Z Glass project from 1977. Yeah, the Z Glass
project, which was intended for television picture
tubes, it illustrates that success wasn't guaranteed
just because they had the R &D prowess. It was
a necessary product for the TV market at the
time, but the manufacturing processes proved
incredibly challenging. Leading to high defects
and internal friction. It was considered a steep
loss in profit and productivity at the time.
The operational difficulties were so significant
that it was later studied as a Harvard School
of Business case study. Which just underscores
that Corning's history is littered with these
massive internal operational challenges, even
as they were innovating new materials. Right.
The 1970s truly were a defining decade. A massive
automotive failure that planted the seeds for
the smartphone and a technological breakthrough
that planted the seeds for the Internet. It's
hard to imagine a more impactful decade for a
materials company. It really can't. So now we
move into the 1990s, where the technological
necessities of the market forced the company
to make a hard strategic choice, abandoning their
consumer identity entirely. And then surviving
a cataclysmic market crash. That strategic pivot
in 1998 is so crucial. They essentially liquidated
their emotional ties to the American household
kitchen. That must have been a difficult cultural
shift internally. It was a massive psychological
and structural shift. Corning Inc. divested its
entire consumer product line. Pyrex, Corningware,
Visions, Corel. All of it. They sold the whole
division off. The entire subsidiary to Borden,
which eventually became Correll Brands. And this
move was absolute. Corning Inc. ceased manufacturing
or marketing consumer products entirely, focusing
solely on high margin, high value industrial
and scientific applications. It's a classic example
of a company choosing to specialize where they
have a true proprietary technological edge, isn't
it? It is. Rather than competing in the increasingly
low margin, high marketing consumer goods sector.
They decided their value was in the furnace,
not on the supermarket shelf. And that strategic
specialization perfectly positioned them to ride
the wave of the late 90s dot -com boom. Perfectly.
Their deep focus on optical fiber meant profits
soared as telecommunications companies raced
to build out the high -speed network infrastructure
globally. Corning expanded its fiber operations
significantly, acquiring companies like Oak Industries
and building several new Mavs of plants. But
didn't they fly a little too close to the sun
during that boom? They weren't satisfied just
being a component supplier, were they? No, they
absolutely stretched for more market control.
They invested heavily in the photonics market
components that manage light signals with the
ambitious goal of becoming the leading provider
of complete end -to -end fiber optic systems.
They wanted to control more of the telecom value
chain. They wanted to integrate vertically. Yeah.
And that's where the massive market crash hit.
That ambition met reality very, very hard around
the year 2000. The collapse of the dotcom market
was brutal and fast. And because the company
had overextended itself, particularly in that
risky photonics venture, the failure of that
market had a catastrophic impact. Telecom companies
just stopped building network infrastructure
overnight. And the company faced enormous write
downs and job losses. The stock plummeted. It
went all the way down to one dollar per share.
For a company that had existed for nearly 150
years with such deep community ties in upstate
New York, what was the internal atmosphere like
when the stock hit a dollar? That suggests genuine
panic. It was a true crisis. There were mass
layoffs across the board and the company faced
severe scrutiny. However, despite the financial
disaster and the near -death experience, the
company demonstrated incredible resilience. How
did they do it? They jettisoned the failed photonics
ambition, and they doubled down on their core
proprietary strength, which was manufacturing
the glass itself, and returned to financial stability.
And their recovery trajectory confirms that strategy
worked. It did. By 2007, they had posted five
straight years of improving financial performance.
They successfully navigated out of the crisis
by focusing exclusively on the core proprietary
material science they had protected all along.
The established fiber business and, crucially,
their display business with LCD glass. They emerged
leaner, strategically sharper, and focused entirely
on the B2B high -tech sector. Which sets us up
perfectly for the ultimate comeback story. the
moment Corning found the application for its
decades -old R &D that would define the next
two decades. The smartphone revolution. This
is the turning point that secured Corning's modern
identity and justified every investment and every
risk taken since the 1960s. The opportunity arose
when Apple, developing the first revolutionary
iPhone, approached them in the mid -2000s. Right.
Steve Jobs needed a tough, scratch -resistant
display screen that could handle the wear and
tear of being constantly touched and carried
in a pocket. Standard plastic or cheap glass
just couldn't do it. The entire user experience
hinged on the durability of that screen. So what
did Corning do? They didn't start from scratch.
They reached back into their vast intellectual
property archive and resurrected the technology
developed for Chemcor in the 1960s. So Gorilla
Glass, which debuted on the first iPhone in 2007,
is a direct outgrowth of that failed automotive
project. A direct, perfected outgrowth. It's
a high -strength, alkali -aluminosilicate thin
sheet glass. So the technology that was too good
and too expensive to convince Detroit 60 years
ago was the only technology... good enough to
convince Silicon Valley. You've got it. The durability
and scratch resistance inherent in that chemically
hardened ion -exchanged glass formula proved
absolutely perfect for touchscreens. It allowed
Apple to launch a device that was truly revolutionary.
And it immediately established Gorilla Glass
as the industry standard for portable device
screens. And the proprietary fusion process they
perfected for ChemCore was adapted to create
these thin, pristine sheets that were perfectly
suited for modern displays. And the partnership
with Apple has only deepened since then, which
really highlights Apple's reliance on Corning's
specific proprietary manufacturing capabilities.
Oh, it's far from an off the shelf product. Apple
has made significant direct investments into
Corning's infrastructure. They rely on Corning's
unique ability to scale this complex manufacturing.
How much have they invested? There was an initial
U .S. $200 million investment in 2017. Followed
by an additional U .S. $250 million in 2019,
all channeled through Apple's Advanced Manufacturing
Fund. And that capital infusion helps Corning
continually expand and refine the specialized
production lines. Exactly. To meet the global
demand for iPhones, Apple Watches, and iPads.
So Gorilla Glass is the high -profile anchor.
But let's detail the current revenue structure.
Corning generated U .S. $13 .1 billion in revenue
based on 2024 data. And that comes from a highly
diversified base of... specialized industrial
products. Let's start with display technologies.
Display tech is massive. Corning is the leading
global manufacturer of the glass substrates needed
for LCD technology. The technical requirement
here is just staggering. What's so hard about
it? They have to produce these gigantic sheets
of glass that are perfectly flat, perfectly pure,
and uniform across their entire surface with
no bubbles or flaws. And they proudly note this
glass substrate is produced without any heavy
metals. And when you say gigantic sheets, we
need to convey the scale for the listener. This
isn't windowpane glass. No. Not even close. We're
talking about glass substrates so large that
they are categorized by generations. Corning
has expanded facilities in Japan, including a
Gen 10 facility co -located with the Sharp Corporation
Complex in Sakai, Osaka. How big is a Gen 10
glass substrate? It's approximately three meters
by three meters, about the size of a king -sized
bed. A single sheet of that glass can be cut
into eight or more 60 -inch television screens.
And manufacturing that perfect uniformity on
that scale is an immense challenge. Immense.
Okay. Next up, the category they call specialty
materials. This really shows their wide -ranging,
high -end expertise, from space mirrors to semiconductor
chips. This division produces truly esoteric,
mission -critical products. Look at semiconductor
manufacturing. They produce high -purity fused
silica, which is employed in microlithography
systems. Why is fused silica necessary for microlithography?
Well, microlithography is how chip manufacturers
etch patterns onto silicon wafers using extreme
ultraviolet, or EUV, light. Fused silica is necessary
because it's one of the few materials that is
perfectly transparent to that high energy UV
light. So the intricate patterns can be projected
accurately. Exactly. Any slight imperfection
or impurity would ruin the entire chip manufacturing
process. Furthermore, it has extremely low thermal
expansion, which is essential for maintaining
precision during the intense heating cycles.
That links back perfectly to their historical
expertise in dealing with extreme environments,
doesn't it? Absolutely. They continue to produce
the low expansion glass used to build reflective
mirror blanks for next generation telescopes.
And going all the way back to the Palomar era.
Right. They manufactured the windows for the
U .S. space shuttles and famously supplied the
massive glass blank for the primary mirror in
the Hubble Space Telescope. They also still produce
specialized glass ceramics. They do. Things like
Vicor, which is a high -temperature glass for
lab use, and Nucor, which is a machinable glass
ceramic used in high -precision aerospace and
medical components. Then there's the core modern
success we discussed, optical communications.
Are they still... innovating and growing that
segment or is it a mature business? It is fiercely
competitive and they have to constantly innovate.
They continue manufacturing vast quantities of
optical fiber and cable with major operations
based primarily in North Carolina. A key innovation
that keeps them ahead is the ClearCurve fiber
introduced in 2007. And what technical problem
does ClearCurve solve for modern networking?
It uses nanostructure technology to manage the
light path inside the fiber. This is critical
because it facilitates small radius bending without
significant signal loss. Which you need for what
they call FTTX installations. Fiber to the home
or fiber to the business. You often have to pull
fiber through tight conduits around corners and
into confined residential spaces. And standard
fiber would lose signal if you bent it too tightly.
Precisely. The light would leak out of the core.
ClearCur's nanostructure acts as an internal
reflector, allowing the fiber to be bent to a
really small radius, sometimes as tight as 5
millimeters, without excessive attenuation. So
it makes the crucial last mile of high -speed
connectivity dramatically easier and more reliable
to install. That's right. We should also not
overlook their environmental technologies division.
This segment, while maybe less exciting than
smartphone screens, is critical for global pollution
control standards. This division is all about
emission control devices. They are a major global
manufacturer of ceramic substrates for catalytic
converters used in cars and light trucks with
gasoline engines. And these ceramic parts have
to have massive surface areas. Thousands of channels
per square inch to facilitate the chemical reaction
that reduces pollutants, all while withstanding
extreme operating temperatures. And I understand
they're heavily invested in the diesel sector
as well. Yes. They're investing significantly
in producing specialized ceramic emission control
products for diesel engines, driven by the continually
tightening global emission standards, especially
in Europe and Asia. Which requires advanced porous
ceramics to filter particulate matter. Exactly.
It's an R &D race just as fierce as the one for
phone screens. And finally, a brief but important
mention of life sciences. This division applies
their material science expertise to the biomedical
sector. They offer products to support advanced
life science research, like high -quality labware
and specialized surfaces for stem cell culture
products, which require extremely precise material
compositions. So to maintain leadership across
these five cutting -edge fields, Corning hasn't
slowed down on growth or investment. Let's look
at their recent acquisitions. The telecommunications
segment has seen significant bolstering. They
want to be an end -to -end solutions provider,
moving beyond just the fiber itself. Right. In
2011, they acquired mobile access networks. An
Israeli company specializing in distributed antenna
systems, or DAS, which are essential for seamless
wireless coverage inside large, complex facilities
like stadiums, airports, and university campuses.
That was followed by the acquisition of SpyderCloud
Wireless in 2017. And then came the largest recent
expansion, which was directly aimed at market
domination in the fiber sector. The 3M deal.
That's right. Their most significant strategic
move came in 2017 and 2018 with the acquisition
of substantially all of 3M's communication market
division. That was a massive transaction. A $900
million cash transaction. By acquiring 3M's expertise
in connectivity and fiber hardware, Corning cemented
its position not just as the manufacturer of
the fiber, but as a dominant provider of the
entire optical communication solution, from cable
to connector. And all of this is supported by
a staggering R &D commitment. I mean, when you
compare their investment to typical S &P 500
companies, they really stand out. They absolutely
do. Corning invests about 10 % of their annual
revenue into research and development. For a
company their size over US $13 billion in revenue,
that's... That is a massive commitment. It's
a key indicator of their long -term technology
-first strategy. For sure. And to support this
relentless push for innovation, they allocated
U .S. $300 million toward further expansion of
their Sullivan Park Research Facility, which
is near their headquarters in Corning, New York.
And despite being a multinational powerhouse
with facilities all over the world, they remain
fiercely tied to that small upstate New York
hometown. That corporate history and cultural
tie is very strong. Corning continues to maintain
its world headquarters there, and management
has consistently affirmed its commitment to the
region. It's also worth noting the long history
of Houghton family involvement and leadership.
Right. James R. Houghton, the founder's great
-great -grandson, served as chairman until 2007,
maintaining that long institutional memory. And
the current chairman and CEO, Wendell P. Weeks,
has been with the company since 1983, representing
that continuation of deep internal expertise.
So a financially resilient, globally successful
company built on proprietary technology. But
proprietary control often brings modern corporate
challenges, specifically regulatory scrutiny.
That is the modern tension of a dominant material
science player. The most recent challenge involved
regulatory scrutiny in Europe. In November 2024,
the European Commission announced that Corning
was under investigation for potential antitrust
violations. And what exactly is the commission
looking into? The probe centers on the suspicion
that Corning may have exclusive supply agreements
with certain mobile phone manufacturers and raw
glass processors. So because Corning controls
the proprietary processes. Like the fusion draw
process required for high quality, thin, chemically
strengthened glass. These exclusive deals could
potentially be. hindering competition in the
specialty glass market. Effectively preventing
competitors from accessing essential raw materials
or technology. Exactly. It's an investigation
into whether their technical dominance has led
to market abuse. Which balances the picture perfectly.
A necessary investigation into the practices
of a company that has such proprietary control
over essential cutting edge materials. Before
we wrap up the commercial side. We should note
the final symbolic move away from non -core operations
that occurred just before the smartphone boom
cemented their future. The sale of Steuben Glassworks
in 2008. Right. Steuben was their high -end,
beautiful art glass division. It had deep historical
and cultural ties, but it was losing money, about
$30 million in the five years leading up to the
sale. So selling Steuben, just like divesting
the kitchenware 10 years earlier. Confirmed that
Corning was ruthlessly prioritizing scalable,
profitable industrial and scientific materials
above any legacy or artistic endeavors. It's
a powerful lesson in corporate focus and ruthless
efficiency. It really is. So let's bring this
all together. After diving deep into nearly two
centuries of innovation, crisis, and strategic
pivots, what is the core thesis of Corning Incorporated's
enduring success story? I think the core thesis
is defined by resilience, synthesis, and focus.
Corning's success is built not just on inventing
new things, but on its unparalleled ability to
synthesize past research failures, the ChemCore
auto glass failure being the most dramatic example,
into future breakthroughs like Gorilla Glass.
And they strategically jettisoned highly visible
and nostalgic consumer markets to focus entirely
on dominating the crucial, less visible industrial
and communications infrastructure sectors. They
built a reputation on technological patience,
understanding that the R &D payback might take
50 years, but when it hits, it completely changes
the world. And that commitment continues, as
we noted, with their decision to continually
expand their world -class research facilities
and remain committed to their small, upstate
New York hometown, despite being a massive multinational
corporation. They are the invisible giant. If
you use a computer screen, a high -speed internet
connection, or a modern car, you are relying
on Corning's material science. Their history
shows that true technological dominance comes
from controlling the fundamental building blocks
of modern life. Absolutely. And as we finish
this deep dive, let's leave you with a final
provocative thought stemming directly from the
material we analyzed today about R &D cycles
and resilience. We saw how the market need for
a stronger, lighter phone screen resurrected
the intellectual property and unique manufacturing
processes from the failed 1960s Chemcore automotive
technology. Right. So given Corning's stated
ongoing research investment in cutting edge areas
and they explicitly mentioned things like green
lasers. micro -reactors for energy production,
and photovoltaics. What seemingly unrelated decades
-old material science concept, maybe something
they shelved in the 1980s or 1990s as too expensive
or too niche, might Corning be currently poised
to resurrect next to solve a critical 21st century
energy or climate challenge? It's a company built
on the profound idea that no research is ever
truly wasted, and that is a powerful notion to
consider for the future of innovation.