AI infrastructure stocks climb on Qualcomm and Corning deals

Corning and Qualcomm sparked a broad move in AI infrastructure shares on Tuesday after announcing fresh partnerships tied to data center buildout. The rally spilled into chipmakers, networking names and other suppliers that have become central to the AI investment theme.

Corning deal lifts fiber-optic names

Corning rose sharply after saying it is entering a multibillion-dollar partnership with Verizon to produce fiber-optic cables for AI connectivity. The move added to an already strong year for the glassmaker, whose technology is becoming more important as data centers need faster and denser links between systems. Its shares gained 8% on the day and were up about 90% for the year.

The company has also secured major AI-related business elsewhere. In June, Corning announced a multibillion-dollar deal with Amazon, and a month earlier Nvidia said it would invest up to $3.2 billion in Corning to support three new fiber-optic manufacturing sites in North Carolina and Texas.

Qualcomm pact expands AI infrastructure trade

Qualcomm also advanced after disclosing that it issued warrants to Amazon, giving the cloud group the ability to buy up to $4 billion of Qualcomm stock. The arrangement is tied to a wider agreement in which Amazon Web Services will purchase as much as $60 billion of Qualcomm’s server chips and other technology to help build out AI infrastructure.

The announcement helped push other names higher across the sector. Intel climbed 9%, Advanced Micro Devices added 6%, Hewlett Packard Enterprise rose 8% and Coherent gained 7% as investors looked beyond Nvidia and into the broader supply chain behind AI data centers.

The market reaction shows how quickly spending plans from large cloud and technology companies can move shares across the infrastructure stack. Companies that provide chips, fiber-optic components and server hardware have benefited as the buildout extends to more suppliers and the scale of data center investment keeps rising.

Qualcomm Chief Financial Officer Akash Palkhiwala said on Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference in San Francisco that revenue tied to manufacturing chips for Amazon will begin to be recognized in December. That timing adds another sign that the new contracts could translate into near-term business, not just longer-term promises.

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