Nvidia Inks $500 Million Deal With Fiber-Optic Maker Corning

Nvidia Corp. bought $500 million worth of rights for shares in the fiber-optic cable maker Corning Inc. as part of a broader partnership between the two companies aimed at expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Nvidia is getting as many as 3 million shares at $0.0001 each and can buy as many as 15 million shares at an exercise price of $180 in the deal, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday. Corning in turn pledged to increase US fiber production capacity by more than 50% to supply more optical fiber for AI data centers. Such sites rely on the cables to carry data at high speeds between equipment, including Nvidia’s chips.