On 2 March 2026, Nvidia announced a $4 billion combined investment in Coherent and Lumentum. The investment was split right down the middle, with $2 billion going to each.
In early May 2026 (6 May), Nvidia made a $500 million strategic investment in Corning, structured as warrants. On top of that upfront $500 million, Nvidia also holds a warrant to buy up to 15 million shares at an exercise price of $180. If it eventually exercises everything, its total potential stake could reach around $3.2 billion. The partnership is a strategic supply-chain move. In exchange, Corning committed to expanding its U.S. optical fiber production capacity by more than 50% (and its broader optical-connectivity capacity tenfold), building three new U.S. plants to directly feed Nvidia’s AI ecosystem.
Nvidia is building its relationships in photonics as we speak, and that matters because Nvidia is seen as the leader in AI hardware. Adopting a particular technology stack has downstream effects, and Nvidia can indeed decide who wins or loses.
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