Prysmian plans to invest approximately $1.02 billion at its Claremont fiber operations in North Carolina, a project expected to more than double the company’s U.S. fiber optic production capacity.
The expansion includes both glass preform manufacturing and optical fiber production. Bringing more of those upstream manufacturing stages into the same domestic operation could give Prysmian greater control over production as customers look for additional U.S. supply. The project is expected to add around 300 jobs.
The company is also directing another $48 million to its optical cable operation at the Claremont campus. That investment is expected to create 85 jobs during the next two years and increase production capacity for optical cable serving data center and broader network infrastructure.
Outside North Carolina, Prysmian plans to spend $100 million expanding its optical cable facility in Jackson, Tennessee. The project will double the facility’s footprint, add about 100 jobs and increase production of loose-tube and drop fiber optic cables used across telecommunications and network deployments.
Another $80 million is earmarked for Lexington, South Carolina, where the company intends to expand manufacturing capacity for its FlexRibbon fiber optic cable. Prysmian expects that project to create approximately 130 jobs by 2030.
Taken together, the investments spread additional cable capacity across several locations rather than relying on a single plant. Claremont, however, will remain the center of Prysmian’s U.S. fiber production strategy due to the scale of the planned spending there.
Prysmian North America CEO Andrea Pirondini has positioned the investments as a response to expected long-term U.S. demand for digital infrastructure and the company’s effort to increase domestic manufacturing capacity.
The expansion arrives as data center developers, cloud providers and technology companies continue adding computing capacity for AI and other data-heavy workloads.
Higher computing density means more information needs to move quickly between equipment, making fiber connectivity an increasingly important part of data center design. That creates opportunities for manufacturers supplying long-haul and access networks, but also for companies targeting cabling installed within data center campuses and facilities.
Prysmian’s manufacturing plans also follow its July announcement of a €5.5 billion long-term agreement with Molex, a Koch company, covering the supply of optical cables for data centers. The agreement was valued at approximately $6.29 billion when announced and provides commercial context for Prysmian’s decision to add substantial U.S. production capacity.
The strategy is not without exposure. AI infrastructure and data center construction are attracting heavy capital spending, but manufacturers adding capacity today are making decisions based on assumptions about how quickly that market will continue to expand.
For Prysmian, the $1.25 billion commitment represents a sizable wager that higher fiber density, network modernization and continued investment in AI and cloud infrastructure will support a larger domestic manufacturing footprint.
The next test will be whether data center construction and broader fiber demand keep pace with the new capacity now being planned.
