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 Headquarters, withLittle Joe Tower in the background | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry |
|
| Founded | 1851; 175 years ago (1851) as Bay State Glass Co. |
| Founder | Amory Houghton |
| Headquarters | Corning, New York, U.S. |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
| Products | Specialty glass Ceramics Optical fiber Cable, hardware & equipment Emissions control technology LCD glass Life sciences products |
| Revenue |  US$13.1 billion (2024) |
| US$1.14 billion (2024) | |
 US$506 million (2024) | |
| Total assets | US$27.7 billion (2024) |
| Total equity | US$10.7 billion (2024) |
Number of employees | 56,300 (2024) |
| Divisions |
|
| Website | corning |
| Footnotes / references [1] | |
Corning Incorporated is an Americanmultinationaltechnology company specializing inglass,ceramics, and related materials and technologies including advancedoptics, primarily for industrial and scientific applications. Founded in 1851, the company was calledCorning Glass Works for most of its history.[2] Corning was known during the 20th century for its consumer product lines, such as includingCorningWare andVisionsPyroceram-based cookware,Corelle Vitrelle tableware, andPyrex glass bakeware. It divested its consumer product lines in 1998 by selling the Corning Consumer Products Company (laterCorelle Brands) toBorden.
As of 2014[update], Corning had five major business sectors: display technologies, environmental technologies, life sciences, optical communications, and specialty materials. Corning is involved in twojoint ventures:Dow Corning and Pittsburgh Corning. The company completed thecorporate spin-offs ofQuest Diagnostics and Covance (nowFortrea) in January 1997.[3] Corning develops and manufacturesGorilla Glass, which is used by many smartphone makers. It is one of the world's biggest glassmakers.[4]
Corning is one of the main suppliers toApple Inc. since working withSteve Jobs in 2007 to develop theiPhone.[5]
Corning won theNational Medal of Technology and Innovation four times for its product and process innovations.[6][7][8][9]
Corning continues to maintain its world headquarters inCorning, New York. The firm also established one of the first industrial research labs there in 1908.[10] It continues to expand the nearbyresearch and development facility, as well as operations associated withcatalytic converters anddiesel engine filter product lines.
Corning has a long history ofcommunity development and has assured community leaders that it intends to remain headquartered in its smallUpstate New York hometown.[11]
Corning Glass Works was founded in 1851 by AmoryHoughton, inSomerville, Massachusetts, originally as the Bay State Glass Co.[12] It later moved toWilliamsburg, Brooklyn, and operated as the Brooklyn Flint Glass Works. The company moved again to its ultimate home and eponym, the city ofCorning, New York, in 1868, under leadership of the founder's son, Amory Houghton Jr.
In 1915, Corning created an improved heat resistant glass formula and launched Pyrex, the first-ever consumer cooking products made with temperature-resistant glass, in 1915.[13]
TheCalifornia Institute of Technology's 200-inch (5.1 m) telescope mirror atPalomar Observatory was cast by Corning during 1934–1936, out of low expansion borosilicate glass.[14] In 1932,George Ellery Hale approachedCorning with the challenge of fabricating the required optic for his Palomar project. A previous effort to fabricate the optic fromfused quartz had failed. Corning's first attempt was a failure, the cast blank having voids. Using lessons learned, Corning was successful in the casting of the second blank. After a year of cooling, during which it was almost lost to a flood, in 1935, the blank was completed. The first blank now resides inCorning's Museum of Glass.
In 1935, Corning formed ajoint venture with bottle makerOwens-Illinois, creating the company now known asOwens Corning. They spun off Owens Corning as an independent company in 1938, and itwent public on theNew York Stock Exchange in 1952.
The company had a history of science-based innovations followingWorld War II and the strategy by management was research and "disruptive" and "on demand" product innovation.[15]
In 1962, Corning developed Chemcor, a new toughened automobilewindshield designed to be thinner and lighter than existing windshields, which reduced danger of personal injury by shattering into small granules when smashed.[16] Thistoughened glass had a chemically hardened outer layer, and its manufacture incorporated an ion exchange and a "fusion process" in special furnaces that Corning built in itsChristiansburg, Virginia facility.[15][17] Corning developed it as an alternative tolaminated windshields with the intention of becoming anautomotive industry supplier.[15] After being installed as side glass in a limited run of 1968 Plymouth Barracudas and Dodge Darts, Chemcor windshields debuted on the 1970 model yearJavelins andAMXs built byAmerican Motors Corporation (AMC).[17] As there were no mandatory safety standards for motor vehicle windshields, the larger automakers had no financial incentive to change from the cheaper existing products.[15][17] Corning terminated its windshield project in 1971, after it turned out to be one of the company's "biggest and most expensive failures."[17] However, like many Corning innovations, the unique process to manufacture this automotive glass was resurrected and is today the basis of their very profitable LCD glass business.
In late 1970, the company announced that researchers Robert D. Maurer, Donald Keck, Peter C. Schultz, and Frank Zimar had demonstrated anoptical fiber with a low optical attenuation of 17 dB per kilometer bydopingsilica glass withtitanium.[18] A few years later they produced a fiber with only 4 dB/km, usinggermanium oxide as the coredopant. Such low attenuations madefiber optics practical fortelecommunications andnetworking. Corning became the world's leading manufacturer of optical fiber.
In 1977, considerable attention was given to Corning's Z Glass project. Z Glass was a product used in television picture tubes. Due to a number of factors, the exact nature of which are subject to dispute, this project was considered a steep loss in profit and productivity. The following year the project made a partial recovery. This incident has been cited as a case study by the Harvard School of Business.[19]
In 1998, the kitchenware division of Corning Inc. responsible for the development of Pyrex spun off from its parent company as Corning Consumer Products Company, subsequently renamed Corelle Brands. Corning Inc. no longer manufactures or markets consumer products, only industrial ones.[20]
Company profits soared in the late 1990s during thedot-com boom, and Corning expanded its fiber operations significantly through the acquisition of telecommunications companyOak Industries[21] and building several new plants. The company also entered thephotonics market, investing heavily with the intent of becoming the leading provider of complete fiber-optic systems. Failure to succeed in photonics and thecollapse in 2000 of the dot-com market had a major impact on the company, and Corning stock plummeted to $1 per share. However, as of 2007[update] the company had posted five straight years of improving financial performance.
The turning point for Corning came when Apple approached it to develop a robust display screen for its upcomingiPhone. Later, other companies also adopted itsGorilla Glass screen. In 2011, Corning announced the expansion of existing facilities and the construction of a Gen 10 facility co-located with theSharp Corporation manufacturing complex inSakai, Osaka, Japan.[22] The LCD glass substrate is produced without heavy metals. Corning is a leading manufacturer of the glass used inliquid crystal displays.[23]
The company continues to produce optical fiber and cable for the communications industry at itsWilmington andConcord plants in North Carolina. It is also a major manufacturer of ceramic emission control devices forcatalytic converters in cars and light trucks that use gasoline engines. The company is also investing in the production of ceramic emission control products for diesel engines as a result of tighter emission standards for those engines both in the U.S. and abroad.[citation needed]
In 2007, Corning introduced an optic fiber,ClearCurve, which uses nanostructure technology to facilitate the small radius bending found inFTTX installations.[citation needed]
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Gorilla Glass, an outgrowth of the 1960s Chemcor project, is a high-strength alkali-aluminosilicate thinsheet glass used as a protective cover glass offering scratch resistance and durability in many touchscreens.[24] According to the bookSteve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Gorilla Glass was used in the first iPhone released in 2007.[25]
On October 25, 2011, Corning unveiledLotus Glass, an environmentally friendly and high-performance glass developed forOLED andLCD displays.[26][27]
Corning invests about 10% of revenue inresearch and development, and has allocatedUS$300 million towards further expansion of its Sullivan Park research facility near headquarters in Corning, New York.[28]
Corning Incorporated manufactures a high-purity fused silica employed in microlithography systems, a low expansion glass utilized in the construction of reflective mirror blanks, windows for U.S.Space Shuttles, andSteuben art glass. The number of Corning facilities employing the traditional tanks of molten glass has declined over the years, but it maintains the capacity to supply bulk or finished glass of many types.[citation needed]
Corning is engaged in research and development on greenlasers, mercury abatement,microreactors, photovoltaics, and silicon on glass. Through its Life Sciences division, the company offers products to support life science research, includingstem-cell culture products.[29]
In September 2019, Apple announced that it would invest $250 million in Corning, in an effort to develop and manufacture the glass needed for many of its products, including the iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad. Though not confirmed by either company, the investment could be used to develop new products in the future. Apple had already invested $200 million in Corning in 2017.[30]
In November 2024, The European Commission announced that Corning Inc. was under investigation for potential antitrust violations related to exclusive supply agreements with mobile phone manufacturers and raw glass processors, which may hinder competition in the specialty glass market.[31]
Corning employs roughly 61,200 people worldwide and had sales of $14.08 billion in 2021.[32] The company has been listed for many years amongFortune's 500 largest companies, and was ranked No. 297 in 2015.
Although the company has long been publicly owned,James R. Houghton, great-great-grandson of the founder, served as chairman of the board of directors from 2001 to 2007. Over the years Houghton family ownership has declined to about 2%.Wendell Weeks has been with the company since 1983 and as of March 2013[update] was chairman, chief executive officer, and president.[33]
Over its 160-year history Corning invented a process for rapid and inexpensive production oflight bulbs, including developing the glass forThomas Edison's light bulb. Corning was the glass supplier for lightbulbs forGeneral Electric afterEdison General Electric merged withThomson-Houston Electric Company in 1892.[34] It was an early major manufacturer of glass panels and funnels for television tubes, invented and producedVycor (high temperature glass with high thermal shock resistance). Corning invented and producedPyrex,CorningWare andVisionsPyroceram glass-ceramic cookware, andCorelle durable glass dinnerware. Corning manufactured the windows for US crewedspace vehicles, and supplied the glass blank for the primary mirror in theHubble Space Telescope.
In 1982, Corning launchedChameleon® Sunglasses andSerengeti® sunglasses at retail, featuring the exclusive combination ofPhotochromic andSpectral Control® technologies in the lenses.
In July 2008, Corning announced the sale ofSteuben Glass Works to Steuben Glass LLC, an affiliate of theprivate equity firmSchottenstein Stores Corporation. Steuben Glass had been unprofitable for more than a decade, losing 30 million dollars over the previous five years.[35]
In February 2011, Corning acquired MobileAccess Networks, anIsraeli company that developsdistributed antenna systems, which are often used by universities, stadiums and airports to ensure seamless wireless coverage throughout a facility. MobileAccess Networks became part of Corning's telecommunications business unit.[36] In July 2017, Corning acquiredSpiderCloud Wireless.[37] In December 2017, Corning acquired all of 3M Communication Market Division, in a cash transaction of approximately $900 million. Acquisition closed during 2018; 3M Communication Market Division became part of Corning Optical Communications business unit.[38]
Javelin windshield.
corning GE light bulbs.
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