Our focus is data centres because they are big fibre guzzlers: Corning's Sudhir Pillai

Specialty glass and fibre-optic maker Corning is betting heavily on the rapid expansion of AI data centres to accelerate its growth momentum in India, said Sudhir Pillai, the US-based company’s managing director and president for India, the Middle East, and Africa.

According to Pillai, AI data centres are driving demand for thinner fibre and denser cabling across the world as they require about 10x more fiber than hyperscale data centres.

"Currently, our major focus is in data centres because they are big fibre guzzlers," Pillai told ET. "They need a lot of fibre, and they need a lot of glass from Corning. So for the next few years, a lot of focus is on data centers for us... Thinner fiber, more dense cable and a much more efficient connector - these are the three things that we did much before the AI wave started and this is driving the growth of Corning across the globe in data centres."


He said that when 10x more fiber is required for an AI data centre versus a hyperscale data centre, it poses a challenge as the duct size is not increasing and neither are the racks. Also, in most cases, Pillai said the real estate is also not expanding. Hence, Corning started producing a fiber which is 40% thinner so that the smaller fiber could have a denser cable that can carry more fiber in it and provide a solution that can adapt to the same real estate while upping the fiber and connectivity.

Corning broke ground for a new optical connectivity manufacturing facility in Pune in February this year. The plant is being built alongside the company’s existing optical fibre facility, which has been operational since 2012. The company said the new facility would focus on producing specialised optical connectivity products primarily for hyperscale and AI-driven data centres.

The plant is coming up at a time when the company is celebrating 175 years, of which it has had a presence in India for over 60 years.

"The new plant will be inaugurated in the fourth quarter of this year," Pillai said. "We will have a fiber to connectivity plant... (and) as we are building it, we are already seeing that the demand is increasing in India. We have our ears to the ground to see (if we) should scale up."

Pillai said Corning is focused on several factors when it comes to meeting the demands of AI data centres--scale or the speed of installation, size, sustainability and making it simple. This would apply even in the Indian context with increased investment flowing into the data center space.

"That's how we are enabling the whole data centre revolution across the world," he said. "We are seeing data centres now coming up in India. A lot of our global customers are moving (to set up in India) and we have always had this disciplined approach of following our customers."

Pillai said getting the new optical connectivity manufacturing facility in Pune, the cover-glass finishing facility in partnership with Optiemus Infracom in Tamil Nadu, and the glass tubing facility in Hyderabad with SGD Pharma up and running to serve customers in India and globally is his priority.

The cover glass finishing facility is currently in the final phase of the quality and compliance qualification process that OEMs require. He also highlighted that keeping a close watch on the evolving display and semiconductor ecosystem in India is equally on his radar.

"Display and semiconductors, I would put that together (as a priority)," he said. "In display, we are glass substrate manufacturers and in semiconductors, anything to do with optics that goes and enables this entire ecosystem (is done by us)... We (also) have our ears to the ground because we are closely looking at the policy that's coming up from the government on the display ecosystem (as) we have a big role in the display ecosystem."

Pillai emphasised that the display piece is crucial to India's progress in the space as it is not only important for mobile consumer electronics but is also used in a plethora of other devices. He spoke of the need for a focus on bringing in 'cornerstone component companies' to further India's growth in these sectors.

"There's a bunch of players who have to come in that ecosystem, it could be a chemical company (or an) adhesive company," he said. "There are a lot of cornerstone companies which will enable this entire ecosystem. The government is doing this. It's just a matter of time (before) you see a lot of such cornerstone companies moving to India."