Truist Securities upgrades Corning to Buy with $175 price target, citing AI-driven optical demand

Truist Securities analyst Matthew Niknam flipped his rating on Corning Incorporated from Hold to Buy on August 3, setting a $175 price target. The catalyst is straightforward: artificial intelligence is consuming fiber-optic cable at a pace that makes Corning’s factories look like the most important real estate in tech. The move actually represents a reduction from Niknam’s previous $205 target, but the upgrade in rating tells the more important story. Corning’s valuation has become attractive enough, and its growth trajectory in optical communications convincing enough, that sitting on the sidelines no longer makes sense in Truist’s view. The AI infrastructure goldmine Corning’s optical communications revenue hit $1.65 billion in Q3 2025. That’s a 33% year-over-year jump. Enterprise sales within that segment climbed even faster, rising 58% thanks to new GenAI-specific products. The company has locked in multi-year commitments from two of the biggest names in tech. Nvidia pledged up to $3.2 billion in May 2026 to expand Corning’s optical connectivity capacity by a factor of ten and boost fiber production by more than 50%. Meta committed up to $6 billion through 2030 specifically fo...