A screen displays the logo for Corning Inc. at the New York Stock Exchange
Credit: Reuters Photo
Chennai: US-based Gorilla glass maker Corning International Corporation will set up its first India unit to manufacture glasses for electronic devices, including smartphones, in Tamil Nadu in partnership with home-grown Optieums Infracom Limited at an investment of Rs 1,003 crore.
Bharat Innovative Glass Technologies Private Limited (BIG TECH), a joint venture of Corning and Optieums, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu government for building the brand-new factory at the state-owned SIPCOT Industrial Park in Pillaipakkam near here, generating 840 jobs.
The factory will manufacture front-cover glasses for electronic devices like mobile phones, including Apple iPhones, sources told DH, adding that the company, for the first time, will bring the precision glass-processing technology to the country.
Corning invented ‘Gorilla Glass’ that is widely used in portable devices like mobile phones, tablets, and laptops, known for its damage and scratch resistance quality.
The MoU was signed between Ashok Kumar Gupta, Director, Bharat Innovative Glass Technologies Private Limited and V Vishnu, MD & CEO, Guidance Tamil Nadu, in the presence of Chief Minister M K Stalin at the Secretariat here.
“The investment by BIG TECH shows that we can attract bigger brands to Tamil Nadu. Corning investing in the state is in line with our focus on attracting companies in the advanced manufacturing sector. We hope more such companies will choose Tamil Nadu,” Vishnu told DH.
A government statement said the BIG TECH’s facility for the production of cover glass manufacturing project with an investment of Rs. 1,003 crore with a potential employment for 840 persons.
The development comes months after the then TRS Government in Telangana announced that Corning’s factory will come up in the state.
The investment by Corning marks the entry of yet another Apple Inc. supplier to Tamil Nadu, which already boasts of massive facilities owned by Foxconn, Pegatron, Tata Electronics, and Salcomp, which supplies chargers to the Cupertino-based electronics major.
Another contract supplier of Apple, Luxshare, is expected to start operations in Chennai very soon from the old Motorola factory it acquired in 2021. The investment pledge by BIG TECH comes within a month of Tata and Pegatron announcing expansion plans at their factories near Hosur and Chennai respectively.
While Corning International is a Fortune 500 company, Optiemus Infracom is a public-listed company in India with vast experience in mobile phone components and laptop manufacturing in India.