Investing.com – UBS has aggressively raised its Corning Inc (NYSE: GLW) price target to $160 from $125 and maintained a buy rating on the stock. The aggressive move was driven by the massive wave of capital expenditure (capex) revision from leading data center hyperscalers. The analysts noted that Corning glass was set to benefit from the AI infrastructure buildout due to rising demand for fiber optic cables.
The primary reason behind the higher price target is that Artificial Intelligence generates massive amounts of data that are transported via fiber optic cables. Therefore, as Corning, which has long been known as a glass maker, is set to benefit from the capex increases announced by leading tech companies such as Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon.
Corning recently announced a $6 billion deal with Meta Platforms, which is referred to as an “anchor agreement”. This deal is extremely crucial to Corning’s future since it gives the company insight into future demand and guarantees revenues. The deal brings in upfront cash and gives Corning a reliable income, which it can use to build new factories to meet the demand from AI hyperscalers.
Amazon (AMZN) alone recently guided for $200 billion in capex, roughly 33% above previous expectations. UBS now sees hyperscale spending accelerating to 68% year-over-year growth in 2026.
Fiber optic cables are currently used to connect different server racks in a process known as “Scale Out”. However, Corning is set to benefit immensely from the replacement of the copper wires inside each server rack with fiber optic cables, also known as “Scale Up”.
The analysts estimate that the “Scale Up” market could be 2 to 3 times larger than the current “Scale Out” market. They also predict that the demand from the “Scale Up” market is just beginning and that it could remain elevated up to the mid-2030s.
Despite the recent run-up, GLW trades at a discount compared to its high-growth peers. UBS applied a 33x NTM P/E multiple,a slight discount to the broader optical peer group, to reach its $160 price target.
With an expected 30% annual growth in adjusted earnings (EPS) through 2028, Corning is no longer a “low single-digit” grower; it is a high-octane infrastructure play.
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