In the list of unlikely AI stocks, glassmaker Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) must be near the top. The company has close to two centuries of history making glass products and may be best known to the average consumer for its cook and bakeware. However, in recent years the firm has established itself as an essential contributor to the tech space, as its glass products help to make smartphones and other technology possible.
Now, the company's once-burdensome fiber-optics business has proven to be the partner of choice for a number of companies focused on AI, thanks to the high-speed potential of photon-based data transfer over traditional methods. The hype—including a major partnership with Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) worth $6 billion to help outfit the latter company's data centers—has driven shares of GLW up by 152% in the last year.
