Lumentum Holdings Inc. announced plans to establish a 240,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Greensboro, North Carolina, to produce indium phosphide (InP)-based optical devices for AI data center infrastructure. The site, acquired from Qorvo, will manufacture continuous wave (CW) and ultra-high-power (UHP) lasers used in high-performance optical interconnects. The facility is already operational and will undergo retrofitting to support Lumentum’s production requirements.
The Greensboro fab will expand Lumentum’s domestic manufacturing footprint and increase capacity for 6-inch InP wafer production. NVIDIA is identified as a customer of the new facility, aligning with existing strategic agreements between the companies. Lumentum stated that the site will support both scale-out and scale-up optical interconnect requirements for hyperscale AI infrastructure deployments. Production ramp is expected to begin in mid-2028.
Lumentum plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into the facility over the coming years, with expectations to preserve and create more than 400 U.S.-based manufacturing jobs. The company cited supply chain resilience and onshoring as key drivers behind the investment, supported by state and local economic development initiatives.
- 240,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in Greensboro, North Carolina
- Focus on indium phosphide (InP) optical devices for AI data centers
- Products include CW and ultra-high-power lasers
- Facility acquired from Qorvo with workforce transition included
- Supports 6-inch InP wafer manufacturing scale-up
- NVIDIA named as a key customer under existing agreements
- Production ramp targeted for mid-2028
- Investment of hundreds of millions of dollars
- Expected to create and retain 400+ jobs across engineering, operations, and support roles
“Our customers are building the infrastructure that will define the next era of computing,” said Michael Hurlston, Chief Executive Officer of Lumentum. “Adding this new InP manufacturing facility significantly expands our capacity, deepens our strategic partnerships, and ensures we can deliver the performance, reliability, and scale required for the AI revolution.”
🌐 Analysis
Lumentum’s expansion underscores the strategic importance of indium phosphide in next-generation optical interconnects, particularly for AI clusters that require high-output laser sources for 800G and emerging 1.6T optical modules. InP remains a foundational material for high-speed, high-efficiency lasers used in coherent and direct-detect optics, positioning Lumentum alongside peers such as Coherent and II-VI (now part of Coherent Corp.) in the race to scale optical component supply for hyperscale deployments.
The move also reflects a broader industry shift toward onshoring critical photonics and semiconductor manufacturing in the United States, aligning with similar investments across the optical and AI infrastructure supply chain. With NVIDIA explicitly tied to the facility, the announcement signals tighter vertical alignment between optical component suppliers and GPU-driven AI system vendors, reinforcing the role of optics as a critical bottleneck—and differentiator—in scaling AI infrastructure.
