en.Wedoany.com Reported - India-based optical fiber and digital solutions integrator Sterlite Technologies Ltd. announced plans to invest up to $100 million in the United States to expand its manufacturing capacity for AI data center and telecom carrier customers. This investment is expected to create 400 to 500 jobs and strengthen the domestic supply of high-density fiber optic connectivity products used to support large-scale AI computing clusters.
This is not STL's first foray into the U.S. market. The company's "Palmetto Plant" in Lugoff, South Carolina, which commenced operations in September 2023 and once served as its North American headquarters, was established with an initial investment of $56 million. The facility spans over 168,000 square feet and employs more than 150 people. Responding to the U.S. $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, the plant primarily produces traditional fiber optic cables for 5G, Fiber-to-the-Home, and rural broadband. The additional $100 million investment will bring new-generation product lines specifically designed for AI large model training scenarios to this facility.
The core of this expansion lies in scaling up the production of high-fiber-count, high-density terminated optical cables to meet the unique short-reach, high-bandwidth interconnect demands within hyperscale data centers. STL CEO Rahul Puri stated that by mastering the complete value chain from glass preforms to data center connectivity solutions, the company can provide more scalable and reliable fiber optic connections for the physical infrastructure of the AI era. The plant's subsequent flagship products will include the Celesta 6912F optical cable, which boasts the industry's highest fiber count and is designed for data center interconnects, along with a complete suite of Neuralis connectivity products covering optical distribution frames, pre-terminated assemblies, and hollow-core fiber.
The impetus for this capacity expansion stems from the increasingly stringent demands AI workloads place on the data center physical layer. As GPU clusters evolve from thousands to tens of thousands, or even millions of accelerators, east-west data traffic within server racks is experiencing explosive growth. Traditional single-fiber connection solutions are approaching physical limits in terms of deployment density, thermal management, and signal latency. STL's Neuralis product portfolio is designed specifically for this trend, utilizing high-density pre-terminated optical cables and customized connectivity solutions. By completing over 90% of fiber termination and testing work within the factory, the solution significantly shortens on-site optical cable deployment time in data centers. This solution has already secured order intentions from multiple hyperscale data centers and AI infrastructure providers in North America.
From an operational perspective, this expansion also carries STL's intent to promote supply chain regionalization. Currently, global AI data center construction is highly concentrated in the United States, but the manufacturing capacity for high-quality single-mode fiber and specialty optical cables still relies heavily on Asian supply chains. By expanding high-speed optical cable production lines and termination capabilities at the existing Lugoff campus, STL aims to give U.S.-manufactured optical connectivity products a differentiated advantage in delivery lead times, tariff costs, and supply chain resilience. The company currently generates 80% of its revenue from markets outside India, with revenue reaching approximately $480 million in fiscal year 2025, and the proportion from the North American market continues to climb. As U.S. AI computing infrastructure construction enters a peak period, STL hopes to leverage localized manufacturing capabilities to secure a more central supplier position in the niche segment of data center fiber optic connectivity.
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