Episode summary
How Corning Is Using Trump’s Tariffs to Its Advantage | WSJ's Bold Names
The Journal
· · Hosts: Tim Higgins, Christopher Mims · Guests: Wendell Weeks
Summary
Corning’s case is that its long-standing habit of making and controlling more of its own supply chain has suddenly become an advantage in an era of tariffs and industrial policy. Wendell Weeks describes the company as a manufacturer that does its own R&D, invents its own manufacturing processes, and keeps talent moving across businesses so it can absorb cyclical downturns without abandoning long-term bets.
Weeks says Corning’s playbook was forged in the telecom collapse, when roughly 90% of revenue in its photonics business disappeared and the company had to repair trust with employees after painful layoffs. More recently, he says Corning chose to preserve capacity through a six- or seven-quarter revenue decline rather than cut another 4,000 jobs, accepting lower returns while waiting for new products, including Gen AI-related work, to pay off.
He argues that the current policy environment is helping because Corning already manufactures domestically and sources key inputs locally, including Pennsylvania sand for Gorilla Glass in Kentucky. Weeks says the company’s solar expansion, fiber optics business, and Apple-related manufacturing are benefiting from U.S. incentives and tariffs, giving Corning time to scale and reinvest while competitors face a less favorable supply-chain structure.
Key takeaways
- Weeks says Corning’s advantage is that it makes “all the pieces” itself, so tariffs hit competitors’ outsourced supply chains harder than Corning’s.
- Corning chose to absorb a profitability hit rather than lay off another 4,000 people during its post-pandemic decline, according to Weeks.
- Weeks says the company is opening the largest solar wafer manufacturing facility in the United States and expects to get twice its money back before reinventing the product.
- He says U.S. manufacturing policy is helping Corning’s fiber optics and Apple-related glass business because the company already has domestic capacity and a controlled supply chain.
- Weeks argues Corning can recruit manufacturing and engineering talent because it is a rare place for scientists who want to work on materials and advanced manufacturing.
Notable quotes
“we had broke broke the social contract with our people because they had trusted us”
“we're willing to be misunderstood uh for periods of time so that we can live to what it is we believe in”
“we're always the lowest cost producer in the world, right? in what we do”
“We build all of our own equipment ourselves, right? Because that's how we develop these high proprietary vantage plotics and processes”
How the episode opens
For the average person, I don't think they know anything about Corning. — You want to start in the beginning? Yeah. Let's start with Thomas Edison. — Actually, I keep that in my office. The very first order that he ever gave to courting for the first time he came to us for glass envelopes.
That's incredible.
Yes. It's I keep that in my office uh to remind me that big things start out very small because that is a very small order. This week on Bold Names we have Corning CEO Wendell Weekes.
Now what does Corning do? They have made everything from the glass in Thomas Edison's light bulbs to the glass screens on every iPhone ever manufactured. They also make the glass fibers and the fiber optic cables which comprise the internet and which are huge now because of the AI boom.
So how has this company remained relevant from the 1800s until the present day? That's what's next. Wendell, welcome to the show.
I hear you endured the dot bubble,
Survived. — So talk to me about what happened, right? Because there was the telecom boom. — Yes. You guys were a big part of it in a way that isn't often acknowledged or known because you were building the fiber optic cable that was being put into the ground by companies that you know later went bankrupt
That affected you. What was the peak? What was the trough? — So at the peak I mean our optical communications business was far and away the core of our market value. At that point in time, I think uh our shares hit a high of about $100 per share in that zone. And because of our core invention, fiber optics, we did another one that went itself beautifully to long-distance transmission, which is what the internet was about.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- us tariffs
- industrial policy
- technology investment
- r&d and manufacturing
- solar energy manufacturing
Companies and tickers mentioned
- GLW
- Corning
Watch the episode
Watch “How Corning Is Using Trump’s Tariffs to Its Advantage | WSJ's Bold Names” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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