Coherent Breaks Ground on Expanded Texas Facility, Scaling AI’s Optical Backbone

**TL;DR:** Coherent Breaks Ground on Expanded Texas Facility, Scaling AI’s Optical Backbone

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AI runs at the speed of light. More and more, that light is made in Texas. Coherent broke ground today on an expanded manufacturing building in Sherman, Texas. The company makes the lasers, optical components and compound semiconductors that wire AI systems together — and runs what it calls the world’s first 6-inch indium phosphide fab.

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and Coherent CEO Jim Anderson were on hand for the ceremony, joined by Sherman Mayor Shawn Temann and Adriana Cruz, executive director of Texas Economic Development and Tourism, who delivered remarks. The expanded building will scale production of the same InP wafers that carry data between chips, servers and data centers at the speed of light — the optical backbone of modern AI infrastructure.

It’s the kind of milestone that turns a commitment into construction: a concrete step in expanding advanced semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. “AI is the ultimate general-purpose technology,” Huang said during a conversation with Anderson at the groundbreaking. ” Public pr

Source: NVIDIA Blog

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Last updated: June 16, 2026.

Additional context: early-cycle stories often look bigger in headlines than in day-to-day impact. The useful move is to identify the smallest set of facts that would change your decision, then wait for those facts to land.

Additional context: early-cycle stories often look bigger in headlines than in day-to-day impact. The useful move is to identify the smallest set of facts that would change your decision, then wait for those facts to land.