"This investment strengthens our capabilities in optics and complements our copper portfolio, enabling us to provide a range of signal connectivity solutions that are vital to enabling next-generation data centers," said TE CEO Terrence Curtin. "We have seen significant interest in our optical connectivity technology among data center customers and this new facility will enable us to increase our capacity in engineering and manufacturing to support design awards and expected growth."
The facility is expected to open in spring 2027, with manufacturing ramping up through 2031. TE plans to employ more than 800 people in engineering, manufacturing and management across the greater Rochester region, an area long recognized as a global hub for fiber optics. New York Governor Kathy Hochul welcomed the investment, stating that Upstate New York "helped build this country" and that the project would bring good-paying manufacturing jobs to Monroe County while converting a vacant building into a center for cutting-edge production.
The move reflects growing demand across the data center supply chain for optical interconnect technology as AI workloads drive unprecedented requirements for bandwidth and energy efficiency. By expanding domestic engineering and manufacturing capacity, TE aims to position itself at the center of the optical connectivity ecosystem that hyperscalers and cloud providers will depend on as they scale next-generation AI clusters.