Apple Awards iPhone Glass Supplier Corning Additional $250M From Advanced Manufacturing Fund

Apple today announced it is awarding its longtime iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch glass supplier Corning an additional $250 million from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund, building on its $200 million award in 2017.

Apple Corning Harrodsburg Plant 400 Highly Skilled Employees 091719
The combined $450 million investment will support Corning's research and development into "state-of-the-art glass processes, equipment and materials integral to the delivery of next-generation consumer devices," including the upcoming ‌iPhone‌ 11 and ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro lineup, according to Apple.

Apple COO Jeff Williams:

Apple and Corning's rich history dates back more than a decade, and our partnership revolutionized glass and transformed the technology industry with the first iPhone. This award underscores Apple and Corning's shared belief in the vital role that ingenuity plays in creating industry-leading products, and the pride that both companies take in applying American innovation and advanced manufacturing to solve some of the world's toughest technology challenges.

Apple says it Advanced Manufacturing Fund was designed to "foster and support the innovative production and high-skill jobs that will help fuel a new era of technology-driven manufacturing" in the United States. To date, Apple has invested over $1 billion in American companies from the fund.

In addition to the $450 million now awarded to Corning, other commitments already announced include $390 million to Finisar and $10 million to the joint venture Elysis working towards carbon-free aluminum smelting.

Apple says it spent a collective $60 billion with 9,000 American suppliers in 2018, supporting 450,000 jobs in all 50 states and manufacturing locations in 36 states. ‌iPhone‌ 11, ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max use glass manufactured at Corning's factory in Harrodsburg, Kentucky.

Corning has partnered with Apple since 2007 to provide glass for every generation of the ‌iPhone‌ and Apple Watch, and many generations of the ‌iPad‌, all manufactured in the Harrodsburg facility. Since the ‌iPhone‌ launched in 2007, Apple has spent nearly $3 billion with Corning on the glass used in those devices.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...
m4 macbook air pink

Apple Now Selling Refurbished M4 MacBook Air Models

Friday June 13, 2025 3:34 pm PDT by
Apple today added M4 MacBook Air models to its refurbished store in the United States, making the latest MacBook Air devices available at a discounted price for the first time since they launched earlier this year. Both 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models are available, with Apple offering multiple capacities and configurations. The refurbished devices are discounted by approximately 15...

Top Rated Comments

Phone Junky Avatar
75 months ago
I kind of wish Apple would say their products contain gorilla glass sometimes. I can’t even count how many android fanboys I’ve seen that think that iPhone screens are brittle and delicate compared to their phones when they both use the same damn glass...
When you drop it and it breaks, it really doesn't matter what kind of glass it is.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
69Mustang Avatar
75 months ago
They use the same brand glass, but I’m not sure that they use the same glass. Glass in any other domain has various grades. I’m willing to bet that there are multiple grades and generations of Gorilla Glass.
I thought this was common knowledge. We're currently on Gen 6 of Gorilla Glass.
[doublepost=1568722079][/doublepost]
I don’t know if Corning makes the coating, but I would love love love to see more scratch resistant coating.

The glass can be nearly indestructible but if the outer coating scratches when you look at it wrong, it’s still not a great user experience.
A lot of the time the scratches you see are in the oleophobic coating. That coating is not permanent and wears over time. You can DIY replace it. Doing so can sometimes lessen the appearance of micro scratches.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ersan191 Avatar
75 months ago
I kind of wish Apple would say their products contain gorilla glass sometimes. I can’t even count how many android fanboys I’ve seen that think that iPhone screens are brittle and delicate compared to their phones when they both use the same damn glass...
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
incoherent_1 Avatar
75 months ago
I don’t know if Corning makes the coating, but I would love love love to see more scratch resistant coating.

The glass can be nearly indestructible but if the outer coating scratches when you look at it wrong, it’s still not a great user experience.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
unibility Avatar
75 months ago
Glass is glass. And glass will break.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HowieIsaacks Avatar
75 months ago
I kind of wish Apple would say their products contain gorilla glass sometimes. I can’t even count how many android fanboys I’ve seen that think that iPhone screens are brittle and delicate compared to their phones when they both use the same damn glass...
They're idiots. It wouldn't matter if Apple advertised that they use gorilla glass. They would still think their crap phones with outdated software are better because they can "customize" them.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)