AT&T will pay Corning more than $3 billion for fiber and cable under a multiyear supply agreement the two companies announced Tuesday.

The deal, disclosed in a joint release from Washington on September 29, 2026, commits Corning to supplying AT&T with optical fiber and cable over multiple years. The companies did not reveal more specific terms, leaving open the duration of the contract, pricing per unit, or the volumes involved.

The scale of the commitment — more than $3 billion in hardware alone — signals how much physical plant AT&T expects to deploy as it keeps pushing fiber deeper into its footprint. Fiber supply agreements of this size typically cover the cable, connectors, and associated optical components an operator needs for a sustained buildout program.

For Corning, the contract locks in a marquee US customer for its optical communications business at a time when demand for fiber from large national carriers has become a cornerstone of that segment's revenue. For AT&T, securing a long-term supply arrangement protects its construction schedule against the supply-chain disruptions that slowed deployments across the industry earlier in the decade.

Neither company disclosed whether the agreement includes dedicated manufacturing capacity, volume guarantees, or pricing mechanisms tied to raw-material costs — details that would clarify the commercial weight of the deal beyond its headline value.

AT&T has made fiber the center of its wireline strategy, retiring copper in favor of optical infrastructure across its service territory. Securing multiyear fiber supply at a fixed commercial relationship is consistent with that plan: the constraint on such builds is often not capital but the availability of cable, labor, and equipment.

The announcement fits a broader pattern among US carriers of striking long-term supply deals with component and equipment makers rather than buying on the spot market. Multiyear commitments give vendors like Corning the demand visibility needed to invest in manufacturing capacity, while giving operators priority access when supply tightens.

The companies said the agreement runs for multiple years but did not specify an end date, the fiber types covered, or how the contract relates to AT&T's previously announced buildout targets. AT&T and Corning have not said whether further supply agreements are under negotiation.