Baris Kücükay, Regional Director at Corning Optical Communications, underscores Corning’s AI‑ready, sustainable solutions driving hyperscale and edge data centers to power the Middle East’s digital transformation.
How is the surge in hyperscale and edge data centers influencing Corning’s strategy in the Middle East?
Corning provides innovative, resilient, and future-ready broadband and data center solutions across network segments. With a strong presence in the Middle East, we support the growth of hyperscale and edge data centers, preparing for AI-driven transformation by optimizing speed, capacity, and scalability.
Our GlassWorks AI offers a “one-stop shop” for customized data center products and services, enabling operators to build dense fiber infrastructures essential for generative AI. Acting as a single point of contact, we deliver end-to-end solutions across local networks, hyperscale data centers, white spaces, and data center interconnects (DCI).
With perpetual technological advancements, local expertise, and robust infrastructure, Corning addresses the evolving challenges of tomorrow’s digital landscape, empowering operators to thrive in an AI-powered future.
What differentiates Corning’s optical solutions in addressing the region’s growing demand for faster, more reliable data transmission?
Corning stands apart through its ultra-low-loss fibers, bend-insensitive designs, high-density cabling, and pre-connectorized foundational solutions for next-generation networks that accelerate installation and scalability. These enable higher bandwidth, longer reach, and improved signal integrity—critical for data-intensive, multi-cloud environments.
Corning’s long optical innovation history and close collaboration with hyperscalers strengthen its advantage. Strong testament of our industry expertise is the fact that Corning’s data center technology is found in more than 50,000 data centers in more than 30 countries around the world.
Which Middle Eastern markets are emerging as key growth hubs for your data center business, and what factors are driving that momentum?
Various industry announcements seem to indicate that the growth in the GCC Countries is led by the UAE and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These countries stand out because of the sheer size of datacenter and AI Projects planned for in these countries. Both countries have ambitious plans to be dominant, data driven economies, impacting various sectors like healthcare and latest generation of Fintech. This is likely to create demand for huge datacenter and AI infrastructure builds.
Sustainability has become a major focus in infrastructure development — how is Corning incorporating greener practices into its data center solutions?
Our goal is to design and manufacture products with less environmental impact throughout their life cycles — from concept, design, and material choices through sourcing, manufacturing, customer use, and, ultimately, end-of-life.
We are aspiring toward a low-cost and circular economy, and through our Design for sustainability program we look for opportunities to integrate sustainability into our innovation and development process. Where possible, we develop products and packaging that use fewer raw materials and more recycled, recyclable, and bio-based materials, as well as require less water and energy to produce – without compromising quality, performance, or appearance. We also look for opportunities for return and reuse at the end of a product’s life cycle.
Can you share examples of collaborations or partnerships that are helping Corning expand its footprint in the regional data center ecosystem?
Corning collaborates with regional telecom operators, cloud providers, infrastructure developers and industry associations to accelerate data-center readiness. Joint deployments with leading carriers and integrators help scale fiber networks, while technical partnerships with global hyperscalers ensure the region adopts best-in-class connectivity standards.
With the industry moving toward 800G and AI-ready architectures, how is Corning innovating to meet next-generation connectivity needs?
Corning is advancing the future of high-speed connectivity through its work in Co-Packaged Optics (CPO). We develop the critical optical components—ultra-low-loss fibers, high-precision fiber-array units, and advanced glass-based substrates—that enable optics to be placed much closer to the switching chip. This reduces power consumption, boosts bandwidth density, and supports the performance requirements of AI-ready and next-generation data centers.
Through collaborations with industry leaders, Corning is helping accelerate the transition from traditional pluggable optics to integrated, high-efficiency CPO architectures. Our innovations ensure faster data transmission, improved thermal performance, and scalable, energy-efficient networks that meet the growing demands of cloud, hyperscale, and edge computing.
Looking ahead, what major trends do you believe will define the evolution of data centers in the Middle East over the next five years?
AI is becoming integral to various industries, including healthcare and fintech, enhancing their operations. The Middle East has the potential to establish itself as a leading manufacturing hub, leveraging advanced AI technologies for complex manufacturing. Additionally, large Middle East-based hyperscalers are expanding internationally, aiming to compete with and complement traditional hyperscalers.
The region is expected to see significant growth in sovereign cloud, AI data centers, edge locations near industrial zones, and energy-optimized designs. Key trends include high-capacity fiber, 800G-to-1.6T transitions, liquid cooling, and modular builds. There will also be tighter integration between telecom and cloud infrastructures to support AI, IoT, and smart-city ecosystems, driving innovation and development across industries.
