Global photonics company Coherent Corp. announced on Nune 16, 2026, it signed a letter of intent to receive up to $50 million in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act from the federal Department of Commerce to expand its 6-in. Indium Phosphide (InP) semiconductor manufacturing facility in Sherman, Texas.
The announcement coincided with a groundbreaking ceremony with NVIDIA, federal and state officials, and local community leaders at Coherent's Sherman facility. A general contractor wasn't named.
Coherent said the investment will support growing demand for optical networking technologies that power AI datacenters and further strengthen Coherent's longstanding and recently expanded partnership with NVIDIA.
At project completion, the Sherman site is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs, including more than 550 direct advanced manufacturing, engineering and technical roles.
The expansion will double manufacturing production space and quadruple wafer production capacity, significantly increase domestic production of critical AI-enabling technologies and reinforce American leadership in the technologies that power the AI economy.
The CHIPS award builds upon approximately $20 million in support previously provided through the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund and the Sherman Economic Development Corp.
"AI is transforming our world and driving a new era of American manufacturing to build the infrastructure that will power the AI datacenters of the future," said Jim Anderson, CEO of Coherent. "Semiconductor photonic devices are essential building blocks of AI infrastructure, enabling the high-speed connectivity required to move unprecedented amounts of data between processors, memory, and systems. This investment expands America's capacity to manufacture critical AI-enabling technologies, creates high-value jobs, and reinforces U.S. leadership in advanced manufacturing, photonics, and innovation."
Coherent's Sherman facility manufactures photonic devices based on InP, a specialized semiconductor material used to create high-performance optical networking components that power modern AI systems.
The company said the site is home to the world's first and largest volume-production 6-in. InP manufacturing platform, providing the scale needed to support rapidly growing demand for AI-driven optical interconnect technologies. As AI workloads continue to scale, these technologies are becoming increasingly critical to overcoming data movement bottlenecks and enabling higher-performance, more energy-efficient computing architectures.
The expansion will add advanced wafer fabrication equipment and cleanroom capacity to increase production of InP-based photonic devices at scale. ♣
