Coherent broke ground on an expanded manufacturing building in Sherman, Texas, aimed at scaling production of lasers, optical components and compound semiconductors used to connect AI systems. The company operates what it calls the world’s first 6-inch indium phosphide fab, producing wafers that help move data between chips, servers and data centers at optical speeds.
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang joined Coherent CEO Jim Anderson, Sherman Mayor Shawn Temann and Texas economic development officials for the ceremony. The project is tied to CHIPS Act and Texas support, and builds on NVIDIA’s long-running relationship with Coherent, including a multiyear strategic partnership announced in March.
The expansion targets a growing bottleneck in large AI systems: connectivity. Huang said copper becomes inefficient when systems span racks and data centers, while silicon photonics can carry signals over longer distances with lower power demands. Coherent’s indium phosphide lasers, transceivers and pluggable optical modules are used in NVIDIA networking, including switches that rely on co-packaged optics.
Anderson said the Sherman site will support more than 550 direct jobs at full capacity, along with additional indirect employment. He framed the facility as part of a broader push to rebuild U.S. manufacturing capacity for advanced AI infrastructure.
