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GLW Rides on Solid Traction in the Solar Vertical: Will it Persist?
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Key Takeaways
Corning's Solar revenue rose 80% YoY to $370M in Q1 2026, fueled by demand for U.S.-made products.
GLW built the largest U.S. solar ingot and wafer facility in Michigan and secured wafer commitments.
Corning plans to raise its Solar Market-Access Platform outlook after targeting $2.5B annual revenue by 2028.
Corning Incorporated (GLW - Free Report) is benefiting from strong demand for its domestically manufactured solar products. This is driving rapid growth in its newly formed Solar segment. In the first quarter of 2026, Solar revenues surged 80% year over year to $370 million, supported by robust demand across the company’s polysilicon, wafer and module manufacturing operations. The solar business has emerged as a key contributor to Corning’s Springboard growth strategy.
It has established a vertically integrated U.S. solar manufacturing platform spanning polysilicon, ingot and wafer production, as well as solar module assembly. The company’s polysilicon business exceeded 20% corporate operating margin target in the first quarter.
The company participates in three key areas of the solar value chain: solar polysilicon, solar wafers and solar modules. It has also built the largest solar ingot and wafer manufacturing facility in the United States at its Michigan facility. Corning has already secured customer commitments for wafer production and is steadily upgrading the facility to improve throughput and long-term profitability. Moreover, the company has successfully ramped up a solar module manufacturing facility in Arizona. This is also driving growth prospects.
It previously targeted approximately $2.5 billion in annual revenues from its Solar Market-Access Platform by 2028. Backed by strong demand trends, the company indicated that it intends to raise the Solar Market-Access Platform's revenue outlook. Per a report from Mordor Intelligence, the U.S. Solar energy market is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate of 10.96% between 2026 and 2031. The entry to the Solar industry for Corning is of high return and low risk.
Other Major Players in the Solar Market
With the expanding solar opportunities worldwide, First Solar, Inc. (FSLR - Free Report) has been investing heavily in the production ramp-up of its modules to expand its manufacturing capacity. It is the world’s largest thin-film PV solar module manufacturer and the largest PV solar module manufacturer in the Western Hemisphere. First Solar is advancing research on perovskite thin-film semiconductor technology to enhance solar module efficiency and reduce costs. Supported by its California and European Technology Centers, First Solar is focused on improving the efficiency and stability of this technology to develop a commercially scalable product.
SolarEdge Technologies (SEDG - Free Report) is a leading provider of an optimized inverter solution, which consists of inverters, power optimizers, a communication device that enables access to a cloud-based monitoring platform and in many cases, additional smart energy management solutions. Apart from these, the company’s core solar product portfolio includes an energy storage solution.
SolarEdge’s optimized inverter architecture spans residential, commercial and small utility PV and pairs naturally with batteries and software services across markets. SolarEdge continues to optimize its U.S. manufacturing footprint to align with incentives that favor domestic content, including residential inverters in Texas, optimizers and commercial inverters in Florida, and batteries in Utah.
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GLW Rides on Solid Traction in the Solar Vertical: Will it Persist?
Key Takeaways
Corning Incorporated (GLW - Free Report) is benefiting from strong demand for its domestically manufactured solar products. This is driving rapid growth in its newly formed Solar segment. In the first quarter of 2026, Solar revenues surged 80% year over year to $370 million, supported by robust demand across the company’s polysilicon, wafer and module manufacturing operations. The solar business has emerged as a key contributor to Corning’s Springboard growth strategy.
It has established a vertically integrated U.S. solar manufacturing platform spanning polysilicon, ingot and wafer production, as well as solar module assembly. The company’s polysilicon business exceeded 20% corporate operating margin target in the first quarter.
The company participates in three key areas of the solar value chain: solar polysilicon, solar wafers and solar modules. It has also built the largest solar ingot and wafer manufacturing facility in the United States at its Michigan facility. Corning has already secured customer commitments for wafer production and is steadily upgrading the facility to improve throughput and long-term profitability. Moreover, the company has successfully ramped up a solar module manufacturing facility in Arizona. This is also driving growth prospects.
It previously targeted approximately $2.5 billion in annual revenues from its Solar Market-Access Platform by 2028. Backed by strong demand trends, the company indicated that it intends to raise the Solar Market-Access Platform's revenue outlook. Per a report from Mordor Intelligence, the U.S. Solar energy market is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate of 10.96% between 2026 and 2031. The entry to the Solar industry for Corning is of high return and low risk.
Other Major Players in the Solar Market
With the expanding solar opportunities worldwide, First Solar, Inc. (FSLR - Free Report) has been investing heavily in the production ramp-up of its modules to expand its manufacturing capacity. It is the world’s largest thin-film PV solar module manufacturer and the largest PV solar module manufacturer in the Western Hemisphere. First Solar is advancing research on perovskite thin-film semiconductor technology to enhance solar module efficiency and reduce costs. Supported by its California and European Technology Centers, First Solar is focused on improving the efficiency and stability of this technology to develop a commercially scalable product.
SolarEdge Technologies (SEDG - Free Report) is a leading provider of an optimized inverter solution, which consists of inverters, power optimizers, a communication device that enables access to a cloud-based monitoring platform and in many cases, additional smart energy management solutions. Apart from these, the company’s core solar product portfolio includes an energy storage solution.
SolarEdge’s optimized inverter architecture spans residential, commercial and small utility PV and pairs naturally with batteries and software services across markets. SolarEdge continues to optimize its U.S. manufacturing footprint to align with incentives that favor domestic content, including residential inverters in Texas, optimizers and commercial inverters in Florida, and batteries in Utah.
Corning's Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates
GLW’s shares have gained 301.3% compared to the communications components industry’s growth of 388.1%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, the company’s shares currently trade at 54.15X forward 12-month earnings, lower than the industry.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Earnings estimates for Corning for 2026 and 2027 have increased over the past 60 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Corning currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.