Lumentum to Open 240,000-Square-Foot Chip Plant in Greensboro

The building Qorvo left on Piedmont Triad Parkway in west Greensboro will soon be making laser components for NVIDIA's AI data centers, with Lumentum Holdings Inc. committing hundreds of millions of dollars to the retrofit and targeting more than 400 manufacturing jobs for Guilford County.

Lumentum, a San Jose-based photonics company whose shares have surged more than 1,075% over the past year, announced March 26 it had acquired the 240,000-square-foot facility from Qorvo, a semiconductor chipmaker, earlier in March. The company will retrofit the currently operational site to produce indium phosphide-based optical devices including continuous-wave and ultra-high-power lasers for the world's largest AI data centers.

"Our customers are building the infrastructure that will define the next era of computing," Chief Executive Officer Michael Hurlston said. "Adding this new InP manufacturing facility significantly expands our capacity, deepens our strategic partnerships, and ensures we can deliver the performance, reliability, and scale required for the AI revolution."

Production is not expected to begin ramping until mid-2028. The purchase agreement included a notable provision: the transfer of an experienced workforce from Qorvo to Lumentum, which the company said would allow it to accelerate the ramp and scale manufacturing efficiently. How many of the more than 400 targeted jobs will come from that transfer versus new hires has not been disclosed, and no incentive terms have been announced publicly.

That workforce question is where Guilford Technical Community College and North Carolina A&T State University enter the picture. Both institutions are named as partners in the project's support network alongside Guilford Works, Duke Energy, and Piedmont Natural Gas. The facility will use six-inch indium phosphide wafers to manufacture the laser components NVIDIA and other hyperscale cloud operators require; NVIDIA is named as both a customer and an R&D partner at the Greensboro site. Whether GTCC and N.C. A&T can supply a meaningful share of technicians and engineers, or whether Lumentum will draw primarily on the transferred Qorvo workforce and national recruiting, remains an open question ahead of the 2028 ramp.

"Lumentum's investment in Guilford County strengthens our position as a critical hub in the global semiconductor and advanced manufacturing supply chain," said Skip Alston, Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. "The creation of high-quality jobs and the continued growth of our technology sector represent a major win for our residents and for the long-term prosperity of our region."

Geoff Foster, Board Chair of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, credited the region's collaborative infrastructure for landing the deal. "Lumentum's decision to invest here reinforces the Triad's reputation as a place where innovative companies can find talent, infrastructure, and leadership aligned around long-term economic success," Foster said.

The support network behind the project also included the Guilford County Economic Development Alliance, comprised of the Greensboro Chamber and the High Point Economic Development Corporation, along with the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina.

Lumentum posted 49% revenue growth in the last twelve months and now carries a market capitalization of $55.5 billion, trading near its 52-week high of $809 per share. The company framed the Greensboro facility as deliberate onshoring of critical photonics manufacturing as AI infrastructure spending accelerates globally, with two years of retrofit and hiring activity expected to generate economic momentum in Guilford County well before the first laser ships in 2028.