3M Company (NYSE:MMM) said it plans to expand U.S. manufacturing capacity for its Expanded Beam Optical (EBO) interconnect technology as demand rises from artificial intelligence data centers.
The expansion is expected to more than double current production capacity and will involve installing additional manufacturing equipment and increasing available production space. The EBO technology is designed to deliver high-speed optical connectivity for data transmission in AI-driven computing environments.
“Key customers understand the benefits of our EBO technology, and with infrastructure scaling at an unprecedented pace, data center customers need optical connectivity solutions that can deploy quickly and operate reliably at massive scale,” said Alex An, vice president of Data Center Vertical Business for 3M.
The Expanded Beam Optical solution has been commercially available and in large-scale production since late 2024. The company said the capacity increase reflects growing adoption of optical interconnect systems in high-density computing environments as AI clusters expand and data centers require faster data transfer and greater bandwidth.
3M said the investment will help meet demand from hyperscale cloud operators, optical networking equipment manufacturers and cable assembly partners. The technology is designed to deliver dust-resistant optical connections suited for high-density computing installations.
The expansion forms part of 3M’s broader data center solutions portfolio, which addresses connectivity, power distribution and materials challenges associated with building AI infrastructure, according to the company’s press release.