North Carolina’s biggest internet-related announcement this month is not about a new provider or a new grant — it is about the cable itself. On 12-Aug-2026, Governor Josh Stein announced that Prysmian will invest more than $1 billion in Claremont, in Catawba County, to expand optical fiber and glass manufacturing and add 385 jobs. Groundbreaking is set for the middle of this month.
What is actually being built
The package is two plants on one campus: roughly $1.02 billion for fiber operations and about $48 million for cable operations, adding around 975,000 square feet and roughly doubling the site’s optical fiber manufacturing capacity. The expansion also brings glass preform manufacturing on site, so fiber can be produced end to end in the United States — which matters because federally funded broadband builds have to meet Build America, Buy America domestic sourcing rules. Of the 385 new jobs, 300 are in fiber operations and 85 in cable operations. The campus is expected to be complete by 2030.
The pay, and the state’s contribution
The new positions carry an average salary of about $60,870, above the Catawba County average of $56,937. WCCB Charlotte reported state figures putting the annual payroll impact at roughly $23 million. North Carolina is contributing a $1 million performance-based grant from the One North Carolina Fund. That money is not paid up front: it requires local matching participation and a minimum of $665 million in private investment before any of it is disbursed.
What this means if you live in North Carolina
Plainly: nothing changes about what you can order at your address today. No home gets service because of this, and a factory is not a network. It is a jobs story first and a supply story second.
The supply part is the piece worth watching. North Carolina’s federally funded rural builds are moving into construction, and those projects have to buy American-made fiber. More of that fiber being spun a few counties away rather than shipped in is one fewer reason for a rural build to slip its schedule. In the meantime the practical options at most addresses are unchanged: Spectrum and AT&T in their wired footprints, Kinetic by Windstream where it has finished building, and Starlink where wires do not reach.