3M and AWS collaborate to advance optical connectivity innovation

AWS is investing in 3M's Expanded Beam Optical technology for its data center infrastructure

3M (NYSE: MMM) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced an expanded strategic collaboration. AWS plans to deploy and scale 3M's Expanded Beam Optical (EBO) platform for its data center infrastructure. Together, the two leading American companies will advance co-innovation and investment in optical connectivity and the critical infrastructure needed for next-generation super intelligence (SI), also known as artificial intelligence (AI).

"AWS's adoption of 3M's EBO platform demonstrates the potential of our optical connectivity technology to meet the performance demands of next-generation data center infrastructure," said Wendy Bauer, Group President of 3M's Transportation and Electronics Business Group. "By combining AWS's infrastructure expertise and scale with 3M's innovation and materials science capabilities, we can accelerate EBO deployment, advance our transformation and strengthen U.S. innovation and investment."

"Our work with 3M reinforces our commitment to supporting good jobs here in the U.S.," said Jens Gruenkemeir, Vice President of Supply Chain & Procurement at Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). "Beyond powering the services people use every day, from online banking and hospital data records to streaming entertainment and retail purchases, our data center investments are unlocking economic opportunities in the communities where we invest and across the supply chain, including the hundreds of jobs being supported by 3M as a result of its collaboration with Amazon."

The collaboration and related investments are expected to strengthen the U.S. economy by supporting more than 500 jobs directly and indirectly, including the creation of more than 100 new roles through 2027 across Minnesota, Texas and Wisconsin. These planned roles will support customer co-innovation, technology advancement and supply chain development across 3M's optical networking portfolio and help accelerate industrywide adoption through collaboration with partners.

3M expects to contribute nearly $0.5 billion to the U.S. economy through its optical connectivity business. This investment will accelerate innovation in optical networking and fiber termination, enable commercialization at scale and drive adoption across the data center industry.

The collaboration builds on 3M's announcement earlier this year that it will double production capacity at its Menomonie, Wisconsin, manufacturing facility, and is expected to support U.S. manufacturing partners involved in equipment and production scale-up throughout the supply chain.