CLAREMONT — Prysmian put shovels in the dirt on Sept. 10 at its Claremont campus, marking the start of a more than $1 billion expansion that state and local officials have called the largest manufacturing project in Catawba County history.
The City of Claremont posted photos from the ceremony the same day, calling it the Prysmian Grand Expansion Conference and congratulating the company on “growth, opportunity, and a strong future for Claremont and the region.” Banners at the site read “Ground Breaking September 10, 2026” beneath U.S. and Italian flags — a nod to the Milan-headquartered cable giant’s North American fiber and optical cable hub in Claremont.
The groundbreaking turns an August announcement into a construction timeline.
What the company promised in August
On Aug. 12, Governor Josh Stein’s office and Prysmian North America said the Claremont project would add 385 jobs and more than $1 billion in investment. The company broke that into about $1.02 billion and 300 jobs on the fiber side, plus about $48 million and 85 jobs on optical cable manufacturing at the same campus. Statewide, Prysmian’s three-state package also includes expansions in Jackson, Tennessee, and Lexington, South Carolina.
The Claremont build includes a new glass production facility — vertical integration of the glass preform stage — plus expanded fiber and cable capacity and more research-and-development space. Officials have described the added footprint as roughly 900,000 to 975,000 square feet. Completion of the Claremont buildout is aimed at 2030.
Andrea Pirondini, CEO of Prysmian North America, said in the August release that Prysmian is one of just three U.S. manufacturers of fiber and optical cables and is committing more than a billion dollars to capacity growth tied to U.S. demand for advanced digital solutions. The company also pointed to a €5.5 billion ($6.29 billion) long-term supply agreement with Molex, signed weeks earlier, as part of the broader fiber push.
Average pay for the new Claremont positions was listed at $60,870 a year in the governor’s announcement — above Catawba County’s then-cited average of $56,937 — with a potential payroll impact of more than $23.4 million a year. A $1 million performance-based One North Carolina Fund grant is tied to the project; Prysmian must invest $665 million to qualify, with local matching participation required.
Claremont’s stake — and the county’s fiber cluster
Claremont Mayor Shawn R. Brown, quoted in the Aug. 12 county EDC project announcement, called an investment of this size transformational for a city Claremont’s size. Catawba County Board Chair Randy Isenhower said at the same time that no single manufacturing project in the county’s history had approached this scale in jobs, investment, or long-term economic impact.
Earlier this month, Claremont and Catawba County weighed local performance-based incentives totaling up to about $56 million for the same project — roughly $28.6 million from the city and $27.3 million from the county — after a joint public hearing on Sept. 1. Catawba First News covered those agreements when they were under consideration: Claremont and Catawba County weigh up to $56M in incentives.
The groundbreaking also lands in a county that already markets itself as a national fiber hub. Corning Optical Communications is expanding cable capacity in Hickory under a multiyear deal with Meta; Microsoft is building data centers in Conover, Hickory, Maiden, and Newton. Prysmian’s Claremont campus is the other major domestic fiber-and-cable name on the same map — glass, fiber draw, and cable under one corporate roof, now with shovels in the ground for a billion-dollar next chapter. Related: Corning builds the cable; Meta and Microsoft build the demand.
Partners named in the August announcements include the N.C. Department of Commerce, the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, the N.C. Community College System, Catawba Valley Community College, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, Catawba County, the City of Claremont, and the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation.
As of Thursday evening, Prysmian had not posted a separate Sept. 10 groundbreaking press release on its North America news page beyond the August capacity announcement. The city’s Facebook post and the ceremonial banners are the clearest same-day public markers that construction has officially begun.
Earlier coverage: Claremont and Catawba County incentives · Stein / Prysmian jobs announcement · Corning, Meta, and Microsoft demand
