3M Company (NYSE: MMM) announced plans to expand U.S. manufacturing capacity for its Expanded Beam Optical interconnect technology, targeting growing demand from AI data centers.

The expansion will more than double production capacity and include new manufacturing equipment and additional production space. The technology provides optical connectivity solutions for high-speed data transmission in AI 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 technology has been in mass production and commercially available since late 2024. The capacity expansion reflects increasing adoption of optical interconnect technologies in high-density computing environments as AI clusters grow and data centers require faster data movement and higher bandwidth.

3M's investment aims to support customers including hyperscalers, optical network equipment providers, and cable assembly partners. The technology is designed to provide dust-resistant optical connections for high-density computing applications.

The expansion is part of 3M's data center solutions portfolio addressing connectivity, rack and power, and materials challenges in AI infrastructure. The information comes from a company press release statement.