The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, May 7, edition that Nvidia and Corning announced a deepening partnership on Wednesday. The Globe's Scott Barlow writes that Corning plans to increase fibre optic cable equipment manufacturing tenfold. Citi analyst Asiya Merchant suggests that Corning's announcement of Nvidia's option to buy 15 million shares at $180 (U.S.), indicates Nvidia will assist Corning in funding its expansion. Another part of the deal will see Corning give three million shares to Nvidia, further supporting Ms. Merchant's argument. Corning closed up 12 per cent on Wednesday after the news. The tenfold increase in capacity reminds Mr. Barlow of the 1990s in good and bad ways. Back then, Intel risked all to expand chip production capacity and was rewarded when eventually it was the only one capable of feeding the monstrous demand for personal computers. They had enormous pricing power because no other company could guarantee to meet demand. The collapse of the nineties telecom boom occurred when it became clear that there was sufficient vendor-financed data transmission capacity for the next decade, leading to a drop in demand. Corning risks repeating this, even with some expansion funded by Nvidia.