Apple’s $390 million investment in optical communications company Finisar will lead to new life for a shuttered 700,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Sherman and the creation of roughly 500 jobs in northern Texas.
The investment, announced Wednesday, is Apple’s second from its $1 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund.
Sunnyvale, California-based Finisar also has a plant in Allen.
“I hope that people will take great excitement and pride in working on technology that’s really touching people all over the world.”
Jeff Williams
“Sherman is the perfect place for Finisar’s significant investment in their operations and facilities and we couldn’t be more grateful for their confidence,” Sherman Mayor David Plyler said in a statement about the deal. He said the city is working to become a business hub in the region.
The Sherman facility about 80 miles north of Dallas will be transformed into a high-tech center developing VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) chips and is expected to open in the second half of 2018, the Sherman television station KXII reported.
That type of chip enables depth and proximity sensing, which aids in powering some of Apple’s new features — Face ID, Animoji, and ARKit, which enables developers to created augmented reality, CNBC said.
Each iPhone X contains three VCSELs.
“I hope that people will take great excitement and pride in working on technology that’s really touching people all over the world,” Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams told the Herald Democrat.
Television station KXII reported that the jobs created at the Sherman facility will include engineers, technicians, and maintenance teams.
When combined with the plant in Allen, Finisar’s payroll in northern Texas is expected to be $65 million, KXII said.
Finisar will be moving into the shuttered MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. facility which was closed in stages in 2010 and 2011, the Herald Democrat reported.
A Finisar worker wears protective gear. [Photo Courtesy Apple]
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