Big San Jose optical chips tech plant may begin early operations in 2026
SAN JOSE — A big photonics semiconductor plant in San Jose is expected to begin initial operations sometime in 2026, potentially creating hundreds of well-paying jobs.
The future Nokia plant is poised to sprout at an office and research building in south San Jose where Nokia’s recently acquired subsidiary, tech company Infinera, now operates.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, whose district includes part of the Bay Area’s largest city, both suggested the new plant could spur hiring and economic activity.
The two politicians appeared at an event on April 11 to tout the new factory, located at 6373 San Ignacio Avenue in the Bay Area’s largest city.
“San Jose is a city that makes things,” Mayor Mahan said. “There is no city our size with a higher share of the workforce in manufacturing than San Jose.”
The new manufacturing hub has a significance that goes beyond the laser-based dime-sized chips that the plant will produce, in Rep. Panetta’s view.
“What I see, when I walk through this building, is that it’s not just about innovation and manufacturing,” Panetta said. “It’s about investments in our future, the future of Nokia, the future of Silicon Valley, the future of the working families here in San Jose.”
The new plant will help to fuel that future starting next year.
“Testing equipment will begin in 2026,” said Brett Hooper, a human resources executive with Nokia. “Full operations are scheduled for 2027.”
Rep. Panetta, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Santa Clara County, Santa Cruz County, Monterey County and San Luis Obispo County, secured federal incentives to help fund the tech production center.
“This new fab will turbocharge semiconductor production,” Mahan said.
The new optical chips production hub will be on the ground floor of an existing office and research building. Vulcan Construction is building the plant, which has turned out to be an intricate endeavor.
“We saw how complicated this building is,” Rep. Panetta said. “It was unbelievable how (Vulcan Construction) was able to put this together into such a small space. As one of the people told me, it’s like having a size 10 foot and but being shoved into a size 8 shoe. That’s how difficult this is.”
The bottom floor will accommodate the manufacturing center and the second floor will contain office spaces. The manufacturing workers are slated to relocate to the San Jose site from an existing Infinera operation in Sunnyvale.
In 2019, Infinera moved its headquarters to San Jose from Sunnyvale, transferring office workers in the process. Infinera kept the manufacturing activities in Sunnyvale at the time.
Finland-based Nokia bought Infinera in February 2025 in a $2.3 billion purchase of San Jose-based Infinera. As a result of the deal, Infinera joined the Nokia optical networks business.
Nokia said the deal created an “innovation powerhouse” that will be able to capitalize on opportunities in the emerging artificial intelligence field.
Word of the new plant arrives at a time when job losses have battered the Bay Area tech industry to kick off 2025.
Over the first two months of 2025, Bay Area employers slashed a net total of 8,700 tech jobs, according to seasonally adjusted estimates that Beacon Economics derived from the state Employment Development Department’s official labor reports.
The tech industry’s push to jettison workers may have weighed down the overall Bay Area job market as 2025 got underway.
During January and February of 2025, the Bay Area lost 9,900 nonfarm payroll jobs. January and February each brought job losses to the region, the EDD reports show.
“We’re going to continue to invest not just in the physical infrastructure, but also in the people, in the workers who make us competitive in a wide range of advanced and precision manufacturing industries that are already here,” Mahan said.
The Bay Area’s largest city hopes to attract even more cutting-edge manufacturing facilities, according to the mayor.
“San Jose is open for business,” Mahan said.