Auxier Focus Fund on Corning
Thesis
Corning is the fund's largest equity holding and has benefited from tightening supply and strong demand associated with AI infrastructure. Auxier highlights bottlenecks in optical products as a source of earnings strength. The fund also emphasizes CEO Wendell Weeks' ability to adapt manufacturing operations to changing markets and notes that it originally invested with him more than a decade ago. Corning fits Auxier's preference for infrastructure suppliers that can profit from an industry buildout without depending on a single ultimate AI winner.
“We met and invested with Corning's CEO Wendell Weeks 13 years ago and he has been highly effective in adapting their manufacturing to evolving markets.”
Key risks
- The current earnings boost is partly tied to the AI infrastructure capital-spending cycle.
- A reversal in highly leveraged technology positioning could create substantial share-price volatility.