CommScope recently canceled its manufacturing expansion in Catawba County, which was announced back in 2023 under former Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration. The project had promised to bring 250 jobs and a $60.3 million investment into the county and was partially funded by a Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG).
The Fortune 500 company, based in Hickory, is a leading global telecommunications company. The investment was planned to expand fiber-optic cable manufacturing. CommScope is the county’s second-largest employer, according to 2024 data, with more than 1,000 employees, trailing only Corning Optical Communications, which is headquartered in Charlotte.
CommScope also told the NC Department of Commerce that the company’s recent $10.5 billion acquisition by Amphenol Corp. complicated planning for the facility expansion, according to news reports.
“Despite the press releases and ribbon-cuttings, JDIGs have a poor track record,” Joseph Harris, fiscal policy analyst for the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal. “According to state data, of the 449 deals made from fiscal years 2003 to 2025, 222 were terminated or withdrawn before meeting their job-creation targets. That failure rate has accelerated in recent years, with 81 agreements collapsing from fiscal years 2021 to 2025. The CommScope cancellation isn’t an outlier — it’s part of a broader trend and a reminder that job announcements are not the same thing as jobs.”
Other recent JDIG projects, by companies such as Vinfast and Wolfspeed, have also hit speed bumps. Wolfspeed announced in June 2025 that it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Vinfast announced in 2024 that the opening of its Chatham County factory would be delayed until 2028. The state appropriation for the Vinfast plant is estimated at $766 million, with the county investing an additional $400 million. However, Vinfast has shifted its focus to Asian markets, with groundbreaking on an Indonesian plant in August 2025.
JDIG’s CommScope grant used a formula that accounts for new tax revenue generated by new jobs and capital investment and “authorizes the potential reimbursement to the company of up to $1,899,900 spread over 12 years,” according to the governor’s office.
Payments from the state are made only after the state departments of commerce and revenue verify that the company has achieved its incremental job creation and investment targets.
