Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details)					3 Months Ended			12 Months Ended
		Dec. 29, 2015 USD ($)	Jan. 15, 2014 USD ($) $ / shares shares	Jan. 15, 2014 USD ($) $ / shares shares	Dec. 31, 2015 USD ($) $ / shares shares	Mar. 31, 2015 USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2014 shares	Dec. 31, 2015 USD ($) $ / shares shares	Dec. 31, 2014 USD ($) $ / shares shares		Dec. 31, 2013 USD ($)	Nov. 30, 2013
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Number of Businesses Acquired					1	4		5
Goodwill					$ 1,380,000,000			$ 1,380,000,000	$ 1,150,000,000		$ 1,002,000,000
Business Combination, Contingent Consideration Arrangements, Change in Amount of Contingent Consideration, Liability								$ 3,000,000
Preferred Stock, Par or Stated Value Per Share (in Dollars per share) | $ / shares					$ 100			$ 100	$ 100
Preferred Stock, Shares Issued (in Shares) | shares					2,300			2,300	2,300
Stock Issued During Period, Value, Acquisitions									$ 1,915,000,000
Proceeds from Equity Method Investment, Dividends or Distributions								$ 143,000,000	1,704,000,000		$ 630,000,000
Convertible Preferred Stock, Series A [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Preferred Stock, Par or Stated Value Per Share (in Dollars per share) | $ / shares			$ 100	$ 100
Purchase Accounting Completed [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Number of Businesses Acquired								4
Purchase Accounting Not Completed [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Number of Businesses Acquired					1
Samsung Corning Precision Materials Co., Ltd. [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Equity Method Investment, Ownership Percentage											57.50%	50.00%
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Business Combination, Acquisition Related Costs								$ 11,000,000
Five Acquisitions [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Goodwill	[1]				$ 300,000,000			300,000,000
Business Combination, Consideration Transferred								725,000,000
IBwave Solutions and Fiberoptics [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Business Combination, Contingent Consideration Arrangements, Range of Outcomes, Value, High					28,000,000			28,000,000
Business Combination, Contingent Consideration, Liability					10,000,000	$ 13,000,000		10,000,000
Samsung Corning Precision Materials Co., Ltd. [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Business Combination, Acquisition Related Costs									$ 93,000,000
Business Combination, Contingent Consideration, Asset		$ 458,000,000	$ 196,000,000	$ 196,000,000
Business Combination, Contingent Consideration, Assets Assignment Agreement Threshold		(300,000,000)
Equity Method Investment, Ownership Percentage									57.50%
Business Combination, Consideration Transferred, Equity Interests Issued and Issuable				1,911,000,000
Business Combination, Net Fair Value of Consideration Including Subsequent Acquisition				4,038,000,000					$ 4,038,000,000
Fair Value of Reacquired Right			0	$ 0
Contractual Royalty Rate				3.00%
Current Market Rate of Royalty Contract				12.00%
Settlement of Preexisting Customer Relationship Including Subsequent Acquisition				$ 320,000,000
Percentage of Loss on Effective Settlement of Contract				100.00%
Settlement of Preexisting Customer Relationship Before Subsequent Acquisition				$ 184,000,000
Business Combination, Net Fair Value of Consideration Before Subsequent Acquisition				2,323,000,000					2,323,000,000	[2]
Business Combination, Step Acquisition, Equity Interest in Acquiree, Fair Value				2,139,000,000
Settlement of Pre-Existing Customer Relationship				136,000,000
Business Combination, Consideration Transferred				1,579,000,000
Proceeds from Equity Method Investment, Dividends or Distributions				1,600,000,000					1,574,000,000	[3]
Cash Dividends Paid by Consolidated Subsidiaries				2,800,000,000
Business Combination, Provisional Information, Initial Accounting Incomplete, Adjustment, Consideration Transferred									60,000,000
Business Combination, Increase in Net Sales from Consolidation of the Acquiree								1,343,000,000	1,761,000,000
Samsung Corning Precision Materials Co., Ltd. [Member] | Revenues Generated by Samsung Corning Precision Materials [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Business Combination, Contingent Consideration Arrangements, Range of Outcomes, Value, High			665,000,000	665,000,000
Samsung Corning Precision Materials Co., Ltd. [Member] | Volume of Certain Sales [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Business Combination, Contingent Consideration Arrangements, Range of Outcomes, Value, High			$ 100,000,000	$ 100,000,000
Samsung Corning Precision Materials Co., Ltd. [Member] | Samsung Display's Obligation to Pay or Right to Received [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Business Combination, Contingent Consideration, Asset		246,000,000
Samsung Corning Precision Materials Co., Ltd. [Member] | Long Term Supply Agreements [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Business Combination, Contingent Consideration, Asset		$ 212,000,000
Samsung Corning Precision Materials Co., Ltd. [Member] | Convertible Preferred Stock, Series A [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Preferred Stock, Par or Stated Value Per Share (in Dollars per share) | $ / shares			$ 100	$ 100
Preferred Stock, Shares Issued (in Shares) | shares			2,300	2,300
Share Price (in Dollars per share) | $ / shares			$ 1,000,000	$ 1,000,000
Stock Issued During Period, Shares, Acquisitions (in Shares) | shares			2,300	1,900			1,900
Stock Issued During Period, Value, Acquisitions			$ 2,300,000,000	$ 1,900,000,000
Business Combination, Consideration Transferred, Equity Interests Issued and Issuable				$ 1,900,000,000
Samsung Corning Precision Materials Co., Ltd. [Member] | Additional Amount Issued at Closing [Member] | Convertible Preferred Stock, Series A [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Stock Issued During Period, Shares, New Issues (in Shares) | shares				400			400
Optical Communications [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Goodwill					439,000,000			439,000,000	$ 238,000,000		$ 240,000,000
Optical Communications [Member] | Five Acquisitions [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Goodwill					213,000,000			213,000,000
Other Segments [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Goodwill					101,000,000			101,000,000
Other Segments [Member] | Five Acquisitions [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Goodwill					$ 87,000,000			$ 87,000,000
Samsung Display Co., Ltd. [Member] | Samsung Corning Precision Materials Co., Ltd. [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Equity Method Investment, Ownership Percentage			42.50%	42.50%								42.50%
Patents, Trademarks, Trade Names, Customer Lists and Other [Member]
Note 8 - Acquisitions (Details) [Line Items]
Acquired Finite-lived Intangible Assets, Weighted Average Useful Life								10 years

[1] The goodwill recognized is partially deductible for U.S. income tax purposes. The goodwill was allocated to the Optical Communications and All Other reporting segment in the amount of $213 million and $87 million, respectively.

[2] As Corning was a 57.5% shareholder at the date of acquisition, immediately preceding the acquisition of Samsung Corning Precision Materials, Corning recognized an asset and respective gain as part of the calculation of its previously held equity investment which included approximately $184 million attributed to its economic interest in the royalty contract.

[3] In conjunction with the Framework Agreement, the parties agreed to have Samsung Corning Precision Materials distribute all cash and cash equivalents as a dividend to the shareholders of record as of December 31, 2013. The dividend was not part of the purchase price as the agreement was to distribute cash and cash equivalents as a dividend to the shareholders as soon as practicable. As such, at acquisition Corning did not have legal title to the cash to be distributed, although the dividend was distributed subsequent to the acquisition date. Therefore, the portion of Corning's share of the $1.6 billion dividend received was accounted for in Corning's consolidated financial statements as if the dividend occurred at or immediately prior to the date of acquisition at which time Samsung Corning Precision Materials was still an equity method investment in Corning's consolidated financial statements.