Meta plans undersea cable to link five continents

Meta to Lay Undersea Cable Across Five Continents to Support AI Development

PARIS: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has announced plans to lay an undersea cable spanning five continents to enhance global data transmission, including support for artificial intelligence.

The cable will extend over 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles), connecting the United States, South Africa, India, Brazil, and other regions, Meta revealed in a blog post on Friday.

Global digital communication relies heavily on an extensive network of undersea cables, with approximately 1.2 million kilometers already installed, according to a 2024 report from the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Traditionally dominated by specialist firms such as America’s SubCom, France’s ASN, Japan’s NEC, and China’s HMN, the subsea cable industry has seen increasing involvement from tech giants like Meta in recent years.

Intercontinental data transmission is critical to the global economy but remains vulnerable to accidental disruptions from events such as underwater landslides, tsunamis, or ship anchors. Additionally, these cables can be targeted for sabotage or espionage.

In response to potential threats, NATO began patrolling the Baltic Sea in January following suspected attacks on telecom and power cables, which experts and officials have attributed to Russia.

Meta’s initiative, dubbed "Project Waterworth," aims to "enhance the scale and reliability of global digital infrastructure... providing abundant, high-speed connectivity necessary to fuel AI innovation."

The company described the cable project as a "multi-billion-dollar, multi-year investment."

Meta’s explicit emphasis on AI as a key driver for this project underscores the technology's ever-growing demand for data, a trend that is expected to further accelerate global digital traffic in the coming years.