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Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has announced plans to lay an undersea cable that will span five continents to facilitate data transmission, particularly for artificial intelligence development. This cable will stretch over 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles) between the US, South Africa, India, Brazil, and other regions.
A 2024 report by the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) notes that global digital communication depends on a vast network of undersea cables, with about 1.2 million kilometers already in place. Recently, major tech companies like Meta have entered the subsea cable industry, traditionally dominated by specialized firms such as America’s SubCom, France’s ASN, Japan’s NEC, and China’s HMN.
Intercontinental data flows are crucial for many areas of the global economy, but they are frequently at risk of accidental damage from underwater landslides, tsunamis, or ship anchors. They can also be targets for sabotage and espionage.
In January, NATO initiated specific patrols of the Baltic Sea following suspected attacks on telecom and power cables, which experts and politicians have attributed to Russia. Meta’s initiative, called “Project Waterworth,” aims to enhance the scale and reliability of global digital infrastructure, providing the high-speed connectivity necessary for AI innovation. The company describes the cable project as a “multi-billion-dollar, multi-year investment.”
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Meta’s focus on AI as a justification for the cable underscores the technology’s insatiable demand for data, which is expected to drive global digital traffic even higher in the coming years.
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