Meta has announced plans to invest billions over several years to build the world’s longest subsea cable and boost AI innovation. In a blog post, the company revealed that its new Waterworth Project will stretch over 50,000 kilometers roughly 31,000 miles—longer than Earth’s 24,901-mile circumference.
The project is set to connect five continents, linking the US with India, Brazil, South Africa, and other key regions.
According to reports, the project is expected to be completed by the end of this decade. While no detailed cost breakdown has been provided, the blog described it as a “multibillion-dollar, multi-year investment” to enhance global connectivity. Last November, TechCrunch reported that Meta might invest over $10 billion in a nearly 25,000-mile underwater cable project led by its South Africa office, which the company would entirely own.
Subsea cables are essential to the world’s internet infrastructure, transmitting data almost at the speed of light via fiber optics. Meta’s blog highlighted those cables spanning the world’s oceans handle “more than 95% of intercontinental traffic.”
Meta considers these subsea cables critical for future AI innovation, especially as CEO Mark Zuckerberg shifts the company’s focus toward generative AI. Last month, the company also announced plans to increase its spending to $65 billion this year to build large data centers capable of training and hosting the powerful large language models driving the generative AI boom.
According to Meta’s blog, the Waterworth Project will enhance data transmission capacity by using a fiber optic cable with 24 fiber pairs—well above the typical 8 to 16 pairs used today. The project features an innovative routing strategy optimized for deep-water installation at depths of up to 7 kilometers, about 4.3 miles and will employ “enhanced burial techniques” in shallow, high-risk areas to protect against damage from ship anchors and other hazards, thereby ensuring cable resilience.
“As AI continues to transform industries and societies around the world, it’s clear that capacity, resilience, and global reach are more important than ever to support leading infrastructure,” the blog post stated.
This announcement comes in the wake of recent incidents where tankers dragging their anchors severed subsea cables in the Baltic Sea and East China Sea. European officials have accused Russia of sabotaging these cables, while Taiwan has suggested that China might be responsible for the damage near its northern shores.
The durability of subsea cables is vital to the global financial system, which relies on an extensive network of underwater cables that carry $10 trillion in daily transactions and support Wall Street’s global trading and communications.
“We’ve driven infrastructure innovation with various partners over the past decade, developing more than 20 subsea cables,” Meta’s blog stated. “With Project Waterworth, we can help ensure that the benefits of AI and other emerging technologies are available to everyone, regardless of where they live or work.”
