Meta affirms that it is working to build the world's longest submarine cable
Meta has officially confirmed that it is working on Project Waterworth, a project that aims to create a global submarine cable spanning 50,000 kilometers, which will become the longest submarine cable in the world upon completion.
The announcement follows earlier project reports that surfaced late last year and disclosed Meta's intentions to invest over $10 billion in submarine cable infrastructure in order to gain greater control over how its services are run.
According to Meta, the project will connect five continents, with delivery points in the United States, Brazil, India, South Africa, and other key regions, noting the cable's vital role in supporting the spread of AI services on a global scale.
Meta is using the latest submarine cable technology in the Waterworth project, which relies on 24 pairs of optical fibers, along with innovative routing techniques, which increase the cable’s efficiency in deep waters up to 7,000 meters. The project also includes advanced burial methods to reduce faults in high-risk areas, whether due to geographic or political factors.
One of the main drivers of this project is geopolitics, as India plays a pivotal role in the project. In a joint statement issued by the White House, US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted the two countries’ commitment to developing submarine cable technologies within a defense partnership.
The statement highlighted the Waterworth project, where India intends to contribute to financing the laying, maintenance, and repair of submarine cables in the Indian Ocean through reliable service providers.
Through this project, Meta aims to enhance the global digital infrastructure, as the cable is expected to play a major role in supporting artificial intelligence data centers and cloud services, especially in India, which is the largest market in terms of population.
Meta confirmed in an official post that the project “will represent a multi-year, multi-billion dollar investment to enhance the reliability of the Internet globally and create three new sea lanes that provide high-speed connectivity to support innovation in artificial intelligence around the world.”
Meta is not new to this field, as it owns shares in 16 submarine cable networks, including the 2Africa project that surrounds the African continent, in partnership with Orange, Vodafone, China Mobile, MTN, and other companies.
However, Waterworth would be the first project that Meta owns outright, putting it in direct competition with Google, which owns some of the submarine routes exclusively within 33 submarine cable networks.