Meta has announced an ambitious multibillion-dollar infrastructure project to build the world’s longest subsea cable, spanning over 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles) — longer than Earth’s circumference. Dubbed the Waterworth Project, this massive undertaking aims to connect five continents, linking the United States to India, Brazil, South Africa, and other strategic regions.
The project represents a critical investment in AI infrastructure as CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues pivoting Meta toward generative AI technologies. While Meta hasn’t disclosed exact costs, TechCrunch previously reported the company may spend over $10 billion on this underwater cable project, which would be 100% owned by Meta and led by its South Africa office. The company anticipates completion toward the end of this decade.
Subsea cables form the backbone of global internet infrastructure, with fiber optic technology enabling data transmission at near light-speed. According to Meta, cables spanning the world’s oceans account for transferring “more than 95% of intercontinental traffic.” The company views these cables as essential for unlocking future AI innovation, particularly as it ramps up spending to $65 billion this year to build massive data centers capable of training and hosting increasingly powerful large language models.
The Waterworth Project features cutting-edge technology designed to maximize capacity and resilience. The cable will contain 24 fiber pairs — significantly more than typical systems using 8 to 16 fiber pairs — dramatically increasing data transmission capacity. The project includes first-of-its-kind routing optimized for deep-water installation at depths up to 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) and enhanced burial techniques in shallow, high-risk areas to protect against damage from ship anchors and other hazards.
Cable resilience has become increasingly critical following recent incidents where tankers dragging anchors severed undersea cables in the Baltic Sea and East China Sea. European officials have accused Russia of sabotaging cables, while Taiwan suspects China’s involvement in damage off its shores. These cables are vital to the global financial system, carrying $10 trillion worth of transactions daily and powering Wall Street’s trading and communications infrastructure.
Meta emphasized that “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.” The company has developed more than 20 subsea cables over the past decade with various partners, positioning the Waterworth Project as its most ambitious infrastructure initiative yet.
Key Quotes
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.
Meta stated this in its official blog post announcing the Waterworth Project, directly linking the massive subsea cable investment to the company’s AI ambitions and highlighting how AI development is driving unprecedented infrastructure requirements.
more than 95% of intercontinental traffic
Meta emphasized this statistic to illustrate the critical importance of subsea cables in global internet infrastructure, underscoring why controlling this infrastructure is essential for the company’s AI strategy and data transmission needs.
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.
Meta’s blog post concluded with this statement, framing the infrastructure investment as democratizing AI access globally while simultaneously securing the company’s competitive position in key emerging markets like India, Brazil, and South Africa.
Our Take
Meta’s Waterworth Project represents a strategic masterstroke that addresses multiple challenges simultaneously. By owning the entire cable infrastructure, Meta gains unprecedented control over data flow critical to AI model training and deployment, while reducing vulnerability to geopolitical disruptions that have plagued shared infrastructure. The timing is particularly noteworthy — as Zuckerberg commits $65 billion to AI data centers this year, ensuring those facilities have robust, resilient connectivity becomes paramount. The choice of routes connecting the US to India, Brazil, and South Africa reveals Meta’s long-term vision: these are massive, growing markets where AI adoption will explode in coming years. By establishing infrastructure dominance now, Meta positions itself to capture these markets before competitors. This also signals that the AI infrastructure race has entered a new phase where controlling the physical layer — not just the software or chips — determines who wins the AI future.
Why This Matters
This announcement signals a fundamental shift in how tech giants are approaching AI infrastructure investment. Meta’s willingness to spend over $10 billion on proprietary subsea cables demonstrates that AI development has moved beyond just building data centers — it requires reimagining the entire global connectivity infrastructure. The project’s massive scale reflects the enormous bandwidth demands of training and deploying advanced AI models, particularly large language models that require constant data flow between global data centers.
The geopolitical implications are equally significant. By building a 100% owned cable network connecting strategic regions including India, Brazil, and South Africa, Meta is reducing dependence on shared infrastructure that could be vulnerable to sabotage or geopolitical tensions. Recent cable-cutting incidents attributed to Russia and China underscore the strategic importance of resilient, redundant connectivity for AI operations that increasingly underpin business, finance, and communications worldwide.
For the broader AI industry, this sets a precedent for the infrastructure investments required to support next-generation AI applications. As AI models grow more sophisticated and data-intensive, companies may need to control their entire technology stack — from chips to cables — to maintain competitive advantage.
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Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-largest-subsea-cable-us-india-ai-infrastructure-2025-2