Meta has announced plans to construct a 50,000 kilometers subsea internet cable, spanning across the globe as a part of the tech giant’s latest efforts to extend its reach outside social media.
The parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram has dubbed this “Project Waterworth,” and plans to connect the U.S., India, South Africa, Brazil, and other regions.
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Meta has been particularly interested in Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the efforts to expand infrastructure around it. This latest project aligns with this mission as Meta claimed that this would help provide “industry-leading connectivity” across the world, helping support its AI projects.
“Project Waterworth will bring industry-leading connectivity to the U.S., India, Brazil, South Africa, and other key regions. This project will enable greater economic cooperation, facilitate digital inclusion, and open opportunities for technological development in these regions. For example, in India, where we’ve already seen significant growth and investment in digital infrastructure, Waterworth will help accelerate this progress and support the country’s ambitious plans for its digital economy,” the company announced in a blog post dated Feb.14.
Meta asserted that the subsea cables were “the backbone of global digital infrastructure, accounting for more than 95% of intercontinental traffic across the world’s oceans to seamlessly enable digital communication, video experiences, online transactions, and more. Project Waterworth is to be a multi-billion-dollar, multi-year investment.”
With Project Waterworth, Meta plans to build the longest 24 fiber pair cable project in the world and enhance overall speed of deployment. The company also plans to deploy a first-of-its-kind routing, maximizing the cable laid in deep water — at depths up to 7,000 meters — and using enhanced burial techniques in high-risk fault areas, such as shallow waters near the coast to avoid damage from ship anchors and other hazards.
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Tech companies that are also major providers of web services have invested huge sums in cable infrastructure. In 2024, Google said it would build the first subsea cable connecting Africa and Australia, and announced a $1 billion investment to boost connectivity to Japan with two new subsea cables in the Pacific Ocean.
The news about Project Waterworth comes amid Meta’s growing interest in AI and the infrastructure around it. Meta also recently developed plans to invest in AI-powered humanoid robots. The push for AI has also seen big returns of late. However, things have not been all smooth for Meta employees, of late, with around 5% of them affected by layoffs.