Unlocking global AI potential with next-generation subsea infrastructure

Today, we’re announcing our most ambitious subsea cable endeavor yet: Project Waterworth. Once complete, the project will reach five major continents and span over 50,000 km (longer than the Earth’s circumference), making it the world’s longest subsea cable project using the highest-capacity technology available. 

By Gaya Nagarajan, Alex-Handrah Aimé

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.

Subsea cables projects, such as Project Waterworth, are 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 will be a multi-billion dollar, multi-year investment to strengthen the scale and reliability of the world’s digital highways by opening three new oceanic corridors with the abundant, high speed connectivity needed to drive AI innovation around the world. 

We’ve driven infrastructure innovation with various partners over the past decade, developing more than 20 subsea cables. This includes multiple deployments of industry-leading subsea cables of 24 fiber pairs – compared to the typical 8 to 16 fiber pairs of other new systems. These investments enable unmatched connectivity for our world’s increasing digital needs. 

With Project Waterworth, we continue to advance engineering design to maintain cable resilience, enabling us to build the longest 24 fiber pair cable project in the world and enhance overall speed of deployment. We are also deploying 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.

AI is revolutionizing every aspect of our lives, from how we interact with each other to how we think about infrastructure – and Meta is at the forefront of building these innovative technologies. 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. 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.