Lauge Risom Koch 
Meta is building an extensive network of massive subsea cables across the globe to support its growing artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Meta is expanding its infrastructure by building a massive undersea cable network across the ocean floor. According to Fortune, the company recently announced a new project named Petal to connect the United States and France. This roughly 4,300-mile subsea cable is expected to enter service in 2029.
The Petal cable will become the first to deliver petabit-scale capacity across an ocean. It will carry one petabit per second, doubling the data transfer limits of current transoceanic cables. Meta achieves this massive capacity by utilizing two-core fiber to fit two light paths inside each strand.
This specific engineering method allows the company to double capacity without proportionally increasing power consumption or physical infrastructure. The resulting network capability provides enough data capacity for three-quarters of the global population to stream music simultaneously. These massive infrastructure projects remain essential for running advanced artificial intelligence models and widespread consumer applications.
Artificial intelligence integration and global reach
Meta recently launched a personal artificial intelligence agent named Muse that quickly dominated consumer app charts. The digital assistant overtook ChatGPT to reach the number one position on the American App Store within two weeks. The underlying models powering this software depend on moving enormous volumes of data between global data centers.
The technology company has steadily built its seafloor presence over the past decade with more than 20 subsea projects. These combined underwater infrastructure networks currently touch six of the seven continents across the globe. The highly ambitious Project Waterworth will eventually stretch more than 31,000 miles to connect five different continents.
Engineers will lay specific segments of the Waterworth system more than four miles below the ocean surface. This extreme depth protects the valuable technological infrastructure from ship anchors and other maritime hazards. Additionally, the completed core of the African network system currently circles the continent to reach three billion people.
Partnerships and financial investments
Meta frequently collaborates with international telecommunications companies and direct technological rivals to complete these massive infrastructure initiatives. The company partnered with Japanese firms and a French telecommunications provider to develop the Petal network. Meta also jointly owns a completed transoceanic cable between Virginia and Spain with rival Microsoft.
Despite these historical partnerships, Meta is increasingly taking sole ownership of its new underwater infrastructure projects. Industry analysts note that Waterworth will become only the third cable completely owned by the technology giant. These proprietary global networks require massive financial investments that reach into the billions of dollars.
Reports indicate that the Waterworth project alone could cost the company more than 10 billion dollars. However, subsea cables represent only a small fraction of the overall infrastructure budget for the corporation. Meta expects its total capital expenditures to reach up to 145 billion dollars this year alone.
