Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is the second-largest contributor to global internet usage. Its platforms—together with their billions of users—constitute 10% of all fixed and 22% of all mobile traffic. Meta's investments in artificial intelligence are expected to further enhance this usage. To ensure a dependable infrastructure to support its business, Meta is opting to manage the network itself.

Sources familiar with Meta have confirmed the project is in its initial stages. While plans are underway, physical assets have yet to be established, and details regarding the budget remain undisclosed.

If the strategy is executed, it may take years before the cable becomes fully operational, particularly as there are only a limited number of companies, such as SubCom, capable of developing the infrastructure, and these companies already have significant clients, like Google, reserving their services.

“There’s a real tight supply on cable ships,” stated Ranulf Scarborough, a submarine cable industry analyst. “They are currently expensive and booked out several years in advance. Identifying available resources to expedite the project poses a challenge.” One potential approach could involve constructing the cable in segments, he added. According to sources, the proposed route would extend from the U.S. east coast to India via South Africa and then back to the U.S. west coast from India, passing through Australia—creating a 'W' shape around the globe, as illustrated by Tagare:  
Image Credits: Sunil Tagare (opens in a new window) under a license.

Santosh Janardhan, who oversees Meta's global infrastructure and co-heads engineering, is managing the company's infrastructure initiatives. Meta employs teams globally to strategize and plan its infrastructure, and it has previously attracted some noteworthy figures from the industry.


Fiber-optic subsea cables have been integral to communications infrastructure for the past four decades.

Meta is not unfamiliar with the subsea sector. As reported by telecom analysts Telegeography, Meta co-owns 16 existing networks, including the recently established 2Africa cable encircling the continent (other participants in this project include carriers such as Orange, Vodafone, and China Mobile).

However, this new cable project would mark the first instance of Meta owning a cable outright.

This positions Meta alongside Google, which is involved in approximately 33 different routes, including a few regional projects where it serves as the sole owner, as tracked by Telegeography.


Reasons for Meta's Ownership of the Cable  

Several factors make the construction of subsea cables appealing to major technology companies like Meta.

Firstly, complete ownership of the route and cable would provide Meta with priority access to capacity for traffic on its platforms. Meta, similar to Google, emphasizes the benefits it offers to regions through subsea investments, claiming that initiatives such as Marea in Europe and others in Southeast Asia have significantly contributed to local economies—totaling more than “half a trillion dollars.”

Nonetheless, a more pragmatic motivation underpins these investments: technology companies prefer ownership of the infrastructures needed to deliver content, advertising, and services directly to users, as opposed to relying on traditional telecom carriers, who have historically built and owned these cables.

Per its earnings reports, Meta generates more revenue outside North America than within its domestic market. Having priority access to dedicated subsea cabling can enhance the quality of service for that traffic. It is important to note that while this strategy ensures long-haul traffic management, the company must still negotiate with carriers for domestic operations and 'last-mile' delivery to users’ devices, which presents its own set of challenges. 

“They profit from efficiently delivering their products to end users and will take every measure to optimize customer experience, whether in video delivery or other resources,” stated Scarborough, the analyst. “Frankly, reliance on traditional telecommunications providers is no longer viable. They have acknowledged the necessity of building their own infrastructure.”

The second factor is geopolitical in nature. Houthi fighters, supported by Iran, are targeting vessels and inadvertently damaging cables in the Red Sea, such as one connecting Europe to India. Recently, Russia was suspected of severing a submarine cable in the Baltic Sea, and just this week, another cable went down in European waters, with a Chinese ship currently under scrutiny.

Meta envisions a route designed to help the company “avoid areas of geopolitical tension,” according to a source privy to the company's plans. Tagare highlights in his blog post that the proposed route would circumvent the Red Sea, South China Sea, Egypt, Marseilles, the Straits of Malacca, and Singapore—“all of which are now significant single points of failure.”

The FCC announced this month that it intends to review submarine cable licensing for the first time in decades, partially due to concerns over national security and cable ownership. This regulatory development could provide an additional incentive for Meta: sole ownership through secure corridors.

Potentially, there is a third, albeit speculative, motivation behind Meta's subsea initiative. Analysts suggest that Meta may see an opportunity to expand data center capacity within India, specifically for training and developing AI models, with the subsea cable serving a crucial role in this strategy.

Experts note that bandwidth costs for computational resources in India are significantly lower than in the U.S., and following a recent visit by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, many are enthusiastic about India establishing its own AI infrastructure during a meeting with Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani. Reliance and other vendors plan to utilize Nvidia’s Blackwell chips in upcoming AI data centers.

“India could become the training capital of the world,” Tagare remarked in a recent interview. Furthermore, India represents a massive market for Meta, leading estimates as the country with the highest number of Facebook (over 375 million users), Instagram (363 million), and WhatsApp (536 million) users. This user base has shown enthusiasm for newer features, particularly AI tools. With considerable investments flowing into the country's data center market, India's growth potential solidifies the rationale for making it a key landing point in the operation.

Sources close to the project have indicated that it is premature to determine whether AI is a factor in Meta's plans, characterizing it as merely a part of the “long tail” of considerations and possibilities, including whether Meta would extend capacity to other users. 

Meta did not provide comments for this article.