As artificial intelligence (AI) permeates into every corner of the world, subsea cables have evolve from archaic information pipelines into dynamic, intelligent networks.
Supported by resilient and adaptive conglomerates, these enhanced cables connect continents and cultures with unprecedented speed and security, creating infrastructure that forms the living nervous system of tomorrow’s AI-powered planet and quietly reshaping the way we connect, communicate, and create.
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Meta’s Project Waterworth: A New Era of Connectivity
Subsea cables are emerging as critical arteries for the AI-powered internet, and Meta’s Project Waterworth, launched in February 2025, exemplifies this transformation. Through a USD 10-billion investment, Meta is building a 50,000-kilometer subsea cable system connecting the U.S. to India, South Africa, and Brazil, regions poised for rapid digital growth. What sets Waterworth apart is its cutting-edge 24-fiber pair architecture, which dramatically increases data throughput to accommodate the massive computational loads of AI applications, from real-time language models to cloud-based robotics and immersive virtual environments. As tech giants race to train ever-larger AI models and reduce latency for users worldwide, control over physical data routes becomes as valuable as the algorithms themselves. In this new era, cables like Waterworth are no longer just conduits for content.
Meta has also been a driving force behind the colossal 2Africa cable system. Stretching 45,000 kilometers, 2Africa is one of the world’s largest subsea cable projects, interconnecting 33 countries across Africa, Europe, and Asia. Developed by a consortium including Meta, China Mobile, MTN Group, Orange S.A., Saudi Telecom, Vodafone Group, and the West Indian Ocean Cable Company, the project provides high-capacity, low-latency connectivity to underserved regions, fueling digital inclusion and economic growth. The cable boasts a design capacity of up to 180 terabits per second, and its extension, 2Africa Pearls, further connects Africa with the Middle East and Asia, expanding Meta’s global reach and supporting data-heavy applications like virtual reality and the metaverse.
Google: Charting the Digital Seas
Google is spearheading a transformative wave of digital infrastructure with over 30 subsea cable projects, both partially and sole owned. At the forefront is the visionary Nuvem cable, slated to link Portugal, Bermuda, and the U.S. by 2026, shoring up transatlantic network resilience while dramatically expanding Google Cloud’s global reach in an era hungry for speed and reliability. Beyond this, the Grace Hopper cable, a high-speed lifeline connecting the U.S., U.K., and Spain, and the trailblazing Equiano cable, a 144 Tbps behemoth bridging Portugal to South Africa, serve as the most potent digital gateways to Africa yet.
Owning these underwater superhighways gives Google direct stewardship over data flows, fast performance, and optimized costs, all of which are essential for fueling massive AI computations, real-time collaboration, and the seamless cloud experiences billions depend on daily.
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Microsoft: Building Azure’s Global Backbone
Microsoft’s flagship subsea cable, MAREA, developed in partnership with Meta and Telxius, spans an impressive 6,600 kilometers beneath the Atlantic Ocean from Virginia Beach, USA, to Bilbao, Spain. Operational since 2018, MAREA is one of the highest-capacity transatlantic cables in operation, boasting a staggering design capacity of 160 Tbps, enough bandwidth to stream tens of millions of HD videos simultaneously.
This groundbreaking infrastructure forms a critical pillar of Azure’s global backbone, delivering ultra-low latency and massive bandwidth to support mission-critical cloud applications, AI workloads, and key Microsoft services such as Office 365, Skype, and Xbox Live. Moreover, MAREA’s unique routing south of traditional transatlantic cables enhances redundancy, protecting against outages caused by natural disasters or technical failures.
Amazon Web Services: The Silent Strategist
AWS’s strategy centers on two critical needs: edge computing and core cloud zone connectivity. As AI and real-time applications surge, processing data at the edge has become essential to reduce latency and boost performance. To achieve this, AWS ensures low-latency subsea links connecting its global data centers and edge locations, enabling faster AI model training, instant analytics, and decentralized processing.
AWS became an anchor customer for the Hawaiki Submarine Cable, a 14,000-km system linking the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and American Samoa. This cable dramatically improves bandwidth and latency in the Southern Hemisphere, a crucial step for AWS’s cloud presence there. Similarly, AWS acquired a fiber pair on the MAREA cable, equipping its European operations with some of the highest available data throughput.
Furthering its reach in Northern Europe, AWS acquired capacity on the HAVFRUE cable, connecting New Jersey to Denmark, with branches to Ireland and Norway. More recently, in 2025, AWS filed to land a new subsea cable from Ireland to the U.S., specifically targeting County Cork to diversify its transatlantic infrastructure and enhance network resilience.
Read More: 2Africa Makes Successful Cable Landing in Qatar
Deep Sea, Deep Learning
AI is playing an increasingly transformative role in managing subsea cable systems by enhancing security and improving operational efficiency across the network. AI can dynamically optimize bandwidth allocation, predict and mitigate network congestion, and intelligently reroute data to maintain optimal performance even during peak loads or faults through advanced machine learning (ML) algorithms and real-time data analytics. These capabilities are essential as subsea cables become the foundational infrastructure for high-bandwidth, low-latency applications such as AI model training, autonomous systems, edge computing, and cloud-based immersive experiences.
By reducing operational overhead and minimizing downtime, AI ensures more reliable and consistent data transmission, slashes maintenance costs, and improves energy efficiency, making the entire system more sustainable and scalable.
Smart Seas Ahead
The fusion of AI and subsea cable infrastructure is poised to become even more seamless and autonomous. As AI technologies advance in reinforcement learning and edge intelligence, future subsea networks could become largely self-optimizing, capable of making split-second decisions based on global traffic conditions, geopolitical risk assessments, or environmental factors like seismic activity and undersea currents. Innovations may also include AI-controlled repair drones, automated rerouting protocols, and real-time threat detection at the cable level, all working in harmony to maintain a resilient global communication grid.
Moreover, with the rise of AI-as-a-service (AIaaS) and hyperscale computing, subsea cables will act as intelligent highways, co-managed by AI systems that learn, adapt, and evolve with the demands of the digital world. This symbiotic relationship between AI and subsea infrastructure will be a cornerstone of global digital connectivity, ensuring that a robust, innovative, and secure physical foundation supports cloud-based intelligence.
