Meta pushes toward petabit-scale subsea cables as it builds out massive underwater infrastructure

Meta is quietly becoming one of the world’s most aggressive builders of undersea internet infrastructure, with ambitions that now stretch toward petabit-per-second cable capacity on transatlantic routes. The company’s engineers have indicated they could reach roughly 1 petabit per second on longer subsea routes, effectively doubling current performance benchmarks, as part of a broader push to own the pipes that carry the internet across oceans. To put that in perspective: one petabit per second is one million gigabits. The fact that a social media company is building this kind of infrastructure tells you everything about where the tech industry is heading. Meta’s subsea empire keeps growing The centerpiece of Meta’s underwater ambitions is Project Waterworth, announced in February 2025. It’s designed to be the world’s longest subsea cable system, spanning over 50,000 kilometers and connecting landing points across five continents, including the United States, India, Brazil, and South Africa. Waterworth uses a 24 fiber-pair architecture, a significant technical step up from older cable designs. The system incorporates advanced routing technology and protective measures rated for dee...