Sources: Meta plans to build a 40K+ km-long fiber optic subsea cable extending around the world, a project that could cost more than $10B
Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is the second-biggest driver of internet usage globally. Its properties — and their billions of users …
Context & Ripple Effects
Meta’s reported plan follows its earlier involvement in subsea connectivity investments alongside Google in Africa. It was later formalized as Project Waterworth, a cable spanning more than 50,000 km and five continents, making this report an early marker of a broader owned-network strategy.
The proposal also sits alongside Meta’s expanding demand for physical network capacity: Corning later disclosed a multibillion-dollar fiber commitment from Meta for AI data centers. Together, the coverage shows Meta treating connectivity infrastructure as a strategic input rather than solely a purchased service.
First-order effects
- If built, the cable would give Meta a dedicated long-haul route for traffic among its global services, reducing its reliance on third-party subsea capacity on those paths.
- The project would concentrate a very large infrastructure commitment in Meta, while creating immediate demand for cable, landing, construction, and operating partners.
Second-order effects
- Other large internet platforms may face stronger incentives to secure or build their own routes as a major traffic originator shifts capacity in-house.
- Suppliers of optical fiber and network equipment stand to gain from buyer-led buildouts; Meta’s later fiber supply commitment to Corning illustrates how network ownership plans can propagate into the supply chain.
Third-order effects
- If hyperscalers increasingly own the links carrying their traffic, the internet’s backbone could become more vertically integrated around a small number of platform buyers.
- A larger private role in cross-border network infrastructure may heighten scrutiny of route diversity, landing points, and the resilience implications of concentrated ownership.
The trend: This is part of a buyer-led infrastructure buildout in which the largest platforms are converting network capacity from an external utility into a strategic asset.