Meta Reportedly Planning $10 Billion Global Undersea Cable Network

Meta is reportedly building a planet-spanning undersea fiber optic cable network to support its internet infrastructure.

The 24,000-mile network, costing an estimated $10 billion, was reported Friday (Nov. 29) by TechCrunch, citing sources close to the company.

The report said Meta has a great need for such a network: It’s the second-biggest driver of internet use in the world, with the billions of subscribers to its social networks making up 10% of fixed and 22% of mobile traffic. The company’s artificial intelligence (AI) efforts will likely increase this usage even more.

Meta will be the only entity owning and using the cable, the report said, marking a milestone for the company’s infrastructure efforts. PYMNTS contacted Meta, which declined to comment on the report.

Sunil Tagare, a subsea cable expert, was the first to report Meta’s plans in October and told TechCrunch that the project will begin with a budget of $2 billion, though that number is likely to exceed $10 billion as the project extends into years of work.

The sources say the project is in the early stages, and Meta is expected to speak more openly about it next year. The company faces some challenges, including the fact that there’s only a handful of companies capable of constructing the network, and their services are already tied up by large clients like Google.

“There’s a real tight supply on cable ships,” Ranulf Scarborough, a submarine cable industry analyst, told TechCrunch. “They’re expensive at the minute and booked out several years ahead. Finding the available resources to do it soon is a challenge.”

He added that one likely scenario could see Meta building the network in segments.

PYMNTS explored the importance of undersea cable networks in October, writing that they allow for “the high-speed transfer of data essential for everything from video streaming to cloud computing to financial transactions.”

While telecom companies and government-backed entities have traditionally built and maintained these cables, the balance has shifted as tech giants expand their infrastructure.

Google is a part or sole owner of around 33 subsea cables, Meta has more than a dozen, Microsoft five and Amazon four. In just the last 10 years, the amount of international cable capacity used by those tech giants has jumped from 10% to 71%, according to a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

“As businesses and consumers demand faster, more reliable connections to conduct transactions, Big Tech’s investments in these undersea cables are becoming essential for everything from online banking to cross-border trade. These cables are about more than just data transfer and cloud capacity,” PYMNTS wrote. “They’re the unseen threads stitching together the fabric of a connected economy.”