Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is the second largest driver of internet usage worldwide. Its assets and its billions of users account for 10% of all fixed traffic and 22% of all mobile traffic. Meta's investment in artificial intelligence will further accelerate its use. So, to ensure a reliable infrastructure to support its business, Meta is taking the pipe into its own hands.
TechCrunch has confirmed to sources close to the company that Meta plans to build a new, massive fiber-optic submarine cable that will span the globe. The project is more than 40,000 kilometers long and could cost more than $10 billion. Importantly, Meta will be the sole owner and user of this submarine cable. This is a first for the company and therefore a milestone in its infrastructure efforts.
Sunil Tagare, a submarine cable expert (and a pioneer in the field as founder of Flag Telecom) who first reported on Meta's plans in October, told TechCrunch that the plan will start with a $2 billion budget. He said he plans to do so. It is estimated that this figure will likely reach more than $10 billion over several years of project work.
A source close to Mehta confirmed the project, but said it was still in its early stages. Plans have been developed, but no physical assets have been developed, and he declined to discuss the budget. Meta is expected to say more publicly about the cable in early 2025, when it will confirm its plans for the cable, including its intended route, capacity and some of the reasoning behind its construction.
If this strategy were to be implemented, given that the limited number of companies like SubCom that can build the infrastructure already have large customers like Google that have booked their services. It will take years to be fully operational.
“The supply of cable ships is really tight,” said Ranulph Scarborough, a submarine cable industry analyst. “Right now it's expensive and fully booked for years out. It's hard to find the resources available to do it right away.” One possible scenario could involve incorporating segments. He added:
Once completed, this cable will give Meta a dedicated pipe for data traffic around the world. According to sources, the cable's planned route is currently from the east coast of the United States via South Africa to India, and from India to Australia via the west coast of the United States, forming a “W” shape around the globe. It is said that it is now like this. , as Mr. Tagare visualized here:
Meta's infrastructure operations are overseen by Santosh Janardhan, the company's head of global infrastructure and co-head of engineering. The company has teams around the world that review and plan infrastructure, and some of the industry's biggest names have worked there in the past. Officials said the upcoming project was conceived from the company's South African operations.
Fiber optic submarine cables have been part of communications infrastructure for the past 40 years. What matters here is who is investing the money to build and own it and for what purpose.
Meta's plan highlights how investment in and ownership of undersea networks has shifted in recent years from consortia involving carriers to now also include big tech companies.
Meta is not new to underwater games. According to communications analyst Telegeography, Meta is a co-owner of 16 existing networks, including most recently the 2Africa cable that encircles the continent (other networks participating in the project include (includes carriers such as Orange, Vodafone, China Mobile, Bayobab/MTN, etc.).
However, this new cable project will be the first fully owned by Mehta himself.
That would put Meta in the same category as Google, according to Telegeography's tracking. Google is involved in about 33 different lines, including several regional initiatives in which it is the sole owner. Other large tech companies that are part owners or capacity buyers of undersea cables include Amazon and Microsoft (neither of which is itself a full owner of any route).
There are many reasons why building submarine cables is attractive to large technology companies like Meta.
First, sole ownership of routes and cables initially reduces Meta's capacity to support traffic on its own property.
According to its earnings report, Meta generates more revenue outside of North America than in its home market itself. Prioritizing dedicated submarine cables ensures quality of service for that traffic. (Note: This is only to ensure long-distance traffic. The company still needs to negotiate with carriers in the country and with carriers for “last mile” delivery to users' devices, creating challenges. )
Like Google, Meta emphasizes its contribution to the region through its subsea investments, saying that Marea in Europe and other projects in Southeast Asia contribute “more than $5 trillion” to the economies of these regions. claims.
But these investments have a more pragmatic impetus. Technology companies want to more directly own the pipes needed to deliver content, advertising, and more to users around the world, rather than carriers, traditional builders, or cable owners.
Analyst Scarborough said: “They make money by introducing products to end users and will do everything they can to ensure the customer experience, including delivering videos and other assets.” said. “Frankly, who would rely on traditional carriers any more? Technology companies are independent now. They realized they had to build it themselves.”
The second is geopolitical.
Several times in recent years, submarine cables have been removed as collateral or direct damage from war. Iranian-backed Houthi fighters are chasing the boats, damaging Red Sea cables, including those connecting Europe and India, in the process. This month (November 2024), Russia is suspected of cutting an undersea cable in the Baltic Sea. Just this week, another cable failed in European waters, and a Chinese ship is now said to be responsible.
The route Meta is envisioning is aimed at allowing the company to “avoid geopolitically sensitive areas,” a source close to the company told TechCrunch.
Tagare noted in a blog post that the route would avoid the Red Sea, South China Sea, Egypt, Marseille, the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, “all of which are now major single points of failure.” It is said that
The FCC's announcement this month (November 2024) that it plans to review undersea cable licensing for the first time in decades, citing national security and cable ownership, is also potentially gaining new support here. Could be: a description of the route through a safe passageway of which Meta would be the sole owner.
Although more speculative, there may be a third reason for Meta's underwater visions.
Tagare's theory is that it is directly related to cables terminating in India. He believes Meta has an opportunity to build domestic data center capacity specialized in training and manipulating AI models, and that submarine cables could play a part in that effort.
He pointed out that the cost of computing bandwidth in India is a fraction of the price in the US, something many in India are talking about after Jensen Huang's recent visit. In a meeting with Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani, the Nvidia CEO spoke about building India. Proprietary AI infrastructure. Vendors like Reliance plan to use Nvidia's Blackwell chips in future AI data centers.
“India has the potential to become the training capital of the world,” Tagare said in an interview. He believes Meta may want to build AI training in the country around that infrastructure.
AI is a big part of Meta's infrastructure roadmap. But beyond that, India is a huge market for Meta, with by far the largest number of users on Facebook (over 375 million), Instagram (363 million) and WhatsApp (536 million). is estimated to be one of the countries with the highest number of consumers, and their consumers are proof of that. We are very enthusiastic about new features such as AI tools. With active investment in the domestic data center market, India still has significant growth potential, and this fact alone makes it logical to add India as a destination for our operations. .
Sources close to the project say it's too early to tell if AI is part of Meta's equation for this project, and that AI will be considered, along with whether Meta will open up capabilities to other projects. It is described as part of a “long tail” of matters and possibilities. Alongside the users themselves.
Mehta declined to comment for this article.