The American corporation Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has announced plans to build a 50,000-kilometer-long submarine cable to circle the entire Earth. This was reported by the Meta press service.
The tech giant named the project Waterworth and said that the Internet cable would be the longest in the world and connect the United States, India, South Africa, Brazil, and other regions.
Meta said its new cable project will provide “industry-leading connectivity” to five significant continents and help support artificial intelligence.
“The Waterworth project will be a multi-billion dollar, multi-year investment to enhance the scale and reliability of the world’s digital highways by opening three new ocean corridors with the high-speed connectivity needed to enable AI innovation around the world,” the press service wrote.
Over 95% of Internet traffic is transmitted through submarine cables. Their role in various digital services is growing every year.
Meta pays special attention to India, which is “already seeing significant growth and investment in digital infrastructure.” AI data centers and cloud services are actively developing there. Moreover, India is the most populous country in the world.
Before the announcement of the Waterworth project, the US White House published a joint statement by the leaders of US President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which detailed the areas in which the two countries will cooperate. The document contains a commitment to jointly develop underwater technologies as part of a defense partnership and a note on the Meta Waterworth project and India’s role in its financing.