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Underwater cables are a vital piece of the AI buildout and internet — investment is booming
CNBC | English | News | Nov. 10, 2025 | Critical Infrastructure Failure
Undersea cables carry over 95% of international data and voice traffic, including government communications, financial transactions, emails, video calls, and streaming. The technology has evolved from telegraph cables in 1850 to fiber optics, which now enable the vast global internet infrastructure. The rise of major tech companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft—now accounting for roughly 50% of the subsea cable market—has driven significant demand for subsea cables to support expanding data centers and AI applications.
Investment in new subsea cable projects is projected to reach approximately $13 billion between 2025 and 2027, nearly double the amount spent from 2022 to 2024. Meta is developing Project Waterworth, a 50,000 km cable spanning five continents and the longest subsea project globally, while Amazon is building Fastnet connecting the U.S. to Ireland with a capacity over 320 terabits per second. Google and Microsoft have also made substantial subsea investments to meet the growing global demand for data connectivity essential for AI and cloud services.
Subsea cables face risks from accidental damage, such as from fishing activity or ships dropping anchors, and there has been a rise in suspected sabotage linked to geopolitical tensions, particularly around Russia-Ukraine and China-Taiwan. In 2022, Tonga was cut off from the internet due to cable damage from an underwater volcanic eruption, and in 2025, cuts in the Red Sea affected Microsoft’s Azure users. NATO has responded by launching the Baltic Sentry operation to protect subsea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, successfully preventing further incidents since January 2025.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has implemented stricter rules on foreign firms’ involvement in subsea cable projects, focusing on security threats from China and Russia. The FCC is also prohibiting equipment from companies like Huawei and ZTE in U.S.-connected cables. In response to congressional inquiries, Meta and Amazon stated they do not collaborate with Chinese cable maintenance providers, while Microsoft and Google did not comment. Protecting subsea cables is recognized as critical to maintaining secure, high-capacity global data connectivity.