Extensive infrastructure deployment plans

Diving deep: Tech giants finance submarine cable ventures 

Simultaneously, the expansion of submarine cable infrastructure is experiencing exponential growth. Serving as the internet’s backbone, submarine cables facilitate a staggering 98% of international internet traffic, traversing approximately 521 active submarine cables spanning over 1.4 million kilometres globally – almost four times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Consequently, any new submarine cable holds strategic importance for the future evolution of data centre facilities. The period between 2023 to 2025 is witnessing an unparalleled surge in new submarine cables, with a collective value reaching a remarkable $10bn.

These cables, extending over 300,000 kilometres across 78 systems, represent the most substantial growth phase in over twenty years. With the escalating demand for bandwidth among content providers, some entities have transitioned from being mere consumers of wholesale capacity to actively owning and investing in transport network infrastructure. This shift commenced with Google’s investment in the Unity cable consortium in 2010, followed by Meta, Microsoft, and more recently, Amazon, all of whom have either directly invested in or become major pre-sale purchasers of new submarine cable systems. Notably, Google has invested in 29 systems, while Meta has invested in 15.