The Longest (and Most Expensive!) Cable Ever

Meta is building something massive — Project Waterworth, a subsea fiber-optic cable stretching 50,000 km across five continents. That’s longer than Earth’s circumference… and it could cost up to $10 billion.

What Makes It Special

• Scale: 24-fiber-pair capacity, far bigger than most existing cables.

• Reach: Connecting the U.S., South America, Africa, India, and beyond.

• Resilience: Built to survive depths of 7,000m and protected in shallow zones.

Notable Comparisons

Compared to all previous projects, this dwarfs them in both scale and cost. For perspective, here are some of the most significant fiber-optic cable projects historically:

Project	Description	Cost Estimate
Africa ONE (2000)	32,000 km submarine cable connecting Africa and parts of Europe/Middle East	$1.9 billion
PTAT-1 (1989)	First privately financed transatlantic fiber-optic cable	$600 million
TAT-8 (1988)	First transatlantic fiber-optic cable (U.S. to Europe)	$330 million
Atlantis-2 (2000)	12,000 km cable between South America and Africa/Europe	$370 million
EMA (emerging)	Asia–Middle East–Europe undersea network	$500 million projected

Why It Matters

• AI Power: More bandwidth for AI training, cloud, and real-time apps.

• Global Access: Expands connectivity in underserved regions.

• Durability: Reduces outages from cable cuts and ocean hazards.

  
  

Bottom line: Project Waterworth isn’t just a cable. It’s a global backbone for the next era of connectivity.