Meta Partners with NEC and Sumitomo to Build Petal, the World’s Highest-Capacity Undersea Cable Connecting the US and France

In a significant move to bolster the backbone of the global internet, Meta has announced plans to construct a massive new subsea fiber-optic cable named Petal. This ambitious infrastructure project, spanning approximately 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles), is designed to bridge the gap between the United States and France, providing a high-speed data artery across the Atlantic Ocean. To bring this project to fruition, Meta is collaborating with industry giants NEC and Sumitomo Electric Industries, while also engaging with the French telecommunications powerhouse Orange to manage the complex logistics of landing the cable on the shores of France.

The Petal project represents a generational leap in subsea connectivity technology. According to the project specifications, Petal will boast more than double the capacity of any other undersea cable currently in operation or in the planning stages. This leap in throughput is particularly striking when compared to other state-of-the-art projects recently announced by major technology firms. For instance, in November of last year, Amazon Web Services (AWS) unveiled plans for a 320 terabit per second (Tbit/s) cable connecting the US and Ireland. Similarly, a high-capacity cable linking Australia and the US, announced in January of this year, is expected to deliver 400 terabits per second. By promising to more than double these benchmarks, Petal is set to become the most formidable piece of digital infrastructure on the planet.

The development of Petal comes at a time when the global appetite for data is growing at an exponential rate. The rise of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, high-definition video streaming, and the expansion of the "metaverse" have placed unprecedented strain on existing transoceanic links. For Meta, owning and operating its own subsea infrastructure is no longer just an advantage—it is a necessity. By securing its own dedicated high-capacity routes, the company can ensure lower latency and higher reliability for its suite of applications, which serve billions of users worldwide.

Petal will have twice the capacity of any other undersea cable yet built or planned.

The technical prowess required to achieve such a massive increase in capacity is substantial. The partnership with NEC and Sumitomo Electric Industries is central to this effort. NEC has a long-standing reputation as a leader in the subsea cable industry, providing the specialized equipment and engineering expertise required to lay thousands of miles of fiber-optic lines across the rugged and often unpredictable terrain of the ocean floor. Sumitomo Electric Industries, meanwhile, brings its advanced fiber-optic technology to the table, ensuring that the physical medium of the cable can handle the immense data loads that Petal is designed to carry.

The involvement of Orange is equally critical. Landing a subsea cable is a complex legal, environmental, and technical feat. As the leading telecommunications operator in France, Orange provides the local expertise and infrastructure necessary to bring the cable from the Atlantic depths onto the French coast and integrate it into the broader European terrestrial network. This coordination ensures that the data traveling through Petal can be distributed efficiently throughout the continent, benefiting not only Meta but the wider digital economy.