- AI traffic is driving a boom in subsea cable capacity demand
- Colt Technology reported "hot demand" for transatlantic service and predicted an uptick in cable deployments in Asia
- Submarine cable investment in 2026 is expected to be one of the highest levels seen in more than 20 years
The U.S. may be a hub of AI development, home to foundation model builders like OpenAI and Anthropic, but demand for the technology is global. And connecting AI to eyeballs in other countries is making subsea cables the next big network battleground.
Joe Scattareggia, Colt Technology Services EVP for Infrastructure and Connectivity, told Fierce transatlantic connectivity is already in “hot demand.” Over the next 12 to 18 months, he said he expects to see a lot of subsea capacity deployed between the U.S. West Coast and Asia.
“We have a lot of customers coming to us for capacity,” Scattareggia said, noting Colt owns a fiber pair on Google’s transatlantic Grace Hopper cable. “A lot of the models in the U.S. will have to get a lot of traffic to Europe, so we’re seeing a lot of activity on subsea between the U.S. and Europe.”
Looking ahead, “I think Japan is going to be a big area of focus because a lot of the cable systems are going to avoid China…I also see Singapore as a big area of focus for some of these subseas,” he added.
Today, Colt has 5 subsea cables and 12 landing stations (purchased with Lumen’s EMEA assets), and it is eyeing “a lot” of projects in this space. Asked if these will be net new cables, Scattareggia said it’ll be a combination of new and replacement cables.
Older cables, he explained, might only have four pairs of fiber running through them, but these days it’s possible to fit up to 24 pairs. “That’s a huge difference,” he said. “That allows you to sell a lot of capacity to customers.”
Lay of the land (or sea)
Scattareggia’s predictions of an uptick in subsea cable network activity and a focus on Asia track with findings from analyst firm TeleGeogrpahy, which tracks the market.
TeleGeography Senior Research Manager Paul Brodsky noted last week that “With the exception of a few anomalous years, we haven't seen this level of investment in subsea cable infrastructure since 2000-2001, and it's not letting up. The value of new submarine cables planned to enter service from 2026-2029 exceeds $16 billion.”
Brodsky added that there appears to be a significant surge in subsea cable investment across all routes, but particularly in Asia. This, of course, is being driven by a rising tide of demand for capacity, coupled with the need for redundancy and to replace aging cables, he wrote.
So, who are the players dominating this field?
Well, Google reportedly has investments in around 30 subsea cable systems, including newer builds like its Sol and Nuvem transatlantic cables, Blue and Raman cables in the mediterranean and Middle East, Equiano along the African Coast, and Tabua and Honomoana cables connecting the U.S. to Australia. It notably already has South Pacific coverage via the Talay Link and Bosun cables, and in February announced three new cables which will connect India to Singapore, Australia and Africa.
In addition to building its own cables, Google also invests in consortium cable projects like Echo, JGA, INDIGO and Havfrue.
Amazon, Microsoft and Meta have substantially fewer cables (Meta has the second most with around 20 subsea cable investments) and tend to lead with consortium or joint cable projects (like the Marea project from Microsoft and Meta).
But the trio are ramping up efforts in this space. In late 2025, Amazon announced plans to build its own transatlantic subsea cable called Fastnet. Meta, meanwhile, plans to deploy a new 24-pair cable ring around the globe via Project Waterworth. Both Amazon and Microsoft are party to the Marea transatlantic cable system.