Meta announces Petal, the first 1-petabit-per-second transatlantic subsea cable (US–France, 2029)
On Sept 21, 2026 Meta announced Petal, a roughly 7,000 km subsea cable between the US and France's Atlantic coast designed for 1 petabit per second (1,000 Tbps), about twice today's top transoceanic systems. It will be the first to use multi-core fiber at scale, with NEC as system supplier, Sumitomo Electric for fiber and Orange for the French landing. It is expected in service in 2029.
Key facts
- ~7,000 km (4,300 mi), US to France; design capacity 1 Pbps (1,000 Tbps)
- First subsea system to deploy multi-core fiber at scale
- NEC (system), Sumitomo Electric (fiber), Orange (French landing)
- Expected in service 2029
What happened
Meta added a petabit-class Atlantic link to its private subsea network, which already includes 2Africa.
Why it matters
AI training and inference across distant data centers needs far more intercontinental bandwidth. Petal is an example of AI infrastructure spending reaching undersea networking.
Changelog
- 2026-10-01: created (leads run, missed pre-window item)
Sources (2)
- officialMeta: Announcing Petal, a first-of-its-kind transoceanic subsea cable
- pressDCD: Meta plans Petal, the first transoceanic subsea cable at petabit capacity
id: 2026-09-21-meta-petal-petabit-subsea-cable · updated 2026-10-01 · open in the interactive timeline