While data centers dominate headlines, the global internet’s real backbone is being built far below the waves. Meta’s latest subsea cable initiative, Petal, is leading this hidden revolution by redefining transoceanic connectivity.
Spanning 4,300 miles to connect the U.S. and France, Petal will become the first subsea cable to deliver petabit-scale capacity when it enters service in 2029. Carrying 1 petabit per second (or 1 trillion bits per second), Petal doubles the capacity per fiber pair of today’s most advanced transoceanic systems, enough capacity for three-quarters of the world’s population to simultaneously stream music.
Petal’s true breakthrough is its engineering efficiency. By using cutting-edge dual-core fiber technology, which fits two light paths into each strand, the system doubles data capacity without a proportional increase in physical infrastructure or power consumption.
As bandwidth-heavy products like Meta’s AI assistant, Muse, continue to drive massive cross-continental data demand, Petal serves as the critical, high-speed foundation powering the next generation of global technology.
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