On September 21, 2026, Meta Platforms announced the launch of Petal, the first petabit-scale transoceanic subsea cable, stretching approximately 7,000 kilometers between the United States and France. This new cable will enable data transfer speeds of one petabit per second, doubling the bandwidth of existing subsea links and aiming to facilitate low latency and high throughput for distributed AI model training.
Meta’s investment in this infrastructure is supported by its significant financial standing, generating around $60 billion in annual net income and positioned to self-fund projects. The cable is projected to start commercial service in 2029, addressing the bandwidth challenges faced by modern training clusters reliant on minimized latency. Additionally, Meta has a supply agreement with Corning Incorporated, valued at up to $6 billion, to provide the necessary optical fiber and connectivity hardware for this endeavor.
As the initiative progresses, Corning is poised to benefit from increased demand for optical fiber solutions in data centers, having established partnerships that bolster its growth trajectory. Given the current market dynamics, investors need to weigh the operational risks and potential shifts in capital expenditures as they assess opportunities in both Meta and Corning within the expanding physical AI infrastructure landscape.
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