Inside the Business of Subsea Internet Cables

Most people think the internet travels through satellites in space, but over 99% of global data actually crosses the seabed inside hundreds of subsea fiber-optic cables. In this video, we break down the secret history, massive engineering, and high-stakes geopolitics behind the world's underwater internet infrastructure. From Cyrus Field’s brutal 19th-century attempts to lay the first transatlantic telegraph wire to the dot-com bubble's dark fiber crash, undersea cables have always been high-risk ventures. Today, traditional telecom monopolies are being pushed aside as tech giants like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon race to build their own private subsea networks. Discover how cables like Google's Dunant and Meta's 2Africa carry hundreds of terabits per second, how repair ships fix cable breaks miles beneath the sea, and why these thin strands of glass have become critical matters of national security, economic survival, and high-frequency trading dominance.