Spain Between Two Seas: Big Tech Takes On the Submarine Data Cables

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Spain Between Two Seas: Big Tech Takes On the Submarine Data Cables.

On October 29, 2026, a new section of the EllaLink cable will land on the coast of Fortaleza, Brazil. Spain's network expansion follows a fundamental shift: Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon are no longer entering the submarine cable market solely as major customers of telecommunications companies, but are becoming project developers and operators themselves.

This has implications for Spain. The country occupies a strategically important location for data traffic between the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. At the same time, the industry is warning that Europe's networks could become increasingly dependent on US companies.

Four Companies Control More Than 70 Percent of International Bandwidth

According to the latest TeleGeography report, Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon are among the largest users of the world's submarine cables. They already account for more than 70 percent of all international bandwidth.

The reason is not just the growing number of streaming services. The training of AI systems, the development of advanced language models, the spread of data centers and the growing use of cloud services are all increasing demand for bandwidth. These volumes of data require fast and reliable connections between markets.

Investment is therefore shifting from telecommunications providers to technology companies. Google, Meta and their partners are financing their own fiber-optic routes through the oceans to secure their own demand and anticipate planned capacity requirements.

Spain Sits at the Intersection of Several Continents

According to the report, Spain is establishing itself as a natural gateway for data flowing from North and South America to Europe. At the same time, the country connects Europe with Africa, the Middle East and Asia. In this role, Spain is directly competing with Marseille as the historic hub.

Its geographic position is becoming an argument for investment. Major technology companies are increasing their presence on the Iberian Peninsula, while Spanish operators provide landing stations, backhaul routes and connections to European data centers.

“We have gone from being a corner of the European network to becoming a key point for data traffic between continents. We are a hub in international telecommunications,” said Diego Matas, Chief Operating Officer of EllaLink.

Marea, Grace Hopper and Anjana Land on the Spanish Coast

The specific projects show how precisely Spain is integrated into this network. Marea connects Virginia Beach in the United States to the landing point in Sopelana, near Bilbao, across 6,600 kilometers. The cable was created through a partnership between Microsoft, Meta and Telxius, the infrastructure subsidiary of the Telefónica Group.

Grace Hopper, led by Google, also connects New York to the same station in Sopelana. Anjana is the first transatlantic system wholly owned by Meta: it connects Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with Santander. The Meta-operated Sol cable is also due to land there, although it was still in the rollout phase at the time of the report.

Telxius has developed the necessary landing infrastructure in Santander and Sopelana. The station in Sopelana is supported by a data center and interconnections in Derio in Biscay. This allows the arriving capacity to be connected through terrestrial networks to Europe's major hubs.

Local Infrastructure Becomes an Entry Point for Spanish Operators

Although technology companies can finance the cables and determine their specifications, they often rely on regional operators for the actual construction on the ground. This opens up a new market for Spanish companies.

Large companies bring capital, demand and global planning. Operators such as Telxius contribute local market expertise, network design, the construction and operation of submarine cables, landing stations, terrestrial backhaul and connections to data centers.

“The arrival of major technology companies does not necessarily displace telecommunications providers. It opens up new opportunities for cooperation,” said Antonio Ledesma, CEO of Telxius. By combining specialization and complementary capabilities, Spanish operators could play a significant role in the development of international connectivity.

A Transatlantic Cable Costs Around $400 Million and Four Years

The companies are entering the market not only because of short-term bandwidth demand. They want to anticipate demand over the next five to ten years. To do so, they must not only lay a cable, but prepare for its entire lifecycle.

According to Carlos Dasi, Submarine Cable Resilience Advisor at the ITU, a 7,000-kilometer transatlantic submarine cable requires an investment of around $400 million. This does not include landing stations or the cable's lighting system. From planning to operational service takes four years.

This includes surveying the seabed, selecting landing points, determining capacity, obtaining permits and laying the cable using specialized ships. Few suitable ships are available worldwide for deployment and repair. This effort explains why market access is so important for operators with their own landing infrastructure.

99 Percent of International Data Traffic Travels Through Submarine Cables

Today, submarine cables carry 99 percent of international data traffic. According to Dasi, they are faster, carry substantially larger volumes of data and are more cost-effective over the long term than satellites.

This makes concerns about European sovereignty immediate: if major companies decide which cables are built, where they land and how their capacity is bundled, European operators lose independence. The EU has already begun planning measures for the security and resilience of this critical infrastructure.

At the same time, large companies are building multiple routes for risk-management reasons. Big Tech's goal is three different cables for the same route, each with a different landing point. If one line goes down because of an accident or sabotage, alternatives remain available for data traffic.

24 Fiber Pairs Pave the Way for One Petabit per Second

Technical progress is accelerating capacity expansion. Marea began with eight fiber pairs and a transmission capacity of around 200 terabits per second, using conventional construction methods.

The newer SDM, or Spatial Division Multiplexing, technology makes it possible to use more fiber pairs within the same cable and thus accommodate a significantly higher volume of data. Meta has already announced a system with 24 fiber pairs and an operational capacity of one petabit per second. The connection is intended to link France with the United States.

This development is also relevant because AI training, language models and new data centers place heavy loads on transmission along critical corridors such as the transatlantic routes north of the United Kingdom. “We need more cables,” Dasi said.

Fourteen Billion Dollars in Investment by 2027

Expected market growth is enormous. TeleGeography forecasts that more than $14 billion will be invested in new submarine cables from 2025 to 2027. Google and Meta are among the main drivers.

“Of every $1,000 spent on AI, only 1 percent goes into submarine connectivity infrastructure,” Dasi said. His observation captures the structural problem: the expansion of computing power and the expansion of the connections that make that computing power accessible are not progressing at the same pace.

Barcelona Makes Room for Eight More Submarine Cables

The major technology companies are not equally strong in every region. Alongside them, smaller and specialized operators are seeking niches of their own. EllaLink, IslaLink and AFR-IX Telecom are focusing their projects on Latin America, Africa and the Mediterranean.

The cable landing station in Barcelona operated by AFR-IX is designed for eight different submarine cables. 2Africa has already arrived there. At more than 45,000 kilometers, it is one of the largest infrastructure projects of its kind. Once fully laid, the system will circle Africa and connect 33 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Southern Europe and Asia.

AFR-IX also uses the network to connect nearly twenty points between Southern Europe and North Africa along the Mediterranean. EllaLink sees this as a gap left by hyperscalers: “There is a market for players like us who connect Europe directly with Latin America or work in areas such as the Mediterranean where hyperscalers do not have a strong presence,” Matas said.

Telxius Brings Together More Than 100,000 Kilometers

Telxius is not left out of this model. The company operates or supports new generations of submarine cables such as Marea, Dunant, Brusa, Anjana, Tannat, Junior, Mistral and Firminia. It is also in the later stages of laying Celia, which connects the Caribbean, the United States and Latin America, and Tikal, which is intended to provide access to the Mexican market.

The infrastructure comprises more than 100,000 kilometers of submarine and terrestrial fiber. This allows Telxius to extend the capacity of its landing stations to major hubs and data centers in Europe and the Americas. According to Ledesma, the network provides resilience, low latency, different routes and additional capacity for cloud, AI and other applications.

EllaLink Reduces Latency to About 50 Milliseconds

EllaLink is also relying on an independent route between Latin America and Europe. The cable connects Sines in Portugal directly with Fortaleza in Brazil, without a detour via the United States. It is 5,500 kilometers long.

Through the shorter route, latency fell from more than 100 milliseconds to approximately 50 milliseconds. Seven planned branches lead to Mauritania, Casablanca, Madeira-Funchal, Cabo Verde and French Guiana; the latter is expected to receive two later connections to northern Brazil.

The connection is also economically significant because Kourou in French Guiana hosts the European Space Agency's main spaceport. EllaLink is also planning direct connections via Marseille or Bilbao and is seeking additional projects in the Caribbean and from Sines toward Madrid.

A Strategic Location, but an Open Dependency

This creates a double opportunity for Spain. The country benefits from its geography, existing landing stations and operators' local capabilities. EllaLink provides the clearest example of how a shorter direct route can improve technical independence and latency.

The other side of Big Tech infrastructure nevertheless remains. Dasi warns that Europe could lose its sovereignty if US companies decide what is built, how it is built and where it is built. Many European operators now promote no cables of their own, but instead buy fiber pairs on infrastructure owned by US companies. Their access would therefore be conditional or only residual.

Matas frames the opportunity pragmatically: “It is better for the highways of information to pass through your country than to run somewhere else.” For Spanish consumers, the sources identify neither a concrete change in internet speed nor a measurable cost effect. The immediate changes lie deeper: in landing stations, routes, capacity and the question of who controls the critical infrastructure.