Meta unveils Petal, its first petabit-capacity subsea cable

Meta Platforms ↘ 2.43% on Monday announced Petal, a transatlantic subsea cable it says will be the first to deliver petabit-per-second capacity across oceanic distances, as the company prepares to showcase new AI glasses and other products at its Connect conference later this week.

A New Undersea Cable

Petal will connect France and the United States over approximately 7,000 kilometers and is expected to enter service in 2029. The system will carry twice the capacity of current best-in-class transoceanic cables without a proportional increase in power or physical infrastructure, according to the company. Meta is partnering with NEC, Sumitomo Electric Industries, and Orange ↘ 5.74% to develop and land the cable.newsquawk+1

The announcement adds to Meta's growing subsea portfolio, which includes Project Waterworth, a multi-billion dollar, 50,000-kilometer cable spanning five continents announced in early 2025, and Aurora, a recently filed US-Denmark route. Subsea cables carry roughly 99 percent of intercontinental internet traffic.investing+3

Camera-Free AI Glasses Expected at Connect

Meta's Connect conference, set for September 23–24 at its Menlo Park campus, is expected to feature new AI glasses hardware. The Information reported on September 15 that the company is working on a camera-free model internally codenamed Luna, which would carry six built-in microphones and a dedicated Meta AI button instead of a camera.mixed-news+2

The move addresses mounting privacy concerns around Meta's existing camera-equipped glasses. CTO Andrew Bosworth said during a recent Instagram AMA that the debate should not be "entirely shaped by this kind of relatively small number of bad actors," adding that most users treat the glasses like a hands-free phone camera. Bosworth said Meta has tightened anti-tampering features, including a software update that bricks devices whose recording indicator lights have been physically disabled.businessinsider

A Busy Week for Tech

Connect arrives during a packed week for the technology industry. Qualcomm ↘ 5.82% kicks off its Snapdragon Summit on Tuesday in Hawaii, and YouTube Alphabet Inc. ↗ 0.21% hosts a creator event in New York on the same day as Meta's keynote. The week also features a Trump-Xi summit on Wednesday, where AI executives including OpenAI's Sam Altman and Nvidia ↗ 1.34% CEO Jensen Huang are confirmed to attend a state dinner.stocktwits+1

"I feel good about where we are but we're not stopping, we're going to continue to invest, and we have more to say at Connect coming up," Bosworth said.businessinsider