The Atlantic subsea market has reached a pressure point earlier than planned. According to EXA Infrastructure, strong demand now threatens available transatlantic capacity by early 2027.
The company had expected more room in its existing systems. That view changed quickly as AI traffic grew faster than expected. Cloud giants also started holding more cable capacity for their own workloads.
Jim Fagan, chief executive at EXA Infrastructure, described the shift clearly. “We thought we were pretty good on capacity until 2030,” he says. “But two things happened.”
One factor came from EXA’s Aqua Comms acquisition. The company expected new capacity from that deal. But Aqua Comms filled much of it before the transaction fully closed.
Fagan explained the surprise in direct terms. “Literally that year, all this capacity we thought we were getting – they’d sold it already.”
At the same time, major hyperscalers tightened their external capacity supply. AWS, Google, and Meta increasingly keep future routes for internal AI projects. That makes it harder for wholesale buyers to secure long-term bandwidth.
As a result, EXA will build a new transatlantic cable called Meridian. The 6,500-kilometer system will connect New Jersey and Brean in the UK. It targets service readiness in the fourth quarter of 2029.
The cable will offer 500 terabits per second of capacity. It will use 24 fiber pairs. EXA selected Xtera as the turnkey subsea supplier for the project.
This move gives enterprises and cloud providers a fresh route across the Atlantic. It also strengthens route diversity, which matters during outages or traffic spikes. Yet the delivery timeline leaves a near-term gap.
EXA says it has secured bridge capacity for 2027 and 2028. However, Fagan warned that current demand could consume that buffer fast. “We will fill the gap, but we will run through it in 12/18 months at current rates.”
Demand now comes from more than traditional telecom carriers. Financial services firms want bigger pipes for trading systems. Neo-cloud providers also need capacity for AI platforms. Many customers have moved beyond 100G links and now ask for full wavelengths.
Reliability requirements are also changing. “Where they wanted two routes before, they’re now asking for four,” Fagan said. That increases demand beyond raw traffic growth alone.
EXA appears confident because anchor customers already support Meridian. Fagan said commitments offset much of the project risk. The remaining capacity may sell through leases or long-term rights.
Still, the market faces a difficult balancing act. New cables take years to deploy. AI demand keeps rising each quarter. For operators, cloud firms, and enterprises, Atlantic bandwidth has become strategic infrastructure.
