Meta has announced the Petal subsea cable project, a 7,000 km link connecting the United States and France. Scheduled for launch in 2029, the system is designed to deliver a capacity of 1 Pbps. It will be the first transoceanic cable to utilize multi-core fiber at scale, featuring 24 fiber pairs with two cores each, which provides the equivalent capacity of 48 standard fiber pairs.
NEC will serve as the turnkey supplier, responsible for manufacturing and laying the cable, while Sumitomo Electric Industries will produce the multi-core fiber. Orange will collaborate with Meta to facilitate the cable's landing on the French Atlantic coast and its integration into the European network. The project aims to double the capacity of the existing Anjana cable without a proportional increase in energy consumption.
Separately, Amazon has blocked Meta's AI agent, Muse, from making purchases on its marketplace. Amazon stated that Meta did not seek permission for the agent to interact with its site and raised concerns regarding user privacy and security, noting that the agent does not identify itself. Amazon has requested that Meta remove its platform from the list of services accessible by Muse.
Meta maintains that Muse stores credentials within a secure virtual machine and that the primary AI agent does not access passwords or payment details directly. A separate agent, Sentinel, manages network requests and sensitive operations, which may require user confirmation. Muse, introduced on September 8, is designed to browse the web, handle emails, and perform tasks like booking trips.
