Technology
Charting the Depths: The World of Subsea Cables
Charting the Depths: The World of Subsea Cables
Data may be stored in the “cloud,” but when it comes to sending and receiving data, a lot of that action is actually happening along the depths of the ocean floor.
Hidden beneath the waves, these subsea cables account for approximately 95% of international data transmission.
These maps, by Adam Symington, use information from TeleGeography to show the distribution of subsea cables around the planet.
Wired for Connectivity
It’s estimated that there are nearly 1.4 million kilometers (0.9 million miles) of submarine cables in service globally. They ensure emails, content, and calls find their way, linking colossal data centers and facilitating worldwide communication.
Currently, there are 552 active and planned submarine cables:
Submarine cables harness fiber-optic technology, transmitting information via rapid light pulses through glass fibers. These fibers, thinner than human hair, are protected by plastic or even steel wire layers.
Cables usually have the diameter of a garden hose, but often with added armor near the shore. Coastal cables are buried under the seabed, hidden from view on the beach, while deep-sea ones rest on the ocean floor.
Length varies widely, from the 131-kilometer CeltixConnect cable, connecting Dublin, Ireland, and Holyhead, UK, to the sprawling 20,000-kilometer Asia America Gateway cable, connecting San Luis Obispo, California, to Hawaii and Southeast Asia:

Asia America Gateway. Image: TeleGeography
With the current technology, cables are designed to last 25 years at least but are often replaced because of damage. Nearly two-thirds of cable damage is caused by fishing vessels and ships dragging anchors.
The Bottom Line
Traditionally dominated by telecom carriers, the makeup of the subsea cable market has shifted over more recent decades. Tech giants like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon now heavily invest in new cables.
With data demand surging, at least $10 billion is expected to be invested in subsea cables worldwide between 2022 and 2024, driven by cloud service providers and content streaming platforms.
Even with the growth of satellites in telecom, cables still can carry far more data at a much lower cost than satellites. In fact, according to TeleGeography, satellites account for less than 1% of all U.S. international capacity.

This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.
Technology
Ranked: Countries Investing the Most in R&D
Amid the rapid pace of technological innovation, we show R&D investment by country as a percentage of GDP.

Visualizing R&D Investment by Country
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
Key Takeaways
- Israel spent $28.3 billion on research and development (R&D) in 2023 to reach 6.3% of GDP—more than double the OECD average.
- South Korea falls next in line, with an R&D intensity of 5% of GDP, driven mainly from private sector funding.
- Meanwhile, the U.S. spent 3.4% of GDP on R&D, amounting to $823.4 billion, the highest level in the world.
Globally, research and development (R&D) spending totaled $2.8 trillion in 2023—growing from $1 trillion, adjusted for inflation, since the turn of the century.
Overall, Asian economies accounted for 46% of this spending, followed by North America (29%) and Europe (21%). As a critical driver of innovation, R&D investment shapes countless industries, from defense and healthcare to tech and green energy.
This graphic shows R&D investment as a percentage of GDP by country, based on data from the OECD.
Ranked: The R&D Intensity of OECD Countries
Below, we show OECD countries by R&D spending as a share of GDP in 2023, based on the most recent data available:
Country | R&D Spending as a % of GDP 2023 |
---|---|
🇮🇱 Israel | 6.3 |
🇰🇷 South Korea | 5.0 |
🇹🇼 Taiwan | 4.0 |
🇸🇪 Sweden | 3.6 |
🇺🇸 United States | 3.4 |
🇯🇵 Japan | 3.4 |
🇧🇪 Belgium | 3.3 |
🇨🇭 Switzerland | 3.3 |
🇦🇹 Austria | 3.3 |
🇩🇪 Germany | 3.1 |
🇫🇮 Finland | 3.1 |
🇩🇰 Denmark | 3.0 |
🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 2.8 |
🇮🇸 Iceland | 2.7 |
🇨🇳 China | 2.6 |
🇳🇱 Netherlands | 2.2 |
🇫🇷 France | 2.2 |
🇸🇮 Slovenia | 2.1 |
🇳🇴 Norway | 1.9 |
🇸🇬 Singapore | 1.8 |
🇪🇪 Estonia | 1.8 |
🇨🇿 Czechia | 1.8 |
🇨🇦 Canada | 1.8 |
🇵🇹 Portugal | 1.7 |
🇦🇺 Australia | 1.7 |
🇮🇪 Ireland | 1.6 |
🇵🇱 Poland | 1.6 |
🇪🇸 Spain | 1.5 |
🇬🇷 Greece | 1.5 |
🇳🇿 New Zealand | 1.5 |
🇹🇷 Türkiye | 1.4 |
🇭🇷 Croatia | 1.4 |
🇭🇺 Hungary | 1.4 |
🇮🇹 Italy | 1.3 |
🇱🇹 Lithuania | 1.0 |
🇸🇰 Slovak Republic | 1.0 |
🇱🇺 Luxembourg | 1.0 |
🇱🇻 Latvia | 0.8 |
🇧🇬 Bulgaria | 0.8 |
🇿🇦 South Africa | 0.6 |
🇦🇷 Argentina | 0.6 |
🇷🇴 Romania | 0.5 |
🇨🇱 Chile | 0.4 |
🇨🇴 Colombia | 0.3 |
🇨🇷 Costa Rica | 0.3 |
Since 2020, OECD countries have spent an average of 2.7% of their GDP on R&D, altogether spending $1.9 trillion in 2023.
Israel stands out globally—not only for leading in R&D intensity, but also for having the highest number of high-tech startups per capita. Overall, it spent $28.3 billion on R&D, with about 92% driven by the private sector.
Also seeing among the highest R&D to GDP are South Korea, Taiwan, and Sweden.
In Taiwan, corporate R&D investment rose by 3.7% in 2023, a slowdown compared to the 8.8% annual average over the previous five years—largely fueled by the semiconductor sector. The small island nation spent $59.9 billion on R&D in 2023, the eighth-highest in the OECD.
When it comes to China, R&D investment has surged nearly eighteenfold since 2000, to reach $723 billion—the second-highest globally. To look at it another way, China’s share of global R&D spending grew from 4% to 26% over the period. Overall, the private sector contributed 77.6% of this spending in 2023, a similar level seen in America.
Learn More on the Voronoi App 
To learn more about this topic from a tech sector perspective, check out this graphic on R&D investment growth across global tech giants.
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