Firmus Plans $300M Investment to Secure 150Tbps Capacity on APX East Subsea Cable

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 3, Australian AI infrastructure company Firmus signed a trans-Pacific connectivity agreement with subsea cable developer SUBCO. Under the agreement, Firmus will serve as the anchor customer for the APX East subsea cable system, planning to invest approximately $300 million to secure up to 150Tbps of dedicated capacity over a 25-year term, connecting its Australian AI Factory network with the United States and other global markets.

APX East, developed by SUBCO, features a main trunk route connecting Sydney, Australia to California, United States, utilizing a 16-fiber-pair design. The system architecture announced by SUBCO includes no intermediate landing points and requires no optical signal regeneration along the trans-Pacific trunk; the trunk system is scheduled to reach Ready for Service status in the fourth quarter of 2028. The Hawaii spur is planned to enter service in the fourth quarter of 2029, with a Fiji spur also included in subsequent expansion arrangements.

SUBCO previously announced that the APX East trunk will adopt an all-deep-water route and establish a new landing site north of Sydney's existing cable protection zone. The system is designed for single-end power feed fault scenarios, allowing one end to maintain power across the entire trans-oceanic line in the event of a power anomaly at the other end. Fiber pair users only need to deploy submarine line terminal equipment at both ends in Australia and the United States, with no need for intermediate regeneration stations or repeater nodes.

The 150Tbps capacity secured by Firmus will be directly integrated into its expanding Australian AI Factory network. The company's existing plans include multiple high-density AI computing facilities, and the trans-Pacific dedicated capacity will be used for transmitting AI training data, inference workloads, and other large-scale computing data between Australia and the United States. Firmus clarified in this agreement that the relevant capacity will address long-term connectivity requirements between its Australian AI infrastructure and its U.S. customers.

When APX East was unveiled in January 2026, its fourth-quarter 2028 operational target was already established. At that time, SUBCO estimated that Australia could generate approximately 3GW of AI Factory deployment demand by 2028, and designed the trunk capacity and construction timeline accordingly. With Firmus now signing a 25-year capacity agreement, APX East has gained a clear long-term anchor customer, with Firmus's corresponding capacity ceiling set at 150Tbps.

SUBCO currently operates or develops subsea cable assets including INDIGO West, INDIGO Central, Oman Australia Cable, SMAP, and Bernacchi-1. APX East remains in the development phase, with the next major milestones being cable system construction, landing facility deployment, and trans-oceanic trunk installation, ultimately progressing toward the Ready for Service target in the fourth quarter of 2028.