AWS Plans Sta’O’Nuk Trans-Pacific Subsea Cable

David Selby, AWS
September 2, 2026

AWS is developing Sta’O’Nuk as a new submarine fiber-optic system linking the United States and Japan, with a design focused on low latency, high capacity, and added resilience across the Pacific. The company says the cable is planned to contribute 420 terabits per second of capacity to the AWS Global Network when it enters service, which is expected in 2029. Sta’O’Nuk will be built with 20 fiber pairs and will use current subsea transmission and optical technologies. The United States landing is planned for Washington state. AWS says that would make it the first international submarine cable system to come ashore in the state in nearly three decades. In Japan, the landing point is also intended to be geographically separate from established cable gateways. According to AWS, many current systems between the two countries are concentrated around California, Oregon, Shima, and the Chiba Peninsula, leaving them exposed to some of the same risks, including earthquakes, anchoring, fishing activity, and other causes of outages. By following an independent route, Sta’O’Nuk is intended to reduce shared points of failure and improve network resiliency. The system is also being designed to allow future optional connection points. The name Sta’O’Nuk means lightning serpent in the Quinault language, and AWS received authorization from the Quinault Indian Nation to use it.

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