Canada Pitches $620M Undersea Cable to Europe to Bypass the US

Routing around American internet choke points

The Leif Erikson project aims to establish a sovereign transatlantic data highway that never touches American soil.

Virtually all transatlantic internet traffic moving in and out of Canada passes through American territory, landing at hubs along the US East Coast before being backhauled north. With political relations between Ottawa and Washington souring, that reliance looks increasingly precarious to Canadian planners.

Norwegian firm Bulk Infrastructure has presented prospective investors with plans for the Leif Erikson project, a direct high-capacity link running from southern Norway into Happy Valley-Goose Bay in Newfoundland and Labrador. From there, another 1,180 miles of terrestrial fiber would head underground through Quebec to terminate in Montreal.

Canada lacks independent subsea connections owned by domestic firms. The primary transpacific alternative that avoids US soil is the Topaz cable linking Canada and Japan, but that line is owned by Alphabet, an American tech giant.

Leif Erikson cable: length, route and estimated cost

The $620 million hurdle: funding and local approvals

Bulk has pursued the venture for five years, but construction hinges on finding a Canadian majority partner and securing Indigenous approvals.

While Bulk has already deployed more than 6,200 miles of fiber across northern Europe, pulling off a multi-hundred-million-dollar transatlantic build is a different challenge. The developer needs a Canadian majority partner to fund the estimated $620 million price tag.

The firm already has deep ties across the Atlantic: 65% of Bulk is held by a real estate arm of Sun Life Financial, alongside several Canadian pension funds. Bulk co-founder Peder Nærbø recently met with Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly to pitch the line as vital sovereign infrastructure for cloud computing, AI, and telecommunications.

Beyond cash, the inland run introduces hurdles. Laying nearly 1,200 miles of terrestrial line across Quebec requires environmental clearances and explicit backing from Indigenous communities whose lands sit along the proposed path.

Why transatlantic routing matters for cloud resilience

Subsea cables carry more than 95% of intercontinental internet traffic. Concentrating Canadian routes through US landing stations leaves enterprise traffic exposed not only to geopolitical trade squabbles, but also to regional infrastructure failures like a widespread Google Cloud outage taking down European banking apps and cross-border payment rails.

Diplomats are moving to formalize the effort. Canada and European Union officials are scheduled to endorse a joint statement in Montreal on October 29, 2026, aimed at establishing dedicated direct digital connections between Europe, Canada, and Asian markets.

What it means for US and European network traffic

For European and North American enterprise networks, a dedicated Norway-to-Canada route offers lower-latency data exchange with Nordic data centers powered by renewable power. It also provides high-capacity redundancy that does not depend on New York, New Jersey, or Virginia landing stations.

However, end users will not notice immediate differences. Financing, regulatory permits from both the EU and Canada, and maritime cable-laying mean any actual bandwidth from Leif Erikson remains years away.