Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan inaugurated a 380-kilometer fiber-optic cable beneath the Caspian Sea on Oct. 15, creating a planned digital route for Central Asian and Chinese data toward Europe and adding a communications link to the Middle Corridor.
Presidents Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Ilham Aliyev took part in the launch, and the project was developed by Kazakhstan’s Kazakhtelecom and Azerbaijan’s AzerTelecom. The cable connects Aktau, in western Kazakhstan, with Sumgait, Azerbaijan, and is intended to join wider networks carrying traffic between Asia and Europe. Project statements put its designed capacity at more than 400 terabits per second, though actual performance will depend on the route’s operation and its connections to other networks.
The link is part of the Digital Silk Way initiative and could connect with submarine cable systems in the Black and Mediterranean seas. Tokayev called it a digital counterpart to the Middle Corridor, the trade route linking Asia and Europe; the inauguration coincided with a Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan agreement to develop that transport corridor. A July update said testing and commissioning were expected by the end of 2026, so the ceremony alone does not establish when full commercial service will begin.
If completed and connected as planned, the cable could give regional providers another path for international traffic and support ambitions to expand cloud and AI infrastructure.