News

Google’s 3,900-Mile Grace Hopper Undersea Cable Lands In The UK

Undersea cables are the backbone of the internet, carrying around 98% of international traffic.

Published

4 years ago

September 17, 2021

Joanna Melki

google's 3900 mile grace hopper undersea cable lands in the uk

Google Cloud

Google has a good reason to celebrate this week because the tech giant has successfully completed its 3,900-mile undersea cable. The cable is named Grace Hopper, after the American computer scientist who was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, and it connects New York (United States) to Bude (United Kingdom) and Bilbao (Spain).

Google

The Spanish branch was completed earlier in September as the first-ever Google-funded route to Spain. Now that the UK branch has landed as well, the mission, which was first announced last July, has reached its end.

“Grace Hopper represents a new generation of the trans-Atlantic cable coming to the UK shores and is one of the first new cables to connect the US and the UK since 2003,” says Google in the official announcement. “Grace Hopper will connect the UK to help meet the rapidly growing demand for high-bandwidth connectivity and services”.

The cable uses a cutting-edge multi-directional fiber switching architecture that lets Google better move traffic around outages and provide the reliability necessary to power critical Google services like Meet, Gmail, and Google Cloud.

The multi-directional fiber switching architecture will also help tightly integrate the upcoming Google Cloud region in Madrid into Google’s global infrastructure. The new region will leverage Telefonica’s Madrid region infrastructure to foster Spain’s digital transformation and advance 5G mobile edge computing.

Also Read: Carrefour City+ In Mall Of The Emirates Becomes Dubai’s First Contactless Store

Undersea cables like Grace Hopper are the backbone of the internet, carrying around 98% of international traffic. The first optical telecommunications cables were laid on the ocean floor back in the 1980s, and their number has since then grown to more than 400. The actual optical fibers that carry data between continents are only as thick as a single strand of human hair, but they’re protected by several layers of shielding and isolation.

News

Stake Powers Instant Payouts With Checkout.com Pay To Card

The new feature lets investors in the UAE, KSA, and UK receive real estate returns in minutes — cutting withdrawal times to under 10 minutes.

Published

1 day ago

June 19, 2025

Nour Nasir

stake powers instant payouts with checkout.com pay to card

Stake, a leading digital real estate investment platform, has unveiled Pay to Card, a next-generation withdrawal feature built on Checkout.com’s global payment infrastructure. The integration enables investors to have dividends and returns credited directly to their bank cards — often within minutes — dramatically reducing the traditional multi-day payout process.

After a successful pilot in May involving over 200 users, some investors reported receiving their funds in under 10 minutes. Ricardo Brizido, CPTO and Co-Founder of Stake, emphasized the importance of speed and reliability: “With Pay to Card, we’re eliminating unnecessary delays and putting returns in our investors’ hands almost instantly. This feature was built to directly solve one of the most common pain points in real estate investing, and it’s already driving strong results”.

The feature launch coincides with rapid growth in real-time finance across the Middle East. Checkout.com’s “State of Digital Commerce in MENA 2025” report highlights a 388% year-on-year surge in Account Funding Transactions (AFTs) in the UAE, reflecting strong demand for immediate payout solutions. The same study recorded a 176% increase in total processing volume from 2023 to 2024 and noted that daily online transactions have jumped 320% since 2020.

Since its 2021 debut, Stake has facilitated over AED 1 billion in property transactions, advancing its mission to democratize real estate investment in high-growth markets. By integrating Pay to Card, Stake reinforces its commitment to customer-centric innovation and operational transparency.

Also Read: Binance Enters Syrian Market As Sanctions Lifted

Remo Giovanni Abbondandolo, General Manager for MENA at Checkout.com, praised the collaboration: “Stake has always led with customer-first financial experiences. Together, we’re meeting the expectations of a region that is no longer just digital-first, but real-time-first. Pay to Card exemplifies how modern payment infrastructure can directly solve investor pain points”.

Pay to Card is now available to all Stake users in the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom. By slashing withdrawal times from days to minutes, Stake and Checkout.com are setting a new standard for seamless, on-demand real estate investing.