Forget Oil — Iran May Have Found the World’s Biggest Weakness
Episode Stats
Words per minute
205.1951
Harmful content
Misogyny
1
sentences flagged
Toxicity
1
sentences flagged
Hate speech
29
sentences flagged
Summary
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) wants access to $2.5 billion worth of underwater cables. They want to build a new airport in the Strait of Hormuz, but they need it to be built through the Strait, and they need the cables to do it. What would happen if they attacked these cables?
Transcript
00:00:00.000
The IRGC just made a request on a topic that nobody was thinking about in the Strait of Hormuz
00:00:04.500
because everybody's Strait of Hormuz, all they're thinking about is ships coming through.
00:00:07.900
Two million dollars is what they want, but here's what they asked.
00:00:10.660
97 plus percent of the internet you and I use is from underwater cables, not satellites.
00:00:16.860
We think it's satellites or we think these cables are outside.
00:00:26.320
And by the way, do you know how much each mile costs to put down there?
00:00:28.640
four hundred thousand upwards of one and a half million dollars this is trillion trillion plus
00:00:34.020
to build all these cables and the reason why iran figured his part out is the following
00:00:38.500
they're sitting here saying wait a minute these cables are not only going through straight of
00:00:42.580
hormuz a couple of the points are in iran so if you want to come through and build something in
00:00:48.240
straight of hormuz you got to come through us because if you don't we could potentially do what
00:00:53.760
anything we're going to get into that and watch this you know what country started shivering when
00:00:57.580
this announcement was made? This country called India with 1.4 billion people. Why? Because 60%
00:01:02.860
of all the power for cables that India gets, it goes through Mumbai. Do you know what would
00:01:09.640
happen if these guys all of a sudden said, no problem. We're going to drop mines on these
00:01:13.540
cables and destroy the cables. Some countries could lose internet for weeks to months. And
00:01:20.760
the world finally realized maybe Iranians are not asking about terrorists and stuff like that.
0.90
00:01:25.840
they actually are starting to realize they want control and influence.
0.99
00:01:30.080
We're going to talk about all these topics today.
00:01:36.500
So if you give value out of this video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel.
00:01:39.380
And we are getting very close to 10 million sub.
00:01:43.120
To the 51% of you that watch the content and never subscribe to the channel,
00:01:48.540
It'll mean a lot to us if you can subscribe to Valuetainment.
00:01:52.080
So, 750,000 of undersea cables across the world's ocean, 750,000, yes.
00:01:59.920
Each mile costs 400,000 to a million and a half, yes.
00:02:02.900
A single trans-oceanic cable system can cost between $300 million to a billion dollars to deploy.
00:02:09.980
The cable looks like this, so you're looking at it and saying, okay, how big is it?
00:02:19.100
It's multiple cables that are within it that they're building.
00:02:22.680
Then on top of that, they go on these ships that look like this in the middle.
00:02:26.920
So think about in Dubai, just cable keeps dropping and dropping and dropping.
00:02:30.620
But as we get deeper, you'll realize $10 trillion every day.
00:02:39.380
$10 trillion of transactions that happen because of these.
00:02:42.380
And these cables have historically been built, maintained by state-owned telecom companies or international consortia.
00:02:49.380
consortia. So it's kind of like, hey, let's work together. You need us. We need you. We're
00:02:53.740
capitalists. You're the state. You're the government. Can we figure out if you need
00:02:57.000
internet? We'll give it to you. But let's do business together. No problem. So modern shift
00:03:00.720
to hyperscalers like Google, Meta, Microsoft, developing their own cable networks have learned
00:03:05.520
they need to work with different countries. But for the most part, most countries are reasonable.
00:03:09.120
Yeah, we want to work with you. So then when you look at cables versus satellites, satellite
00:03:13.420
internet like Starlink can connect remote areas, but cannot match the high bandwidth and the low
00:03:18.640
latency of undersea fiber optics undersea cables are immune to weather satellites are susceptible
00:03:24.840
to solar damage and weather interference you will hear when we talk about different events that's
00:03:28.720
happened before have people attacked it have people stolen cables have people found ways with
00:03:32.820
anchors to destroy this how does china do it how does russia do it because they actually know how
00:03:36.780
it's a very interesting way china attacks these things now vulnerabilities cables are designed to
00:03:41.240
be durable but they are still soft targets in international waters that they could be affected
00:03:46.600
about. In areas like the Strait of Hormuz, water is shallow and cables are open to accidental
00:03:51.780
damaged anchors. So, hey, you know what? What am I doing? Hey, drop all the anchor. What do you
00:03:56.580
want to do with the anchor? I just hit a cable, pull it up. Boom! You just tore one. Oh, shoot.
00:04:00.920
Two weeks of outage for internet. And it's happened before, right? Seven cables require
00:04:05.140
specialized repair ships and the process can take weeks. So, this isn't like you're calling
00:04:09.060
AAA for a car to come in and change your tire. That's not what this is. This is a longer process
00:04:13.380
So this is nearly impossible in an active war zone like the one we are currently in.
00:04:19.920
Now, let's look at a completely different area.
0.98
00:04:21.460
Iran's new threat, which is what I was talking about.
0.98
00:04:25.440
Before going into the request, the straight-of-home was a choke point for more than just oil.
00:04:30.340
21% of global petroleum, that's one of the things we know about, 25% of LNG, liquid natural
00:04:35.760
gas, and 20% to 30% is global data traffic via undersea cables.
00:04:41.560
This is the part that they have figured out to say, hey, we are learning that the world
00:04:46.660
needs this and it's scaring these other countries, right?
00:04:49.640
When it comes down to cable, let's take more control because this is a control game here,
00:04:54.300
So cables running through the straight include the AAE1, Southeast Asia, Egypt, Europe, think
00:04:59.440
about the countries, stops in UAE, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Falcon Network, India, Sri
00:05:06.960
Then you have the Gulf Bridge International Cable System, all Gulf countries.
00:05:11.000
So this is what you're looking at. Here's the Strait of Hormuz. They're coming through here.
00:05:14.360
This is Iran. I believe that's also Iran. And then you have the other countries here. So they're
00:05:18.560
saying, hey, you're coming through us. You got to pay up. If you don't pay up, we're capable of
00:05:24.000
doing things that maybe other countries that are allies of yours are not. We're willing to make
00:05:27.780
your life a living kill. Here's our demands, right? We want, not only do we want control of
0.99
00:05:32.640
the ships coming through and we want you to pay us 2 million per, 60 boats a day, 2 million,
00:05:37.500
that's 120 million a day is what they want but we also want to control the cable why this becomes
00:05:42.860
like the panama canal to the complete opposite side of the world but it scares the crowd do you
00:05:48.060
really want irgc to have the control over the cables do you the world doesn't want irgc to have
00:05:53.240
because they're not honest players you can't really negotiate and play with them right so iran could
00:05:58.560
completely destroy the cables within mines aquatic drones and mini submarines total destruction would
00:06:04.540
crush the international market slow down internet speed around the world and cripple ai data centers
00:06:10.200
in the middle east internet traffic would reroute but billions of dollars would be lost in the first
00:06:17.280
72 hours but there's a big but iran wants control not destruction they want to be able to say hey
00:06:23.880
we want to control this like i said earlier to you licensing and data tolls hey licensing and
00:06:30.720
data tolls. All cable operators will be required to pay licensing fee and annual renewal tolls
00:06:36.840
to operate in the strait. What? Yes. Think about for you to be technical enough to say this cable
00:06:43.020
thing is bigger than we thought about, right? Jurisdiction over tech companies, global technology,
00:06:48.420
giants, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta will have to operate under Iranian law. We dictate the law,
00:06:58.340
We dictate the law and cooperate with Iranian companies.
0.96
00:07:02.540
Like, they are now responding to Iranian companies.
0.97
00:07:05.620
And last but not least, monopoly on maintenance.
00:07:07.940
Foreign operators will need to use Iranian firms for cable maintenance, which helps develop Iranian infrastructure and keeps the cable as a bargaining chip.
0.60
00:07:22.240
Now, it doesn't mean they're going to get away with this, but tell me this isn't brilliant.
00:07:24.980
and I think about your U.S., and they tell you this.
00:07:27.920
Do you want IRGC to have control of the cables?
00:07:38.900
Some of you guys may be like, what are you talking about?
00:07:41.640
I don't want IRGC that's going on saying death upon America
00:07:45.860
So you mean to tell me if somebody really pisses them off,
00:07:48.580
they can turn off the cable like this for everybody?
00:07:51.700
No, I don't want them to have that kind of control.
00:07:53.640
So that's kind of how you make a decision where you're at.
00:08:04.360
While many nations are connected to the Hormuz cables, India is uniquely vulnerable because
00:08:08.300
if they are throttled or cut off, 60% of India's total internet traffic travels from Mumbai
00:08:16.740
towards Europe and the USDA Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, Indian internet connections
00:08:22.220
are bottlenecking Mumbai. 15 out of 17 international submarine cables land in a single area in Mumbai
00:08:29.120
like we were talking about earlier. And we know India needs, they are relying on their biggest
0.91
00:08:34.360
customers that they're dealing with be in the West. So they cannot have this taking place.
00:08:38.300
What if something were to happen? Watch this. India's $250 billion IT sector relies on seamless
00:08:43.400
connectivity. Okay. So if latency jumps from 80 milliseconds to 200 milliseconds, the cloud-based
00:08:50.120
tools and real-time coding environments used by millions of indian engineers becomes unusable
0.90
00:08:56.020
like this that would be a challenge for them and then on top of that cable interference would
00:09:00.240
disrupt the swift and banking communication needed to process these billions of dollars in the event
00:09:06.020
of a cutoff india would lose 10 to 20 times more than the u.s if this were to happen so do you not
00:09:13.440
thing. Iran is sitting there saying, hey, India, allies with U.S., if we come and talk to Russia
00:09:20.860
and China and India knows we can make their life a living kill, what is India going to do? They're
0.76
00:09:26.460
right in the middle. Hey, U.S., hey, please don't push too hard, Trump. Hey, we don't have any
00:09:31.700
problems with Iran. Hey, let's kind of figure it out. By the way, Pakistan's in it as well. And
0.77
00:09:35.300
guess what Pakistan is doing? Pakistan's also tied to this. Pakistan, you ever notice why is
0.68
00:09:40.100
everybody going to Pakistan, Islamabad, to bring Iran, IRGC, and U.S. to negotiate,
00:09:46.380
they kind of aren't tied to this. If India is Pakistani, so let me wrap it up for you to kind
0.57
00:09:50.760
of see what this is going on. Again, another talk, you're going to bring this up to your
0.99
00:09:53.680
friends after you watch this video, and they're going to be like, oh my, what are you talking
00:09:56.100
about? Yeah, of course, 750,000 miles. Most people are not even thinking about this or talking about
00:10:02.180
this, except for Iran, because they know another thing for Achilles heel to the world, especially
0.99
00:10:06.960
countries like India. So now, what has happened in the world before? Because what if somebody
0.99
00:10:11.000
comes and attacks? Recently, in the past, we have had situations where people have stolen cable.
00:10:18.980
One time, 16 people got arrested in Indonesia. They went down there. They stole a bunch of cable.
00:10:23.680
They took it like, wait a minute. What is this all about? Bunch of them got arrested. It was
00:10:27.040
documented. But I'll tell you some more things for us to be thinking about. Undersea cables are
00:10:31.100
high value and low protection. What's the protection? Are there security guards by
00:10:34.980
underwater can you imagine you go there to take the cable and rip it apart they're like seven
00:10:38.300
people waiting there like that's not how it works right so if somebody really wanted to do something
00:10:42.340
they could targets that allow an aggressor to paralyze what a word an adversary's economy
00:10:48.440
without firing a single shot can you imagine the influence and the power and leverage you have
00:10:54.360
cables are at risk from direct sabotage as well as gray zone warfare like deliberate anchor
0.88
00:10:59.200
drags this is china china plays this game they know it's like oh that was just an accident we're
0.67
00:11:04.320
just fishing we threw the anchor and it cut off the cable we're so sorry we're so sorry but the
00:11:09.120
timing of it's a little bit suspect you sure that was not intentional we would never we would never
00:11:13.500
do something to impact the world economy like we it's not like we would ever accidentally release
00:11:19.160
a virus that we've known for three weeks is in one of our cities in wuhan we would shut down all
00:11:24.540
our airports we would not let anybody go to other countries and stop the world economy and shut it
00:11:28.900
down and lose seven trillion dollars we would never drop a coronavirus like that to the world
00:11:33.300
because we love the world we're peaceful you know we want this thing to continue you don't think
00:11:38.640
they would do it you don't think they would for a second want to destroy this if it got really
00:11:42.580
nasty quietly blame somebody else like a proxy war example russia specialized in submarine capable
00:11:47.880
of deep sea operations and cable sabotage what are they learning it for what do they want to go do
00:11:51.760
down there what are they doing do they want to go find gold do they want to go find the titanic
00:11:55.260
and find that diamond is that what they're trying to do they're learning this because they know if
00:11:58.920
they go down they're scaring the crap out of who it's another method of attacking the enemy right
00:12:03.140
So suspicious cable damage on Baltic Sea might be Russia testing Europe's limits.
00:12:08.320
Another example, China has made itself into a regional hub for specific data networks
00:12:13.060
and given its strategic leverage, Taiwan has reported.
00:12:20.020
What percentage of all these semiconductor chips comes from Taiwan?
00:12:26.100
And you know, they think that's their country anyways, like it's Russia and Ukraine.
00:12:31.340
So Taiwan has reported 30 subsea cable incidents in recent years,
00:12:35.000
including one in which Chinese vessels severed cables and cut communication for months.
00:12:45.940
Satellites are not a viable alternative right now.
00:12:54.540
In April, the Bipartisan Strategic Subsea Cables Act was introduced to Congress
00:13:31.000
To protect the oceans and all the cables we have below.
00:13:33.360
Even we're not capable fully of doing that, right?
00:13:54.520
India lost over 50% of its bandwidth to Europe and the U.S.
00:14:02.840
Egypt has impacted 70%, and India lost 50% of its bandwidth.
00:14:09.200
So earthquake could happen, and that can also mess up the cables.
00:14:11.820
A 9.0 earthquake in 2011 off the coast of Japan simultaneously snapped multiple Trans-Pacific
00:14:17.860
Repairs took months and a whole fleet of ships.
00:14:23.880
three months. Can you wait three months? Can most economies wait three months?
00:14:27.920
2022 volcanic eruption, eruption of the Honga. Honga volcano triggered an underwater landslide,
00:14:33.080
severed the sole subsea link to Tonga, causing a total internet blackout four weeks, total blackout
00:14:39.200
four weeks. And in 2024, Red Sea anchor drag, commercial vessel Rubimar abandoned after attack
00:14:45.780
by Houthis. So they just kind of left it. Like, what are you guys doing? They left it. Houthis
00:14:49.460
attacked. Dragon anchor severed three major cables so that ship stays out there. The anchor's just
00:14:55.400
dragging, dragging, dragging. Boom. Approximately 25% of all data traffic moving between Asia
00:15:01.440
and the Middle East and Europe was disrupted. Repairs took weeks because of active conflict
00:15:07.220
zones. All right. How are you feeling right now? I actually want you to ask, what's your feeling?
00:15:11.200
What are you thinking about right now? Are you saying, well, that's not a big deal? Are you saying,
00:15:15.000
holy mo this is bad how is our america gonna and so how do we negotiate so here's how negotiation
00:15:23.120
works whenever you go and suddenly you're trying to sell your company and somebody's buying your
00:15:27.040
company okay depending on who the buyer is both parties have a leverage this company that's
00:15:33.440
selling they have these three things that are their leverage that this company wants
00:15:36.840
this company that's selling has these two leverage that this company wants it could be money is cheap
00:15:41.700
right now, but they have other options and you're kind of desperate to sell. They know. But you know
00:15:47.000
that this company that's trying to buy you is trying to get into Tennessee, Texas and Florida
00:15:51.120
and they're not right now and you are the biggest in Texas, Tennessee and Florida. So you have the
00:15:55.440
leverage. So how is this leverage going to be used? Then the other part is, what if this player is a
00:16:00.660
reckless player? What if he's okay if he loses the entire company? What if this player doesn't really
00:16:05.180
want to sell the company? What's your leverage here? What if Iran is a reckless player and is
00:16:10.380
willing to do anything to harm anybody as long as it gets its own control. Then what are you doing?
0.99
00:16:14.520
How do you negotiate with them? So then do you sit there and say, let's try to do a ceasefire and
00:16:19.620
let's do a deal with them because this is an honest player long-term. How do you handle that?
00:16:24.520
How would you handle that? Knowing all this intel that you have here. This is what's going on behind
00:16:28.800
closed doors where both parties are lobbying. Some people are saying, this is the exact reason
00:16:33.820
why we have to get rid of IRGC. This is the exact reason why that country needs to be like some of
1.00
00:16:39.580
Gulf states that Saudi's at least working with us. Qatar is at least working with us. Some of
00:16:44.460
these other countries are willing to work with us. UAE, they're kind of working with us. How about
00:16:49.300
Iran? Well, these guys are not. These guys are saying death upon America. These guys are bombing
0.98
00:16:53.120
UAE. These guys are hitting Qatar. These guys are hitting other places. So folks are saying, look,
1.00
00:16:57.580
if this is the case and they want to play like this, we got to move fast and get rid of these
00:17:02.100
guys and definitely not give control to them. So your thoughts when you're seeing something like
00:17:05.400
this, you know, I'm curious. And I know you guys are going to comment below and you guys are going
00:17:08.540
have your own debate while you're going through it so if you got value out of this video give it
00:17:11.800
a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel specifically the 51% of you who consume the
00:17:15.480
content and you haven't subscribed yet again it means the world to us if you do so we are this
00:17:19.460
close to 10 million subscribers we love to have your support on this journey to 10 million and
00:17:24.020
if you enjoyed this video and you're thinking i've never heard anybody talk about this there's
0.97
00:17:27.960
another choke point in the world that nobody is talking about specifically china doesn't want
00:17:33.700
anybody to talk about if you've not seen that video click here to watch it take care everybody