Japan has just achieved the fastest internet speed ever—1.02 petabits per second. That’s 1,020,000 gigabits every second.
At that pace, you could download Netflix’s entire library before the app even loads. Or stream 10 million 8K videos at once.
The record was set in June 2025 by researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT).
And it wasn’t just a lab experiment.
They used standard-sized fiber optic cables, the kind already used worldwide.
NICT’s cables packed four cores and over 50 light wavelengths working in parallel. Even more impressive, the signal traveled 51.7 kilometers making it realistic for real-world networks.
This speed could enable global AI processing, real-time translation, and lightning-fast data transfers, Business Today reported.
With demand rising for cloud computing and generative AI, that kind of performance is a game-changer.
You could also download the entire Steam game library in seconds.
Or back up all of Wikipedia 10,000 times in one second.
One report says you could store 127,500 years of music almost instantly.
Unfortunately, consumers won’t see this at home anytime soon. Terabit speeds are still out of reach for public use. But telecom giants, data centers, and governments are already taking notice.
Japan’s breakthrough may shape the next generation of undersea cables, national networks, and 6G infrastructure.
This isn’t just a world record—it’s a glimpse at what’s possible when speed meets smart design. And for now, Japan leads the race.
