What makes a high speed USB cable high speed?
USB is defined at several data rates.

12 Mbps is called "Full Speed"

480 Mbps is called "High Speed"

5 Gbps is called "SuperSpeed"

10 Gbps is called "SuperSpeed+"

A USB product marketed as "High Speed" should be conforming to at least the USB 2.0 specification, and capable of carrying a 480 Mbps USB High Speed signal.

Some of the specifications that are related to the bandwidth capability of the cable include


Characteristic impedance
Attenuation
Propagation delay
(Intra-pair) skew


There are also requirements on things like the diameter of the wires, placement of the USB logo on the connectors, etc.