Google announced the America-India Connect initiative at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, held at Bharat Mandapam from 16 to 20 February. The initiative is part of Google’s five-year, USD 15 billion AI infrastructure investment in India and aims to expand digital connectivity across four continents.
What Is America-India Connect?
America-India Connect is a collaborative infrastructure initiative designed to establish new subsea cable routes linking India and the United States with several locations across the Southern Hemisphere. The project includes the development of a new international subsea gateway in Visakhapatnam (Vizag) on India’s east coast, along with three new subsea connections linking India to Singapore, South Africa, and Australia. In addition, four strategic fibre-optic routes will strengthen network resilience and expand capacity between the United States, India, and multiple destinations across the Southern Hemisphere. Together, these investments will position Vizag as a major international subsea gateway, providing critical route diversity beyond the existing cable landings in Mumbai and Chennai.
Why It Matters
Google has framed the initiative around one central concern: preventing the digital divide from becoming an AI divide. Greater access to reliable, high-speed connectivity is considered foundational to enabling AI-powered services for individuals, businesses, and governments, particularly in emerging economies.
Speaking at the summit, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said, “We cannot allow the digital divide to become an AI divide.”
Pichai also expressed confidence in India’s potential: “I believe India is going to have an extraordinary trajectory with AI, and we are supporting it with a full-stack commitment, including products, skilling, and infrastructure.”
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, sharing the announcement on LinkedIn, described the initiative as infrastructure that “connects four continents,” reflecting its reach across the Americas, Europe (via existing cable systems), Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
Infrastructure
On India’s east coast, Google is developing a direct fibre-optic path between Vizag and Chennai to South Africa. Combined with the existing Equiano and Nuvem subsea cable systems, this creates a redundant high-capacity route connecting the American east coast around Africa to Vizag. A direct path between Vizag and Singapore, combined with the Bosun and Tabua cable systems, will create a South Pacific route from the American west coast through Australia to Vizag.
On India’s west coast, a new fibre-optic path between Mumbai and Western Australia, combined with the TalayLink and Honomoana systems, will create another South Pacific route connecting the American west coast around Australia to Mumbai.
