Google has announced the America-India Connect initiative, a major infrastructure project aimed at significantly enhancing digital and AI connectivity between the United States, India, and regions across the southern hemisphere. The announcement was made on February 18, 2026, during the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai unveiled the initiative while speaking at the summit, emphasising its role in boosting AI accessibility and preventing a “digital divide” from becoming an “AI divide.” He stated, “Today, we are announcing the India-America Connect Initiative, which will deliver new sub-sea cable routes to increase AI connectivity between India and the US and multiple locations across the southern hemisphere.”
The project is part of Google’s broader five-year, $15 billion investment in AI infrastructure in India. The most significant initiative is the establishment of a new international subsea gateway in Visakhapatnam on India’s eastern coast. This addition will provide greater diversity and resilience by complementing the country’s existing cable landing points in Mumbai and Chennai.
In addition, Google plans to lay three new subsea cables that will directly connect India to Singapore, South Africa, and Australia. The company will develop a direct fibre-optic link between Vizag and Chennai on India’s east coast to South Africa. Another direct path will link Vizag with Singapore, which will create a direct link to Australia via existing subsea cable systems. These investments will establish Vizag as a major international subsea gateway.
To further enhance network capacity and reliability, four strategic fibre-optic routes linking the United States to India and various southern hemisphere destinations will be developed. These routes will build upon and integrate with Google’s existing global subsea cable systems, including Equiano, Nuvem, Bosun, Tabua, TalayLink, Honomoana, Blue, Raman, and Sol.
Together, they will create redundant, high-capacity pathways, such as connections from the U.S. East Coast around Africa to Vizag, from the U.S. West Coast through the South Pacific and Australia to Vizag, and supplementary links from Mumbai to Western Australia.
By connecting four continents—North America (via the United States), Asia (India and Singapore), Africa (South Africa), and Australia/Oceania—the America-India Connect plans t[o transform historic maritime trade corridors into powerful modern digital routes. The enhanced infrastructure is expected to deliver greater internet reliability, affordability, and resilience for India. At the same time, it will support widespread AI adoption, drive economic growth, boost productivity, and advance skilling programs across the country.
The company stated that America-India Connect project will improve AI access in Africa, Australia, and the Pacific.
