Sundar Pichai Says Google's $15 Billion AI Plan Will Connect India To Four Continents. Here's How

Last Updated:February 19, 2026, 12:24 IST

As part of the America-India Connect initiative, Google will lay new subsea fiber-optic cables connecting India to US & other global hubs like Singapore, South Africa & Australia

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, speaking at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, announced the “America-India Connect" initiative, a comprehensive digital infrastructure and AI investment plan that could potentially reshape the future of global tech collaborations and propel India’s position in the global digital economy.

The new initiative, announced at the summit where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and world leaders were in attendance, is an extension of Google’s earlier announced $15 billion five-year AI investment in India, which was focused on a mega AI hub in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

As part of the America-India Connect initiative, Google will lay new subsea fiber-optic cables that will connect India to the United States and other major global hubs such as Singapore, South Africa, and Australia, in addition to laying fiber-optic cables that will connect to the rest of the Southern Hemisphere. The initiative also includes the establishment of a new subsea cable landing station in Visakhapatnam, which will function as a new gateway in the region.

Why It’s Crucial

As reported by Moneycontrol, this effort is more than just building a physical infrastructure; it has the purpose of greatly improving AI data flows, connectivity, and digital resilience between India and the international community, particularly the United States and various regions in Africa and Asia. Through the addition of multiple cable routes, this effort will improve network capacity, minimize outages, and reduce latency for AI applications that rely on fast and efficient data exchange.

According to experts, subsea cables are considered the backbone of the international internet, carrying over 95 percent of all international data traffic, and are essential for AI applications that require high-capacity, low-latency connectivity for machine learning, cloud computing, and real-time services.

Beyond Cables

Pichai also outlined an ambitious plan to support the human capital and innovation ecosystem in India. This includes:

• The launch of a Google AI Professional Certificate program to help workers develop AI capabilities.

• Collaborations with Indian educational institutions to introduce generative AI capabilities in schools and classrooms.

• The establishment of a $30 million AI for Science Impact Challenge fund to drive research in areas such as climate science, healthcare, and computing.

• The enhancement of cloud and AI infrastructure to enable public services in 18 Indian languages and for millions of government employees.

These elements, according to Pichai, are meant to ensure that the new digital highways are accompanied by skills, capacity, and responsible use, to enable the Indian workforce and institutions to fully leverage the technology.

Experts, in comments to The Times of India, pointed out that the project is part of larger efforts to strengthen India-US collaboration in the tech and economic space, at a moment when digital infrastructure is increasingly becoming a geopolitical asset as much as an economic one.

They also consider the project to be of great importance to the connectivity of the world, with India being the new hub of the digital world, connecting not only through the traditional routes via the Middle East but also directly to Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific.

News explainers Sundar Pichai Says Google's $15 Billion AI Plan Will Connect India To Four Continents. Here's How

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