Google unveils new subsea cables to strengthen AI links between India, US

Sundar Pichai announced the India America Connect Initiative, bringing new sub-sea cable routes and AI-focused investments to deepen India-US digital and scientific cooperation

Alphabet and Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai on Wednesday announced the India-America Connect Initiative, a new infrastructure effort that will deliver new subsea cable routes at multiple locations across the Southern Hemisphere to boost artificial intelligence (AI) connectivity between the US and India.

 

“To take advantage of the opportunities this infrastructure creates, we must also invest in people and skilling,” Pichai said during his India visit at the ongoing AI Impact Summit.

 

Google will roll out an AI professional certificate programme aimed at helping professionals apply AI in the workplace. The company will also partner Wadhwani AI to give early-career students access to AI training. 

In addition, Google will work with government-run Atal Tinkering Labs to provide generative AI assistants to more than 10,000 Indian schools, reaching around 11 million students, with a focus on robotics and coding.

 

Google will soon launch an enhanced version of its voice- and camera-based tool, Searchlight, enabling users to search what they see in their native languages. Indian users, Pichai said, are among the highest global adopters of voice and visual search.

 

India is also among the company’s largest markets for its flagship large language model-based chatbot, Gemini.

 

Speaking about the company’s $15 billion AI hub investment, Pichai said that once completed, the subsea cable and data centre infrastructure would generate jobs and bring advanced AI capabilities to businesses across India.

 

Citing the government’s 2025 AI Readiness Index, which places India in the top tier globally for public sector AI adoption, Pichai said Google Cloud would provide infrastructure for a platform supporting more than 20 million public servants across 800 districts in 18 Indian languages.

 

“AI is fundamentally shifting the pace of discovery. From advancing quantum computing to predicting extreme weather, it is giving us tools to understand the universe more deeply and tackle hard scientific problems,” Pichai said.

 

Google also announced a new $30 million Science Impact Challenge grant from Google.org to support the next generation of scientific breakthroughs.

 

Under the National Partnerships for AI initiative, Google DeepMind and the Indian government will partner to expand access to frontier AI capabilities levelled with national priorities.

 

“Google has a full-stack commitment to India, and I have never been more excited about the future we are building together,” Pichai said.

 

India is also uniquely positioned to play a big role as a full-stack player in AI, he said.

 

“You have to make sure you are investing in all the foundational things you need (such as) research, knowledge and institutions, and the government playing a role in diffusing AI across the country and economy,” Pichai said during a panel discussion which also had Demis Hassabis, the CEO and co-founder of Google DeepMind, James Manyika, a senior vice president of of Research, Labs, Technology & Society, at the company, and NITI Aayog distinguished fellow Debjani Ghosh.