Google’s ‘America-India connect’ plan expands tech empire, threatens U.S. digital sovereignty

Google has unveiled a massive new infrastructure initiative that will stretch high-capacity fiber-optic cables between the United States and India, a development with sweeping implications for national digital sovereignty, global artificial-intelligence domination and America’s economic future.

The project, called America-India Connect, was announced this week at a high-profile AI summit in New Delhi by Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. It promises to build multiple new sub-sea communication routes linking the U.S., India and several Southern Hemisphere locations, part of a broader multi-billion-dollar digital infrastructure strategy.

According to Google, the initiative will deliver four strategic fiber-optic routes and three new sub-sea paths connecting India to Singapore, South Africa and Australia, bolstering the speed, capacity and resilience of internet traffic across continents.

A ‘global connectivity’ pitch with real geopolitical heft

Google says the new network will “improve access to AI tools and services” and expand digital connectivity beyond traditional markets. The company’s formal statements frame the effort as a way to close global gaps in infrastructure and bring AI and cloud services to billions more people.

However, what is being sold as a connectivity boon could have major geopolitical consequences:

• It deepens dependency on foreign digital infrastructure, especially in India, a country with a growing push for global tech leadership.
• It embeds American data flow and AI platforms even more firmly in Indian networks, potentially giving Silicon Valley giants greater leverage over foreign markets.
• It may even shift the center of internet traffic and artificial-intelligence workloads away from U.S. soil toward overseas hubs.

Undersea fiber cables are the backbone of the global internet, carrying more than 95% of international data traffic. They are also considered strategic infrastructure because they influence everything from financial networks and cloud computing to national security surveillance capabilities.

Private tech monopoly meets public infrastructure

Unlike traditional public utilities, Google’s network plays to its corporate strategy: Capture data flow, dominate AI service delivery and assure customer lock-in on a global scale. The company’s $15 billion investment in India’s AI infrastructure footprint over five years already signals its intention to make the country a central node in its AI ecosystem – and the new fiber links cement that relationship.

At the summit, Pichai also touted new grants and public-sector partnership programs aimed at expanding AI in public services and scientific research, moves that further blur lines between big tech and governance, including new partnerships between Indian government bodies and local institutions to unlock new discoveries in science and education.

National security and data sovereignty concerns

While U.S. policymakers have increasingly scrutinized foreign influence in America’s universities, political star chambers and critical infrastructure, undersea cable networks have received far less oversight. Yet these very cables carry the digital lifeblood of global commerce and communication, from corporate transactions to military coordination.

Experts note that new global cable routes passing outside traditional Western-centric hubs give foreign powers and private tech monopolies unprecedented slices of data control, complicating U.S. strategic interests. In the past, similar large-scale cable plans have raised warnings about geopolitics, security risks and data privacy implications.

What all this means for the U.S.

For Americans, from workers and small businesses to Defense Department contractors, the Google announcement raises stark questions:

• Who controls the critical infrastructure that underpins tomorrow’s economy?
• Are future data flows and AI services going to be governed by corporate interests or by democratic oversight?
• Does a tech giant’s pursuit of global expansion align with American economic and national security interests?

As Washington continues to tighten visa rules and domestic tech policy, Google’s strategy appears to be choosing global reach over domestic guardrails, weaving a digital network that stretches well beyond U.S. borders. In a world where infrastructure equals influence, the rise of America-India Connect may soon define not just internet traffic, but global power trajectories for the next decade and beyond.

The Sundar factor: Would Google be this committed to India without an India-born CEO?

A fair question now hangs over Google’s latest U.S.-to-India fiber move: Would an American-born Google be investing this heavily, this consistently and this strategically in India if the company were not led by an India-born chief executive? No public record can prove motive. But the timeline is real and it is striking.

Sundar Pichai became Google’s CEO in August 2015 and later became Alphabet’s CEO in 2019, consolidating control over the company’s biggest strategic bets. See the official congressional biography noting his 2015 CEO appointment here: Congressional bio of Sundar Pichai.

From that point forward, Google’s India alignment moved from “important market” to “core platform,” with a sustained buildout across capital, cloud, cables, government programs and national talent pipelines.

The receipts: Expansion and alignment, step by step

2020 – a formal India investment vehicle: In July 2020, Pichai announced a $10 billion “Google for India Digitization Fund,” explicitly framed as a multi-year investment across equity, partnerships, operations and infrastructure.

Google’s own post is here: Investing in India’s digital future (Google blog, July 13, 2020).

Google’s companion “Google for India 2020” announcement is here: Google for India 2020 announcements.

2020: a major stake in India’s telecom backbone: Two days later, Google announced a $4.5 billion investment for a 7.73% stake in Reliance Jio Platforms, described by Google as the first investment from that India Digitization Fund.

Google’s statement is here: Bringing internet access to millions more Indians with Jio (Google blog, July 15, 2020).

2020 to 2021 – Cloud infrastructure aimed at public sector and regulated workloads: Google announced plans for a Delhi cloud region in March 2020, then opened the Delhi NCR region in July 2021, explicitly positioning it to support customers and the public sector in India and across Asia Pacific.

More evidence: Growing our investment in India with a new cloud region (Google blog, March 5, 2020) and The Google Cloud region in Delhi NCR is now open (Google Cloud blog, July 15, 2021).

2025: Deeper government facing AI alignment

In late 2025, Google publicly described India as a central AI buildout target, including funding for government AI Centers of Excellence tied to India’s national “Make AI in India and Make AI work for India” framing.

Google also announced an AI hub in Visakhapatnam in October 2025, describing a bundled model of AI infrastructure, data center capacity, energy and expanded fiber-optic network.

See Google Cloud Press Corner: Google announces AI hub in India (Oct. 14, 2025).

2026: The cables, the talent, the policy language

At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Pichai announced “America India Connect,” including a new India-U.S. subsea cable and wider connectivity initiatives tied to AI scale.

At the same time, India’s talent pipeline institutions are being plugged into Google-branded skilling and internship ecosystems. For example, AICTE and EduSkills list Google tracks such as “Google AI ML” as part of their virtual internship offerings. See EduSkills’ program page: AICTE EduSkills virtual internships.

Google’s India posture is not just market expansion. It is also institutional integration.

The Confederation of India Industry (CII) has hosted formal education and capacity building programming with Google for Education, reflecting the kind of industry body alignment that helps normalize policy friendly partnerships and workforce pipelines. Put plainly, this is how a multinational moves from selling products into a country to embedding itself into that country’s industrial policy, skilling apparatus and digital infrastructure.

Again, there is no public document that says, “Google is doing this because its CEO is Indian-born.” But there is also no denying the pattern. Since Pichai’s rise to CEO, Google has escalated India commitments across:

• Capital deployment, including the $10 billion India digitization fund
• Ownership and reliance in critical telecom and data pathways, including Jio and now new subsea routes
• Cloud regions and infrastructure built for sensitive enterprise and public sector workloads
• Government adjacent AI programs and national AI branding
• Workforce and education pipelines tied to India’s skilling institutions and industry bodies

For Americans watching Big Tech’s loyalty drift from domestic priorities toward foreign-aligned infrastructure strategies, the question is no longer fringe. It is rational. If the next decade’s AI economy runs on data centers, cables and labor pipelines, then the center of gravity matters.

And Google is very clearly helping move that center of gravity toward India.