A consortium including Microsoft and telecom startup Lightstorm plans to build a new undersea cable linking India with Malaysia and Singapore as technology firms compete to expand AI and cloud infrastructure in India, one of the world’s fastest-growing data markets.
Project Details
The consortium, whose other members include Tata Communications, Singapore Telecommunications, Singapore’s ASEAN Cableship and Japan’s NEC Corporation, will construct the I-2SEA cable to support AI, cloud and hyperscale workloads.
The network will span 3,600 km and have landing stations in Machilipatnam in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where Meta and Alphabet have announced data centers. The cable is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2029.
India’s operational data center capacity could double from the current 1.4 gigawatts by 2027, based on projects under construction, and increase five-fold by 2030 if planned projects are fast-tracked, Macquarie Equity Research said in a report last October.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.