Google just laid the groundwork, literally, on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The company’s Nuvem submarine cable, stretching roughly 7,000 kilometers from South Carolina to Portugal, is on track to become operational in the second half of 2026. It’s the first transatlantic cable system fully owned and financed by Google, and it’s designed to carry approximately 384 terabits per second of data capacity.
What Google is actually building
The Nuvem system runs from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, across to Sines, Portugal, with strategic landing points in Bermuda and the Azores along the way. The cable features 16 fiber pairs, each capable of pushing roughly 24 Tbps. Google Cloud VP Brian Quigley first announced the project on September 25, 2023, and the Portugal connection was reported as completed on July 21, 2026. Construction supplier SubCom, one of the world’s leading submarine cable manufacturers, handled the physical build.
Google is running the entire operation through its subsidiary Starfish Infrastructure, ensuring compliance with FCC regulations while keeping full ownership and control. That’s a notable departure from the consortium model that has historically dominated submarine cable projects, where multiple telecom companies split costs and capacity.
Why this matters in the AI infrastructure race
Google already operates several major submarine cables. The Dunant cable connects the US and France. Equiano links Europe to Africa. Firmina runs from the US to South America. Nuvem fills a gap in Google’s network by adding another high-capacity route between North America and the Iberian Peninsula.
The capacity numbers tell a compelling story about where demand is heading. When Google launched the Dunant cable in 2020, its 250 Tbps capacity was considered massive. Nuvem’s 384 Tbps represents a 54% jump in a single cable’s throughput, reflecting how quickly bandwidth requirements have escalated in just a few years.
The competitive landscape under the ocean
Google isn’t building in a vacuum. Microsoft has invested heavily in submarine infrastructure, and Meta has explored its own transatlantic cable projects. Amazon Web Services, while less public about its subsea investments, benefits from partnerships with cable operators worldwide.
The geopolitical dimension adds another layer. Companies like China Mobile and HMN Technologies (formerly Huawei Marine Networks) have been expanding their own submarine cable footprints across Asia, Africa, and increasingly into Latin America. The US has previously blocked Chinese-backed cable projects on national security grounds. Google’s decision to keep Nuvem entirely under its own ownership, rather than partnering with foreign entities, sidesteps those concerns entirely.