Kamal Ghorui
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, betting big on India’s artificial intelligence ambitions, on Wednesday announced a new India-US subsea cable initiative, a $30 million AI for Science fund and expanded skilling partnerships, outlining what he described as a long-term commitment to the country’s AI-led growth.Speaking at the AI Impact Summit 2026, Google’s boss said India is set for an “extraordinary trajectory” in AI and that the company wants to be a partner in that journey.
“I believe India is going to have an extraordinary trajectory with AI, and we want to be a partner,” he said.
India-America connect initiative
Among the key announcements unveiled by Google was the India-America Connect Initiative, a new series of subsea cable routes aimed at strengthening AI connectivity between the United States, India and multiple locations across the Southern Hemisphere.“Google has full-stack connectivity in India, and I have never been more excited about the future we are building together,” Pichai said.He also referred to Google’s previously announced $15-billion AI hub in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, which will house gigawatt-scale compute capacity and an international subsea cable gateway. Once completed, the facility is expected to bring advanced AI infrastructure and jobs to India.
$30m AI for science impact challenge
On the research front, Google launched a $30 million AI for Science Impact Challenge to support global researchers using AI to accelerate scientific breakthroughs.AI, Pichai said, is fundamentally shifting the pace of discovery, from quantum computing advances to predicting extreme weather.“AI is the biggest platform shift of our lifetime,” he said, describing it as one of the most powerful tools to solve problems at planetary scale.
Skilling push: Public servants to schools
Google also announced major skilling initiatives in India, including the Google AI Professional Certificate Programme in English and Hindi for students and early-career professionals.A partnership with Karma Yogi Bharat will see Google Cloud provide secure infrastructure support to a platform serving more than 20 million public servants across 800 districts in 18 Indian languages.In the education sector, Google said it will work with Atal Tinkering Labs to introduce generative AI assistance to over 10,000 schools and 11 million students, with a focus on robotics and coding. “AI has the biggest impact on people’s lives when it is developed and deployed with the institutions that know these communities best,” Pichai said. He also announced a partnership between Google DeepMind and the Indian government under the global National Partnerships Program to broaden access to frontier AI capabilities.
India’s AI potential
Pichai asserted India’s strengths, linguistic diversity, digital public infrastructure and scale, calling them a “powerful foundation for innovation” and a potential blueprint for democratising AI globally.“AI must work across languages and local contexts. It must deliver real-world benefits people can rely on. Trust grows when technology is transparent, responsible, and grounded in outcomes,” he said.Earlier in the day, Pichai met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the summit. “We discussed how Google is helping with his mission to infuse AI at all levels in India to improve health, expand access to information in all languages, support startups, agriculture and so much more,” Pichai said in a post on X.With announcements spanning connectivity, infrastructure, skilling and research, Google signalled a broad-based push aligned with India’s expanding AI ambitions.
