Microsoft-Backed Consortium to Build 3,600-Kilometer I-2SEA Undersea Cable Linking India's AI Hubs to Singapore and Malaysia
Lightstorm, Microsoft, Singtel, and Tata Communications will build the 3,600 km I-2SEA submarine cable linking India's AI data centers to Singapore and Malaysia by Q4 2029.
Overview
A consortium including Microsoft and Singapore-based 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, according to Reuters reporting republished by Asharq Al-Awsat. The consortium, whose other members include Tata Communications, Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel), Singapore’s ASEAN Cableship and Japan’s NEC Corporation, will construct the cable, named I-2SEA, to support AI, cloud and hyperscale workloads, the report said.
What We Know
The I-2SEA system will span 3,600 kilometers and have landing stations in Machilipatnam, in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where Meta and Alphabet have announced data centers, according to Asharq Al-Awsat. DataCenterDynamics reported that the route will also carry a second Indian landing at South Chennai, connecting on to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Tata Communications said it expects the Chennai-Singapore leg of the system to be Ready for Service in the fourth quarter of 2029, per DataCenterDynamics, a timeline that matches the fourth-quarter-2029 target cited by Lightstorm Group CEO and Managing Director Amajit Gupta in the Asharq Al-Awsat report.
NEC is the system supplier and ASEAN Cableship is the marine installation partner, according to DataCenterDynamics. Lightstorm describes itself as the majority owner of the I-2SEA consortium, according to the company’s own press release announcing the build. The cable will connect to Lightstorm’s SmartNet AI Fabric, which the company says offers low-jitter, loss-optimized transport across data centers, cloud hubs, and distributed AI zones, and to its Polarin platform for on-demand provisioning and real-time network visibility, per DataCenterDynamics and the Lightstorm press release. Lightstorm’s release also describes a deep cable burial strategy that targets three-meter depth across the buried sections of the network.
Lightstorm, which is backed by infrastructure investor I Squared Capital, currently connects 19 AI and cloud zones across India through terrestrial fiber networks, and expects I-2SEA to bring that number up to 29, according to Asharq Al-Awsat. Separately, Gupta said Lightstorm plans to list in India in mid-2027; the company was seeking a valuation of up to $1.5 billion in March, according to media reports cited in the same Asharq Al-Awsat report.
The project comes against a backdrop of rapidly expanding Indian AI infrastructure demand. India’s operational data center capacity, currently 1.4 gigawatts, could double by 2027 based on projects already under construction, and increase five-fold by 2030 if planned projects are fast-tracked, according to Asharq Al-Awsat — a growth trajectory independently corroborated by Capacity. Undersea cables carry roughly 95% of the world’s internet traffic; India currently has 17 active submarine cables with a maximum potential capacity of 960 terabits per second, and at least 10 more have been publicly announced, per Asharq Al-Awsat, figures also independently reported by Capacity.
What We Don’t Know
None of the reporting discloses the investment size or contract value behind I-2SEA. It is not clear how fiber pair count or total design capacity of the new cable compares with existing India-Southeast Asia routes, and no pricing or capacity-lease terms have been disclosed for hyperscaler or enterprise customers. The precise construction schedule between now and the projected fourth-quarter-2029 Ready for Service date has also not been detailed.
Analysis
The I-2SEA build fits a broader pattern in which hyperscalers are moving beyond leasing capacity on existing subsea systems to co-building new ones tailored to AI workloads, reflecting how the compute buildout driving demand for power and land at data center sites is now reshaping investment in the physical cable links between those sites. Gupta framed the project around that logic in Lightstorm’s own announcement, saying Lightstorm’s mission is “interconnecting intelligence,” and that as majority owner of I-2SEA and with SmartNet AI Fabric already delivering AI-ready transport across data centers and GPU clusters in India, the company can now offer “the natural extension of that platform into the subsea domain.” With Machilipatnam already hosting data center announcements from both Meta and Alphabet, per Asharq Al-Awsat, the new landing point suggests infrastructure investment is starting to cluster around the same coastal sites, linking inland AI compute directly to Singapore’s cloud interconnect hub rather than routing through more distant, general-purpose international cable systems.