Can India Rival US, China and UAE in AI After Google’s New Undersea Cables?

Google’s announcement that it will build new undersea fibre-optic cables connecting India to Singapore, South Africa, Australia and the United States is more than a telecom upgrade - it is a strategic move to strengthen India’s artificial intelligence backbone.

The cables will support Google’s planned $15 billion AI infrastructure hub in Visakhapatnam, set to become its largest AI facility outside the United States.

But the bigger question remains: can India realistically rival the US, China and the UAE in AI leadership?

Why Undersea Cables Matter for AI

Subsea cables carry the majority of global internet traffic. For AI systems, this infrastructure is critical because:

• AI model training requires massive data transfers

• Cloud-based AI services rely on cross-border connectivity

• Low-latency networks improve real-time AI deployment

By creating a new digital gateway outside Mumbai and Chennai, India strengthens:

• Data resilience

• Infrastructure redundancy

• Economic security

• Data centre scalability

This marks an important foundational step - but infrastructure alone does not create AI leadership.

How the US and China Still Dominate

The United States and China maintain their lead because they control:

• Advanced semiconductor design and manufacturing

• High-performance AI chips

• Frontier research institutions

• Massive venture and state-backed funding

Companies like Alphabet, Nvidia and major Chinese tech firms dominate core AI hardware and foundational model development.

India still relies heavily on foreign chipmakers and global cloud providers for advanced AI workloads.

Where India Is Gaining Ground

India’s strength lies in scale and adoption:

• One of the world’s largest software engineering workforces

• Expanding cloud and startup ecosystems

• Massive digital user base generating large data volumes

India recently ranked third in a global AI competitiveness study by Stanford researchers, overtaking Japan and South Korea.

Global firms are also expanding AI capacity locally. Nvidia has partnered with Indian cloud providers to supply processors for domestic AI data centres - signalling that India is becoming a major AI deployment hub.

Where the UAE Stands

While India builds scale, the UAE has focused on execution.

The UAE ranks among global leaders in AI investment and resilience, embedding AI into:

• Government services

• Public education

• Healthcare systems

• Smart infrastructure

Abu Dhabi-backed investment fund MGX has taken stakes in major AI developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

The UAE has also built credibility through open-source models like Falcon, positioning itself as a neutral AI innovation hub.

This execution-first approach has allowed the UAE to punch above its population size in AI influence.

Can India Close the Gap?

In the near term, India still lags behind in:

• Chip manufacturing

• Cutting-edge foundational AI research

• Homegrown large AI models

However, Google’s undersea cable expansion improves India’s long-term competitiveness by strengthening digital infrastructure - a prerequisite for AI scale.

Structured financial oversight and ecosystem compliance frameworks - similar to systems reinforced through auditing services in india - will be essential if India aims to translate infrastructure gains into sustained AI leadership.

The Bottom Line

India cannot yet rival the US or China in frontier AI development.

But the gap is narrowing.

With:

• Strong digital infrastructure

• Expanding AI data centres

• A massive developer base

• Growing global partnerships

India may not invent the most advanced models first - but it could become one of the world’s largest AI deployment and adoption hubs.

The race is no longer just about who builds AI.
It is about who scales it most effectively.