Lightstorm, Microsoft, Singtel, and Tata Communications to build AI-focused subsea cable

Lightstorm, with consortium partners Microsoft, Singtel and Tata Communications, today announced the official signing of contracts to launch the build of a new submarine cable system connecting India, Malaysia and Singapore.

The cable system, named I-2SEA, is designed from the ground up to serve the rapidly growing demand from hyperscalers, GPU infrastructure providers and enterprises running AI training and inference workloads across the India–Southeast Asia corridor. NEC Corporation has been appointed as the system supplier and ASEAN Cableship Pte Ltd (ACPL) as the marine installation partner.

"I-2SEA links India's East Coast, home to the fastest-growing AI and hyperscaler data centre clusters in Hyderabad and Chennai, directly to Singapore, the region's preeminent cloud interconnect and AI hub, and Malaysia's emerging data centre corridor at Kuala Lumpur," the statement read.

The cable system will have dual landings in India, with one at Machilipatnam providing the shortest subsea access to Hyderabad, and the other at a new diverse landing location in South Chennai. Lightstorm customers using the cable system will have the option of connecting into the company's 30,000+ km terrestrial network for seamless onward reach to Hyderabad, Mumbai and more than 80 data centres nationwide.

Targeted to be ready for service in Q4 2029, the high-capacity cable, with an estimated total length of 3,600 km from Singapore to Machilipatnam and onward connectivity to Hyderabad when coupled with Lightstorm's low-latency backhaul network in India, is expected to deliver the fastest transmission of any cable on the Singapore/Malaysia–Hyderabad corridor, the company said.

Built for AI workloads across the region

"As majority owner of I-2SEA and with SmartNet AI Fabric already delivering AI-ready transport across data centres and GPU clusters in India, we can now offer the natural extension of that platform into the subsea domain. On our network, AI regions across India, Malaysia and Singapore will be connected by a single, purpose-built, end-to-end system — engineered for the performance and scale that AI infrastructure requires," said Amajit Gupta, Group CEO & MD, Lightstorm.

I-2SEA will integrate Lightstorm's SmartNet AI Fabric, engineered for low-jitter, loss-optimized transport across data centres, cloud hubs and distributed AI zones, into the subsea domain. Lightstorm will operate the cable system's Indian landing stations and provide unified network management through its SmartNet AI Fabric and Polarin platform. The system features interoperable cable architecture and carrier-neutral landing infrastructure at both Indian landing points.

"Combined with Lightstorm's Polarin platform for on-demand provisioning and real-time network visibility, Lightstorm customers can activate, scale and monitor I-2SEA capacity with speed and flexibility," the company said.

"Built with resilience at its core, the system utilises optimal route planning combined with a deep cable burial strategy that targets three-metre depth across the entire network for the buried sections. This gives the I-2SEA cable system a high level of protection and high uptime," the statement said.

The company added that the system is now open for capacity commitments.