By Sergio Goncalves
LISBON, July 21 (Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google has successfully connected a new transatlantic subsea cable to Sines in Portugal, it said on Tuesday, adding another U.S.-Europe data route as demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services surges.
Google’s Nuvem, named after the Portuguese word for “cloud”, links Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with Sines, south of Lisbon, via Bermuda and the Azores.
The Nuvem cable system, which spans about 7,000 km (4,350 miles), comprises 16 fibre pairs with a total design capacity of around 384 terabits per second.
Giorgia Abeltino, head of government affairs and public policy for Google Cloud EMEA, said Nuvem was part of a wider vision for Portugal and Europe to invest in the strategic infrastructure underpinning the digital economy.
Subsea cables form the backbone of the world wide web, carrying more than 95% of global data traffic.
Two high-capacity subsea cables already link Portugal with other continents — the Google-owned Equiano cable that runs to South Africa via other African countries, and the EllaLink that runs to Brazil from Sines.
State Reform and Innovation Minister Goncalo Matias said Nuvem was part of a broader strategy to make Portugal a hub for data centres, AI and innovation, while bolstering Europe’s digital resilience and sovereignty.
“Portugal is becoming what geography always invited us to be — the Atlantic gateway of Europe, the meeting point of three continents: Europe, Africa, and the Americas,” he said at the cable landing ceremony.
Portugal’s Atlantic coastline positions it as a prime hub for intercontinental subsea cables, helping to turn the country into a magnet for AI-driven data centres.
Lisbon also seeks to leverage abundant low-cost renewable energy from hydro, solar and wind sources, with more than 2.6 gigawatts of capacity under development.
The pipeline is led by the 1.2-GW Start Campus project in Sines, which is set to benefit from Microsoft’s AI infrastructure investments, and is expected to grow substantially in the years ahead.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Jan Harvey)
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