Google establishes a new transatlantic cable between the EU and Portugal

At a time when demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services is skyrocketing. Alphabet’s Google announced on Tuesday that it had successfully connected a new transatlantic underwater cable to Sines, Portugal, opening a new data conduit between the United States and Europe.

Google’s Nuvem cable, named after the Portuguese word for «cloud,» travels across Bermuda and the Azores to connect Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to Sines, south of Lisbon.

The 16 fiber pairs that make up the roughly 7,000-kilometer Nuvem cable system have a combined design capacity of about 384 terabits per second.

Giorgia Abeltino, director of government affairs and public policy for Google Cloud in EMEA. Stated that Nuvem is part of a broader vision for Portugal and Europe to invest in the strategic infrastructure that underpins the digital economy.

Submarine cables form the backbone of the global network, carrying more than 95% of global data traffic.

Portugal is already connected to other continents by two high-capacity submarine cables: EllaLink. Which travels from Sines to Brazil, and Equiano, owned by Google, which travels to South Africa via other African nations.

Nuvem is a component of a larger plan to make Portugal a center for data centers, AI, and innovation while also bolstering Europe’s digital resilience and sovereignty, according to Gonçalo Matias, Minister of State Reform and Innovation.

Portugal’s Atlantic coast positions it as a key hub for intercontinental submarine cables, helping to make the country a magnet for AI-powered data centers.

Lisbon also aims to harness the abundant, low-cost renewable energy from hydroelectric, solar, and wind sources, with over 2.6 gigawatts of capacity currently under development.