Optical & Fixed Networks

Asian subsea cable project announces major funding deal

Asian subsea cable project announces major funding deal

Singapore-based connectivity provider Lightstorm says it has secured approximately US$262million in debt financing for the development of the recently announced I-2SEA subsea cable project, which will link India with Malaysia and Singapore.

Lightstorm describes its business focus as interconnecting data centres, cloud regions, AI compute zones and edge corridors, aiming to deliver ultra-low latency, high-performance core network services across APAC.

The funding is structured as a debt facility led by India-based IndusInd Bank, a banking solutions provider and partner for approximately 42 million customers across India, including individuals, large corporations, various government entities and PSUs.

The 3,600 kilometre I-2SEA cable, which was first unveiled last month, will connect Hyderabad and Chennai on India's east coast to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

It will feature dual landing stations in India, one at Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh and another in South Chennai. It designed to serve hyperscalers, GPU infrastructure providers, and enterprises with AI training and inference workloads. The project is aiming to be ready for service by Q4 2029,

Media and event platform IDCNOVA reports that the project is being developed under a consortium and joint-build agreement involving Lightstorm, Microsoft, Singtel, and Tata Communications, with NEC serving as the system supplier and ASEAN Cableship acting as the marine installation partner.

With the debt facility now in place, Lightstorm and its partners are said to be well-positioned to move forward with the construction and deployment phases of the I-2SEA cable.



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