Google says project on famous crab-covered island is about cables, not combat

On Thursday, Reuters reported that Google is planning to build a large AI data center on Christmas Island, a 52-square-mile Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, following a cloud computing deal with Australia’s military. The report positions the facility as advanced AI infrastructure at a location military strategists consider critical for monitoring Chinese naval activity. However, Google has denied these claims, telling Ars Technica the project is actually about subsea cables, not AI data centers.

“We are not constructing ‘a large artificial intelligence data centre’ on Christmas Island,” a Google spokesperson told Ars. “This is a continuation of our Australia Connect work to deliver subsea cable infrastructure, and we look forward to sharing more soon.”

Despite the denial, Reuters has not retracted its story and says it has reviewed documents about Google’s data center plans on the island. What Google has publicly confirmed is that in November 2024, the company announced the Australia Connect initiative, which focuses on subsea cable infrastructure to improve digital connectivity across the Indo-Pacific region.

The centerpiece of this effort is the Bosun subsea cable, which will connect Darwin, Australia, to Christmas Island, with onward connectivity to Singapore. According to Google’s announcement, Bosun is named after both the White-tailed Tropicbird (the iconic bird of Christmas Island) and the nautical term for a ship’s lead deckhand. An additional interlink cable will connect Melbourne, Perth, and Christmas Island, creating new digital pathways throughout the region.

Google is also working with partners like Vocus to deliver terrestrial fiber pairs connecting Darwin to the Sunshine Coast, which will link the Bosun cable with the Tabua subsea cable system connecting the United States, Australia, and Fiji.

Aside from its potential strategic position for communications, Christmas Island is famous for its massive annual crab migration, where over 100 million red crabs make their way across the island to spawn in the ocean. The tech giant has applied for environmental approvals to build the subsea cable connecting the 135-square-kilometer island to Darwin, where US Marines are stationed for six months each year.