Google has announced an additional landing point for its Trans-Atlantic Nuvem cable. The upcoming system will now also land on the Portuguese Azores islands.

First announced last year, Nuvem is a transatlantic subsea cable system that will connect Portugal, Bermuda, and the United States.

“This week, we’re sharing plans to extend the system to the Azores,” Google said in a recent update. “Named after the Portuguese word for “cloud,” Nuvem will improve network resiliency across the Atlantic, helping meet growing demand for digital services and further establishing its landing locations as digital hubs.”

Announced in September 2023, Nuvem is set to go live in 2026. Further details about landing points were not shared.

This will be the first international cable landing at the Azores (known in Portuguese as Açores). The islands, an autonomous region of Portugal about 1,400 km (870 mi) west of Lisbon, are currently linked to the mainland via Altice’s Columbus-III Azores-Portugal system from 1999. A new cable known as the New CAM Ring is due live in 2026, again only connecting to mainland Portugal.

Reports from last year suggest Portuguese politicians were pushing hard to ensure the Nuvem cable landed at the Azores.

The cable will be the first to connect Bermuda with Europe. Google had come under fire from locals for considering placing its landing station for the cable next to a locally important memorial site in Bermuda. The company is reportedly looking to build a 50,000 sq ft (4,645 sqm) cable landing station between the Southside police station and the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Centre – a site currently used as a dirt track for remote-controlled cars.

In the US, Nuvem is set to land at DC Blox’s cable landing station and data center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where the cloud company will also be landing its Firmina cable.