Google LLC is taking its efforts to gain an edge in the public cloud market to a new front: the ocean floor.

The technology giant today announced plans to lay three undersea fiber-optic links as part of an ambitious new infrastructure expansion. The most significant of the projects is the Curie cable, which is named after two-time Nobel prize winner Marie Curie and will stretch 6,200 miles from Los Angeles to Chile. Google said it will be the first fully private submarine internet line to be built by a company outside the telecommunications sector.

Because it won’t have to share the link with other buyers, the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary will gain the ability to customize the project according to its technical requirements. This includes everything from the design of the cable to the way traffic is routed.

On the flip side, the cable won’t come cheap. Google Vice President of Engineering Ben Taylor told the Wall Street Journal that the combined cost of Curie and the two other planned subsea links is expected to be in the nine figures.

With the latter projects, Google has taken the more conventional approach of joining construction consortia. The first cable, which is set to run from the U.S. to Ireland and Denmark, will be built in collaboration with Facebook Inc. on a 4,500-mile stretch of ocean floor. The other link is intended to connect Hong Kong with Guam. It’s expected to measure 2,400 miles coast to coast.

The three links will come online next year, bringing the total number of submarine communications lines that Google owns a stake in to 11. The search giant said the network already handles as much as 25 percent of the world’s internet traffic.

In conjunction with the submarine communications initiative, Google revealed that it intends to launch five additional cloud regions worldwide. A cloud region consists at least two data centers set up a safe distance apart for reliability purposes. The new sites will be located in the Netherlands, Finland, Los Angeles, Montreal and Hong Kong, on which the company originally set its sights last year.

The expansion will significantly extend Google’s cloud reach, particularly overseas. Its push to establish a stronger global presence comes as bigger rivals Amazon Web Services Inc. and Microsoft Corp. also work to grow their infrastructure footprints.

Image: Google