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Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) is an important conduit for nutrients to reach the nutrient‐poor low‐latitude ocean areas. In the Atlantic, it forms part of the return path of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Despite the importance of AAIW, little is known about variations in its composition and signature during the prominent AMOC and climate changes of the last deglaciation. Here we reconstruct benthic foraminiferal Mg/Ca‐based intermediate water temperatures (IWTMg/Ca) and intermediate water neodymium (Nd) isotope compositions at submillennial resolution from unique sediment cores located at the northern tip of modern AAIW extent in the tropical W‐Atlantic (850‐ and 1018‐m water depth). Our data indicate a pronounced warming of AAIW in the tropical W‐Atlantic during Heinrich Stadial 1 and the Younger Dryas. We argue that these warming events were induced by major AMOC perturbations resulting in the pronounced accumulation of heat in the surface Southern Ocean. Combined with published results, our data suggest the subsequent uptake of Southern Ocean heat by AAIW and its rapid northward transfer to the tropical W‐Atlantic. Hence, the rapid deglacial northern climate perturbations directly controlled the AAIW heat budget in the tropical W‐Atlantic after a detour via the Southern Ocean. We speculate that the ocean heat redistribution via AAIW effectively dampened Southern Hemisphere warming during the deglaciation and may therefore have been a crucial player in the climate seesaw mechanisms between the two hemispheres.

During times of deglacial Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) perturbations, the tropical Atlantic experienced considerable warming at subsurface levels. Coupled ocean‐atmosphere simulations corroborate the tight teleconnection between the tropical Atlantic and climate change at high northern latitudes but still underestimate the relevance of the subsurface North Atlantic subtropical gyre (STG) for heat and salt storage and its sensitivity to rapid climatic change. We here reconstruct vertical and lateral temperature and salinity gradients in the tropical west Atlantic and the Caribbean over the last 30 kyr, based on planktic deep and shallow dwelling foraminiferal Mg/Ca and δ18O records. The rapid and large‐amplitude subsurface changes illustrate a dynamic STG associated with abrupt shifts of North Atlantic hydrographic and atmospheric regimes. During full glacial conditions, the STG has been shifted southward while intensified Ekman downwelling associated to strengthened trade winds fostered the formation of warm and saline salinity maximum water (SMW). The southward propagation of SMW was facilitated by the glacially eastward deflected North Brazil Current. During periods of significant AMOC perturbations (Heinrich Stadials 1 and the Younger Dryas), extreme subsurface warming by ~6 °C led to diminished lateral subsurface temperature gradients. Coevally, a deep thermocline suggests that SMW fully occupied the subsurface tropical west Atlantic and that the STG reached its southernmost position. During the Holocene, modern‐like conditions gradually developed with the northward retreat of SMW and the development of a strong thermocline ridge between the Subtropical Gyre and the tropical west Atlantic.

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