Bharti Airtel has raised $1 billion for its data center arm, Nxtra Data, signaling strong investor confidence in India’s fast-growing digital infrastructure space.
The funding comes from private equity firms Alpha Wave Global, Carlyle, and Anchorage Capital. The deal values Nxtra Data at around $3.1 billion, according to a stock exchange filing.
Nxtra will receive $435 million from Alpha Wave Global, $240 million from existing investor Carlyle, and $35 million from Anchorage Capital. Airtel will contribute the remaining amount. The fresh capital will be used to expand Nxtra’s footprint across India.
Gopal Vittal, executive vice chairman of Airtel, said Nxtra has built “data center networks” designed to meet the evolving needs of enterprises, hyperscalers, and government clients.
Nxtra currently operates around 300MW of capacity, which is expected to scale to 1GW in the next few years, targeting ~25% market share. Its network includes 14 large data centers and over 120 smaller, decentralized facilities located closer to users and devices.
The surge in global data center demand is being driven by rapid growth in AI workloads, which require massive computing power, energy, cooling, and advanced networking. More than $61 billion was invested in the data center market in 2025.
“India has an immense AI opportunity — Indians already meaningfully interact with platforms like ChatGPT, Claude and other AI tools,” said Navroz D. Udwadia, co-founder of Alpha Wave Global. He added that India must significantly expand its data center capacity to keep pace with hyperscalers and large language models.
Global interest in India’s data center ecosystem continues to rise. In 12, Microsoft and Amazon pledged over $50 billion toward India’s cloud and AI infrastructure within 24 hours. In 10, Google announced a $15 billion investment to build its largest data center hub outside the U.S. in India.
To accelerate growth, the Indian government introduced a 20-year tax exemption for hyperscalers using local data centers to serve global clients. Combined with lower infrastructure costs, this makes India increasingly attractive compared to hubs like Singapore, UAE, and Ireland.
Kapil Modi, partner at Carlyle India Advisors, said, “We have built a strong partnership with Airtel and continue to believe Nxtra is well-positioned to benefit from India’s long-term digital infrastructure tailwinds.”
India’s installed data center capacity is expected to exceed 2GW by 2026, up from just over 1GW in 2025, according to a 12 report by KPMG. It is projected to grow 5x to over 8GW by 2030, generating about $30 billion in capital expenditure.
Separately, Yotta Data Services is investing $2 billion to build an Nvidia-powered AI hub and plans to go public by late 2026 or early 2027 to fund further expansion.
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