Bharti Airtel has announced an investment of $1 billion by Alpha Wave Global, Carlyle and Anchorage Capital, through their affiliates, in Nxtra Data Limited (Nxtra), to expand its network across India and accelerate growth. Airtel will also participate in this round.
As part of the pact, Alpha Wave Global will invest $435 million, Carlyle $240 million, Anchorage Capital $35 million, with the rest being infused by Airtel. The investors’ final shareholding will be subject to finalised post-closing adjustments. Airtel will continue to retain a controlling stake in Nxtra. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals in India.
Nxtra intends to deploy proceeds from the fund infusion to accelerate its growth plans. It plans to extensively scale its infrastructure and broaden its portfolio of services, catering to the evolving needs of enterprises, hyperscalers, and government organisations across the country.
Commenting on the announcement, executive vice chairman, Airtel, said, “At Nxtra, we have built one of India’s most advanced and sustainable data centre networks, designed to meet the evolving needs of enterprises, hyperscalers, and government. With around 300MW capacity today, we aim to scale to 1GW in the next few years, targeting approximately 25 per cent market share. Strategic partnerships with global investors and technology leaders are central to our growth roadmap, enabling us to accelerate expansion, harness world-class expertise, and deliver next- generation digital infrastructure solutions at scale. With strong market demand, we are committed to stepping up investments and strengthening India’s position as a leading data centre hub.”
Meanwhile, partner, 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. The company has made significant progress in expanding its capabilities, strengthening customer relationships and building a scalable platform, and we look forward to further working with Airtel and Nxtra’s management team to build the company into one of the largest data centre players in India.”
In addition, co-founder and chief executive officer, Alpha Wave Global, said, “Alpha Wave has a particular focus on identifying and backing artificial intelligence (AI) first businesses including Anthropic, OpenAI, Cerebras, SpaceX, X.ai, Ramp, Cognition and Long Lake Management. We are excited to partner with Mr Sunil Mittal and the Bharti Group, a franchise defined by outstanding leadership and a remarkable track record of executing at scale alongside institutional investors, as Nxtra scales to become India’s leading data centre business.”
Further, co-founder, Alpha Wave Global, said, “India has an immense AI opportunity ahead of it. Indians already meaningfully interact with and on Chat GPT, Claude and other AI platforms. As such India is set to see its data centre capacity grow meaningfully to keep up with hyperscaler and large language model demand.”
