Interview with Ashish Arora: “We are scaling to power India’s AI future responsibly”

India is no longer just a market for data centre capacity – it is rapidly becoming a node in the global artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure grid, attracting hyperscaler investments, sovereign cloud mandates and large-scale graphics processing unit (GPU) deployments at a pace that is rewriting multi-year capacity road maps. At the centre of this transformation is the question of who can deliver not just racks and megawatts, but a fully integrated digital fabric that connects edge to core to cloud, with the connectivity, security and sustainability credentials that global and domestic customers increasingly demand. In an interview with tele.net, Ashish Arora, Chief Executive Officer, Nxtra by Airtel, discussed how the data centre operator is scaling from 300 megawatts (MW) to 1 gigawatt (GW), what truly differentiates an AI data centre from its traditional counterpart, and how Nxtra’s deep integration with Airtel’s fibre, 5G, subsea and cybersecurity assets is shaping its ambition to become India’s partner of choice for the next wave of AI infrastructure. Edited excerpts…

How do you see Nxtra’s role evolving as India positions itself as a global hub for data centres and AI infrastructure?

Nxtra’s role is going to be much more than just building data centres. We see ourselves as the digital infrastructure partner for India’s AI journey, combining AI‑ready, sustainable data centre capacity with the power of Airtel’s pan‑India networks, global subsea systems, and cloud and cybersecurity capabilities.

As India positions itself as a global hub for data centres and AI infrastructure, our ambition is to lean in and scale with discipline. We are investing to move from roughly 300 MW today to 1 GW over the next few years, and because of Airtel’s strengths in connectivity, subsea capacity and security, we can do this in a way that is highly differentiated, not just in racks and MWs, but as an integrated platform that helps Indian and global customers build and run AI workloads reliably, securely and at scale. Sustainability is central to our growth strategy. With our net zero by 2031 commitment, RE100 membership, SBTi-aligned targets, and the deployment of AI to optimise energy consumption across our facilities, we are ensuring that as we scale to power India’s AI future, we do so responsibly. This is the benchmark we aim to set, not just for Nxtra, but for the industry.

What really differentiates us is the integration. Nxtra is deeply woven into Airtel’s fibre, 5G and edge footprint, subsea cables and cable landing stations, and our cloud and cybersecurity platforms. That means we can offer customers a single, seamless fabric, from the device at the edge and the data centre core to the cloud, with low‑latency connectivity, secure interconnects and end‑to‑end visibility.

What is the fundamental difference between a traditional data centre and an AI data centre? How would you explain an AI data centre to an average reader who does not have an idea about data centres?

Think of an AI data centre as an industry-grade computer factory that builds and runs AI models, not just helps store and retrieve data. A traditional data centre is designed to store data and support everyday applications such as email, digital payments and video streaming.

In contrast, an AI data centre is purpose-built to enable machines to learn, reason and analyse, powered by high-performance GPUs. Instead of regular servers doing everyday computing, these GPU‑accelerated machines can crunch massive amounts of data in parallel to train and run generative AI (GenAI) models. Think of traditional data centres as office buildings, and AI data centres as high-performance research labs. AI workloads demand far more power, produce greater heat, and require stronger electrical infrastructure and advanced cooling to operate round the clock.

To power this intensity, we have designed facilities to be AI‑ready with much higher power per rack, specialised cooling, ultra‑fast networks and very secure environments.

This ensures AI workloads can run safely, reliably and at scale.

How is Nxtra embedding itself in India’s AI journey, particularly in terms of AI-ready data centre infrastructure, power density and connectivity?

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 as they embrace AI at scale. We are deeply focused on creating a future‑ready, AI‑optimised infrastructure that is intelligent through innovative design, sustainable by deliberate choice, and deeply integrated with Airtel’s industry-leading digital networks.

On AI‑ready infrastructure and power density, we are significantly stepping up investments to scale. Our new campuses are being purpose-built as hyperscale, high‑density facilities with robust power and cooling infrastructure to support AI and machine learning (ML) workloads, large model training and inference at scale. All our upcoming hyperscale facilities are being built to a minimum IGBC or LEED Gold green building standard, because energy and resource efficiency should be baked into design from day one.

We are also the first data centre company in India to deploy AI within our operations, enabling predictive maintenance, energy efficiency automation and optimised capital utilisation, initially at our Chennai facility and now being rolled out across all core facilities.

What really differentiates us is our connectivity strength. Nxtra is tightly woven into Airtel’s pan‑India fibre, 5G and edge network, as well as its global submarine cable systems, giving customers low‑latency access from edge to core to cloud. This allows us to offer AI‑ready data centres that are not just high‑density boxes but part of a unified digital infrastructure fabric, from over 120 edge sites to large core campuses, that can move and process data securely and at scale for AI workloads across India and beyond.

Finally, we are doing all this in a way that is responsible and future‑proof. We have committed to becoming net zero by 2031 and are significantly increasing our share of renewable energy through long‑term green power agreements and captive projects. In FY 2024-25, we sourced 49 per cent of the total electricity consumption across our core data centres from renewable sources and became the first data centre company in India to join the global RE100 initiative, committing to 100 per cent renewable electricity across all our operations.

As AI adoption accelerates, our ambition is to strengthen India’s position as a leading data centre and AI infrastructure hub, and to be the partner of choice for customers building on this next wave of digital innovation.

As data centre location decisions become more strategic, how do you see factors such as data sovereignty, geopolitics and energy availability reshaping global infrastructure distribution?

Data centre location is no longer a technical decision alone but is an intersection of regulation, geopolitics and energy transition decisions. Decisions are shifting from simply capacity to where a facility can ensure compliance, resilience and green infrastructure at scale.

Energy availability is one of the most decisive factors for data centres today. The next wave of AI and cloud growth will be constrained not by demand, but by access to reliable, low-carbon power. That is why we are investing ahead of the curve in firm, round-the-clock renewable energy through long-term partnerships and collaborations with key industry experts to secure scalable green power for our facilities.

Coupled with our net zero by 2031 commitment and green-by-design approach, this gives our customers confidence that their growth in India is aligned with their global ESG and decarbonisation goals.

From a data sovereignty perspective, India is already moving towards a more localisation-driven regime, especially for critical and sensitive workloads. We see this as a structural tailwind for India’s data centre ecosystem, because it creates a strong case for building capacity closer to the end user, backed by domestic networks and cloud connectivity.

At Nxtra, our footprint of large core data centres and distributed edge facilities across multiple Indian cities is designed to support this, enabling global and domestic customers to host, process and analyse data within the jurisdiction, while still integrating seamlessly into their global architectures.

What specific factors do you consider crucial while choosing a location for setting up data centres?

Selecting a data centre’s location entails checking multiple aspects, but primarily revolves around three major factors: the availability of quality power, rich connectivity and long‑term resilience. These are exactly what Nxtra is built around.

Our data centres sit on very stable grids with large, scalable power, built‑in redundancy and growing renewable mix, engineered for high‑density, energy‑efficient, sustainable operations. They are plugged into multiple fibre routes with direct access to subsea landings, national long‑distance networks and key urban aggregation points so that customers get ultra‑low‑latency, highly resilient connectivity.

Our campuses are also designed to keep expanding safely over time, with cooling designed for local climate and responsible water use, so that our facilities can support the next wave of AI and cloud growth for many years, not just the next few quarters. In short, Nxtra locations are picked to deliver intensity, reliability and sustainability at scale.

What kind of cooling systems do you use in your data centres?

We use a combination of modern air‑based and liquid‑assisted cooling systems, depending on the workload and the climate. The idea is to remove heat efficiently and keep equipment at safe and stable temperatures while ensuring the lowest energy and water footprint.

For this, we ensure separate containment of hot and cold aisles, efficient chillers and next-gen advanced cooling close to high‑density servers. We ensure to keep our infrastructure cool and reliable, while steadily improving our energy and water efficiency in line with global best practices.

What kind of demand is Nxtra seeing in India? How fast are capacity requirements growing?

Demand for AI‑ready data centres in India is exploding. Industry estimates suggest that over the next few years, the country’s overall data centre capacity will grow by 30-40 per cent annually, with AI and high‑density workloads taking a larger share of the pie, overtaking even enterprise IT workloads.

Customers today are no longer just asking for basic space and power; they want scalable, GPU‑ready capacity with the right power, cooling and connectivity guarantees. There are already many announcements of huge investments by large conglomerates and public cloud players.

With the capacity demand surging, at Nxtra, we are ensuring to stay ahead of the curve by building high‑density, AI‑ready campuses with clear headroom to keep adding capacity as India’s AI needs scale up.

How has the sudden surge in GenAI specifically reshaped Nxtra’s multi-year capacity road map? Are we seeing an acceleration of timelines or a significant increase in the total GW target for India?

India’s AI demand is widespread and scaling rapidly, driven by high-density training workloads, large-scale inference and parallel platform modernisation across sectors. Hyperscalers, unicorns, banks and large enterprises are scaling from pilots to production AI platforms, with power densities reaching 5-10 times those of traditional environments.

To support this rapid scale-up, Nxtra data centres are built intelligent by design, with a modular architecture that allows AI workloads to scale quickly. Our facilities have been equipped with high-density racks, liquid-ready cooling and low-carbon resilient power. With our telco-backed network and integrated ICT offerings, we are also tightly integrating network, cloud and edge to give AI workloads low‑latency and high‑throughput connectivity.

We also leverage AI to drive predictive operations, energy optimisation and superior service delivery, enabling customers to innovate faster on a reliable, scalable, AI-native platform to build their AI future.

When you look at your current pipeline, what is the split between demand for AI training clusters (which require massive, steady power) versus AI inference (which might be more distributed)?

Aligned with strategic growth plans, we are supporting both high-density training and distributed inference through a mix of hyperscale campuses and edge data centres. We are focusing on developing purpose-built, AI-ready data centres capable of handling 70-80 kW per rack, utilising liquid cooling to manage high-density workloads. We have also partnered with Google to establish a 1 GW AI-focused hub in Visakhapatnam, which is specifically designed to handle the massive, high-density requirements of training.

Recognising that AI inference is becoming increasingly dominant, we are also leveraging our over 120 edge facilities to support distributed, lower-latency inference workloads. We are also investing in increasing our capacity, ensuring that we are ready to meet the explosive growth in AI-led and high-density workloads across the country.

Finally, how is India placed in the global data centre ecosystem?

India is incredibly well positioned in the global data centre ecosystem as one of the world’s largest and fastest growing digital economies, which generates a disproportionate share of global data. We have a very strong policy push around Digital India, data localisation and now the IndiaAI Mission. All of this is creating a structural demand for high quality, AI‑ready data centre capacity here at home.

At the same time, global hyperscalers and investors are looking at India as a long‑term, strategic market, not just to serve Indian users, but increasingly as part of their global footprint. This is being seen in the pace of investments in new campuses coming up at hubs like Mumbai, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Noida, and the growing depth of subsea connectivity into the country.

Policy support, such as tax benefits up to 2047 for infrastructure serving global demand, introduced in the union budget 2026, is further strengthening India’s proposition as a global data hub and encouraging sustained investor interest.

India brings together both scale and skill. With a deep talent pool to build and operate next-gen infrastructure, this combination of talent and policy support creates a strong foundation for growth, with continued investor participation key to accelerating capacity build-out.

Despite this, the current share of global data centre capacity remains relatively small compared to the data generated, indicating a long runway for growth. By effectively executing on our power, sustainability, and talent strategies, I believe India can move from being an underserved market to being one of the key global nodes for digital and AI infrastructure over the next decade. Our ambition at Nxtra is to lean into this opportunity and build world‑class, sustainable infrastructure that not only serves Indian demand but also integrates India more deeply into the global digital fabric.