Airtel raises $1B for data center arm amid AI boom
31 Mar 2026

India's telecom giant Bharti Airtel has raised $1 billion for its data center arm, Nxtra Data. The investment comes from global private equity firms Alpha Wave Global, Carlyle and Anchorage Capital.

The move highlights the growing global interest in India's data center sector amid rising artificial intelligence workloads.

Once the transaction closes, this funding round will value Nxtra Data at about $3.1 billion.

Investment split and expansion plans
Funding details

The investment will be split between the three firms, with Alpha Wave Global contributing $435 million, Carlyle investing $240 million, and Anchorage Capital putting in $35 million. Airtel will contribute the remaining amount.

The new funds will be used to expand Nxtra's operations across India. Currently, Nxtra has 300MW of data center capacity which is expected to grow to 1GW over the next few years, targeting a market share of around 25%.

Nxtra's approach to data centers
Infrastructure expansion

Nxtra currently has 14 large data centers and over 120 smaller, decentralized facilities located closer to end users.

The company is focused on building "data center networks" to cater to the evolving needs of enterprises, hyperscalers, and government clients.

Global demand for data centers has skyrocketed in recent years due to the rise of AI workloads that require massive computing power, electrical power, cooling and networking infrastructure.

India's growing data center capacity
Capacity growth

India's total installed data center capacity is expected to exceed 2GW by 2026, up from just over 1GW in 2025.

This projection comes from a December report by KPMG, which also predicts that capacity will grow fivefold to over 8GW by 2030.

The growth is expected to generate an estimated $30 billion in capital expenditure, highlighting the country's potential as a global hub for data centers.