Bharti Airtel’s Nxtra Eyes $1 Bn to Expand Data Centre Capacity to 1 GW

In a strategic investment round spearheaded by Alpha Wave Global and current supporter Carlyle, Bharti Airtel's data centre affiliate Nxtra is acquiring $1 billion (around INR 9,400 crore). Alpha Wave and Carlyle have each committed $435 million (INR 4,107 crore) and $240 million (INR 2,266 crore), respectively, to the data centre company, according to a statement from Bharti Airtel.

There will be a total investment of $35 million (INR 330.5 crore), with Airtel contributing $290 million (INR 2,738 crore). With the money raised, Nxtra was valued at approximately $3.1 billion (INR 29,270 crores). Even when the deal closes, Airtel will keep a majority ownership in the data centre operator. But the merger can't go through until Indian regulators provide their stamp of approval.

How Nxtra Plans to Utilise Capital?

The funds will be used to speed up the company's expansion goals, scale its infrastructure, and expand its service offerings, according to the company. Nxtra has constructed one of the most cutting-edge and environmentally friendly data centre networks in India, according to Gopal Vittal, executive vice chairman of Airtel. Enterprises, hyperscalers, and the government all have different demands, and the centre is built to accommodate them all.

It plans to increase its current capacity of about 300 MW to 1 GW in the next years, with the goal of capturing about 25% of the market. This comes after a roughly six-year gap, in 2020, when Carlyle Group initially paid $235 million for a 25% interest in Nxtra. Nxtra is a data centre provider situated in Delhi NCR that serves governments, startups, SMEs, and companies both domestically and internationally. Colocation, cloud computing, and edge computing are some of the services it provides. The business boasts that it runs more than 120 edge sites and 14 major core data centres around the nation.

The data centre operator boasts that it is building more AI-ready campuses in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai, in addition to its current location in Pune. The need for digital services and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) are driving up the price of secure data centres, which is why this fundraising effort is timely. Additionally, data localisation laws and increasing cloud usage among organisations are driving much of this demand.

Government Backing Data Centre Network in India

Lower operating costs provided by the country, along with a host of incentives introduced by the federal and state governments, are also driving the growth of data centres in the country. Foreign cloud service provider companies would be eligible for a tax exemption until 2047, according to the Budget 2026 speech by Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman, under certain conditions. In addition, she suggested a cost-safe harbour of 15% for businesses that use linked firms to offer data centre services from India.

Hence, multinational corporations and Indian conglomerates are rushing to establish data centres in the nation. At the India AI Summit last month, Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, pledged a $100 billion investment to build data centres powered by renewable energy by 2035. The news broke last week that the conglomerate is in talks with e-commerce giant Flipkart and huge IT companies Meta and Google. Additionally, the group is also looking for potential locations to establish data centres.