Bharti Airtel’s Nxtra gets $1 billion from Carlyle, Alpha Wave

Bharti Airtel announced on Monday a $1 billion investment in its data centre arm Nxtra Data Limited, with funds coming from Alpha Wave Global, Carlyle Group and Anchorage Capital, along with the telecom giant's own contribution.

Under the agreement, Alpha Wave Global will invest $435 million, Carlyle $240 million and Anchorage Capital $35 million, while the Sunil Mittal-founded company will invest the remaining amount.

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Airtel will continue to hold a controlling stake in Nxtra, and the deal is subject to regulatory approvals in India, the company announced in an exchange filing.

Nxtra plans to use the funds to expand its data centre capacity and enhance services for enterprises, hyperscalers and government clients. The company currently operates around 300 MW capacity and aims to scale up to 1 GW in the coming years.

“At Nxtra, we have built one of India’s most advanced and sustainable data center networks, designed to meet the evolving needs of enterprises, hyperscalers, and government. With ~300 MW capacity today, we aim to scale to 1 GW in the next few years, targeting ~25% market share,” Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice Chairman, Airtel, said.

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India’s data centre market is growing rapidly due to rising digital adoption and cloud demand, with capacity expected to expand significantly by 2030.

Rick Gerson, Co-Founder & CIO, Alpha Wave Global, said, "Alpha Wave has a particular focus on identifying and backing 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 center business."