CORPORATE
Airtel, Caryle, two others to infuse $1 billion in Nxtra to expand data centre business
- IBJ Bureau
- Mar 31, 2026
Bharti Airtel, the Carlyle Group, Alpha Wave Global and Anchorage Capital will invest $1 billion into the telecom service provider’s data centre arm, Nxtra Data. The investments will be deployed in expanding Nxtra’s operations amid a recent spike in demand for AI-based data centres in India.
New York-based growth equity firm Alpha Wave Global, which has backed AI-first businesses, including Anthropic and OpenAI, will invest $435 million into Nxtra. US-based private equity player Carlyle, an existing investor in Nxtra, will invest $240 million. Anchorage Capital will invest $35 million, while Airtel will invest about $290 million in its subsidiary, Airtel has said in a statement, issued after close of market hours on Monday.
Nxtra will be valued at around $3.1 billion after the closure of the transaction. Airtel will continue to retain a controlling stake in Nxtra, the company has added. Investors’ final shareholding will be subject to finalised post-closing adjustments. As of now, Airtel holds 75.96 per cent in Nxtra, while Carlyle holds the remaining stake. Aritel will continue to retain a controlling stake in Nxtra following the cash deal, the telecom company has said. Airtel had carved out its data centre business into a separate entity in 2020, following which Carlyle had bought a 24.4 per cent stake for $235 million, valuing Nxtra at $1.2 billion at that time.
Nxtra operates 14 large core data centres and more than 120 edge facilities across India. It offers co-location, cloud infrastructure, managed hosting, data backup, disaster recovery and edge computing services. Nxtra is developing AI-ready campuses in Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata.
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