Airtel's Nxtra Data Centre Arm Seeks $1 Billion in New Investment
Bharti Airtel Announces $1 Billion Investment in Data Centre Arm Nxtra
Bharti Airtel Ltd has made a significant move in the Indian data centre market by announcing a $1 billion investment in its data centre arm, Nxtra. The investment, which is part of a deal with Alpha Wave Global, Carlyle, and Anchorage Capital, will value Nxtra at $3.1 billion. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals in India and is expected to expand Nxtra's network in the country.
As part of the deal, Alpha Wave Global will invest $435 million, Carlyle will invest $240 million, and Anchorage Capital will invest $35 million. The remaining $290 million will be infused by parent Airtel in the data centre company. Airtel will continue to retain a controlling stake in Nxtra. The investment assumes significance as data centre investments have been rising in the country.
| Investor | Investment Amount |
|---|---|
| Alpha Wave Global | $435 million |
| Carlyle | $240 million |
| Anchorage Capital | $35 million |
| Bharti Airtel (Parent) | $290 million |
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In February, Reliance Industries and Adani Enterprises announced a combined $210 billion investment into India's tech ecosystem, including data centres. Other players making a major bet on India's data centre business include Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, which committed $39 billion last year. Nxtra has also recently partnered with Google to build a gigawatt-scale AI data centre campus, backed by a $15-billion investment.
Meanwhile, Airtel has made a payment of over ₹9,000 crore towards its outstanding adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues to the government. This marks the first tranche of payments following a four-year moratorium that ended in September 2025, with instalments beginning in March 2026. The payment from the telecom operator has come at a time when it is seeking reassessment and recalculation of its AGR dues, seeking parity with peer Vodafone Idea.
India's data centre market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 21% between 2024 and 2030, reaching nearly 3,400 MW of IT capacity, according to a Savills India report. Nxtra operates 14 large core data centres and 120+ edge facilities across India, offering co-location, cloud infrastructure, managed hosting, data backup, disaster recovery, and edge computing services.
On Monday, shares of Bharti Airtel closed 3% lower at ₹1,789.2 on the National Stock Exchange.
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Investor Takeaway
Investors should consider the growing demand for data centre services in India.
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