Investment Aims to Spur AI-Data Center Expansion, Fuel Next Phase of Growth
Nxtra to be Valued at Around US$3.1 Billion Post-Closing of Transaction
New Delhi, March 30, 2026: Bharti Airtel (NSE: BHARTIARTL) (“Airtel”), today announced an investment of US$ 1 Billion by Alpha Wave Global, Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) and Anchorage Capital, through their affiliates, in Nxtra Data Limited (“Nxtra”), a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel engaged in the data center business, to expand its network across India and accelerate growth. Airtel will also participate in this round.
As part of the pact, Alpha Wave Global will invest US$435 million, Carlyle US$240 million, Anchorage Capital US$35 million, with the rest being infused by Airtel. The investors’ final shareholding will be subject to finalized post-closing adjustments. Airtel will continue to retain a controlling stake in Nxtra. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals in India.
Nxtra - the first data center company in India to deploy AI at scale for predictive maintenance, energy efficiency, and automated operations - intends to deploy proceeds from the fund infusion to accelerate its growth plans. It plans to extensively scale its infrastructure and broaden its portfolio of services, catering to the evolving needs of enterprises, hyperscalers, and government organisations across the country.
India’s data center sector is currently witnessing rapid growth, driven by accelerating digital transformation across enterprises, rising adoption of cloud services, and expanding demand from hyperscalers. According to a Savills India report, India’s data center market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 21% between 2024 and 2030 to reach nearly 3,400 MW of IT capacity.
“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.
Strategic partnerships with global investors and technology leaders are central to our growth roadmap, enabling us to accelerate expansion, harness world-class expertise, and deliver next- generation digital infrastructure solutions at scale. With strong market demand, we are committed to stepping up investments and strengthening India’s position as a leading data center hub."
“We have built a strong partnership with Airtel and continue to believe Nxtra is well-positioned to benefit from India’s long-term digital infrastructure tailwinds. The company has made significant progress in expanding its capabilities, strengthening customer relationships and building a scalable platform, and we look forward to further working with Airtel and Nxtra’s management team to build the company into one of the largest datacenter players in India," said Kapil Modi, Partner at Carlyle India Advisors
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."
Navroz D. Udwadia, Co-Founder, Alpha Wave Global, added, "India has an immense AI opportunity ahead of it — Indians already meaningfully interact with and on Chat GPT, Claude and other AI platforms. As such India is set to see its data center capacity grow meaningfully to keep up with hyperscaler and LLM demand."
Headquartered in New Delhi, Nxtra operates 14 large core data centers and 120+ edge facilities across India, offering co-location, cloud infrastructure, managed hosting, data backup, disaster recovery, and edge computing services. It has a state-of-the-art facility in Pune and is developing additional AI-ready campuses in Chennai, Mumbai, and Kolkata. Nxtra has recently partnered with Google to build a gigawatt-scale AI data center campus, backed by a $15-billion investment.
About Bharti Airtel
Headquartered in India, Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 600 million customers in 15 countries across India and Africa. The company also has its presence in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka through its associate entities. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its networks cover over two billion people. Airtel is India’s largest integrated communications solutions provider and the second largest mobile operator in Africa. Airtel’s retail portfolio includes high-speed 4G/5G mobile, Wi-Fi (FTTH+ FWA) that promises speeds up to 1 Gbps with convergence across linear and on-demand entertainment, video streaming services, digital payments and financial services. For enterprise customers, Airtel offers a gamut of solutions that includes secure connectivity, cloud and data center services, cyber security, IoT, and cloud-based communication. Airtel’s digital arm – Xtelify, empowers telcos globally to leverage the power of AI, data and technology to accelerate their digital transformation and drive growth. Xtelify also offers Airtel Cloud in India enabling enterprises with a sovereign, telco-grade cloud platform that guarantees secure migration, effortless scaling, lower costs and no vendor lock- ins. Within its diversified portfolio, Airtel also offers passive infrastructure services through its subsidiary Indus Tower Ltd. For more details visit www.airtel.com
About Carlyle
Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit, and Carlyle AlpInvest. With $477 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2025, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies, and the communities in which we live and invest. Carlyle employs more than 2,500 people in 27 offices across four continents. Further information is available at www.carlyle.com. Follow Carlyle on X @OneCarlyle and LinkedIn at The Carlyle Group.
About Alpha Wave Global
Alpha Wave is a global alternative asset manager that has four main verticals: private equity, private credit, public markets, and insurance/retirement solutions. It is led by Rick Gerson, Navroz Udwadia, and Ryan Khoury. Alpha Wave has offices in Miami, New York, London, Monaco, Madrid, Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv, Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Sydney.
In private equity, Alpha Wave's objective is to invest in best-in-class growth stage companies and endeavor to be helpful, long-term partners to the exceptional founders and management teams; in private credit, direct lending to businesses looking for funding solutions; and in public markets an uncorrelated strategy. Alpha Wave is building an AI-native life insurance and retirement solutions company. www.alphawaveglobal.com