Nxtra Targets $1 Billion Funding Round to Expand Airtel’s Data Center Footprint: Report
Exiting investors, namely Airtel and Carlyle, are expected to put in $300 million. Alpha Wave may contribute $400 million, as per reports.
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Bharti Airtel’s data center arm, Nxtra Data Ltd, plans to raise over $1 billion to expand capacity to gigawatt scale. According to sources quoted by The Economic Times, Alpha Wave Global, an investment firm chaired by Abu Dhabi’s National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahayan, a former backer of Anthropic, OpenAI, Grok, and SpaceX, is expected to join the funding round.
The round will be executed through a rights issue and preferential allotment. Two existing shareholders, Airtel (75.96%) and Carlyle (24.04%), are likely to participate in this second tranche of the investment round.
Nxtra has 14 data centers and 120 edge centers, with a market share of nearly 12%. The company aims to achieve gigawatt-scale capacity within 3-4 years. This new investment will strengthen its leadership alongside Reliance, Adani, Tata, and L&T as India develops its digital infrastructure.
Exiting investors, namely Airtel and Carlyle, are expected to put in $300 million. Alpha Wave will contribute $400 million, ET reported. All funds will be in the form of primary capital. This aligns with Nxtra’s ongoing initiative to co-build a $15 billion gigawatt-scale AI hub and data center complex in Visakhapatnam with Adani Group. The complex will house Google’s Tensor Processing Units for training and running large AI models. Both Airtel and Adani are Google’s infrastructure partners. Airtel will provide connectivity and telecom infrastructure, including high-capacity fiber.
In FY2025, Nxtra recorded a profit of ₹224 crore and revenue of ₹2,078 crore. The telecom giant separated its data center business into Nxtra in 2020 and subsequently sold a 24.4% stake to Carlyle in 2021 for about $235 million, valuing Nxtra at $1.2 billion at the time.
Last year, ET reported that Alpha Wave Global was contemplating a significant investment in Nxtra Data, valuing the company at ₹20,500 crore. At that time, it was suggested that Carlyle might be looking to exit its investment. However, a recent report indicates that Carlyle has decided to increase its stake instead. Nxtra Data has a capacity of 120-130 MW across major cities, including Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, and Noida.
The company plans to list its data center business in a few years. Alpha Wave is one of the key investment initiatives by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, who has a net worth of $1 trillion and is also the UAE’s national security advisor. The firm has invested in Lenskart, Dream11, Dailyhunt, OffBusiness, Chaayos, Delhivery, and Cred, among others. Since 2024, it has also invested in legacy companies like VLCC, Advanta (a UPL spin-off seed company), and Haldiram.
If this deal is finalized, Alpha Wave will join Carlyle as an investor following its investment in VLCC.
