India’s major telecom company Bharti Airtel said its data centre business, Nxtra, is on track to build 1GW of capacity over the next few years, as the operator deepens its push into AI infrastructure and cloud services.

The update was disclosed in the company’s annual report for fiscal year 2026, covering the financial year from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026.

Nxtra has raised US$1 billion from investors, alongside Airtel’s own participation, to support its expansion. Alpha Wave Global will invest US$435 million, Carlyle US$240 million, and Anchorage Capital US$35 million, with the remainder to be invested by Airtel. The company said it will retain a controlling stake in Nxtra.

“Our data centre business delivered another year of consistent performance and remains on track to expand its capacity multi-fold in the years to come,” chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said in the report. 

Nxtra currently operates 14 hyperscale data centres and more than 120 edge data centres, supported by around 250MW of power capacity. Airtel said the platform serves enterprises, hyperscalers, government organisations, cloud providers, OTT platforms and internet exchanges.

Airtel’s data centre business recorded 17.2% revenue growth in FY26, supported by demand and continued capacity expansion. 

The company is also expanding Nxtra’s AI-ready infrastructure. The business is developing next-generation hyperscale data centres designed to support AI and machine learning workloads requiring rack densities to 60kW to 140kW and above. 

This will also be supported by Airtel’s partnership with Google to build a gigawatt-scale AI data centre campus. Nxtra is also developing additional AI-ready campuses in Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata, alongside its existing facility in Pune.

Airtel said Nxtra’s facilities are being equipped to support direct liquid cooling and liquid immersion cooling, with AI and machine learning systems integrated into building management systems to optimise thermal loads and energy use. 

The company has also positioned Airtel Cloud as one of its new growth engines.

“Our third growth engine, Airtel Cloud, is seeing encouraging early traction. Our sovereign, telco-grade cloud offering addresses an emerging need in the Indian market. Airtel Cloud allows our customers to get access to world-class cloud offerings hosted and held in India and delivered cost-effectively.”

Airtel said it has entered into a strategic partnership with IBM to strengthen its cloud and AI offering, combining its telco-grade infrastructure, security, and data residency capabilities with IBM’s hybrid cool and AI-ready infrastructure and software. 

The push marks a broader shift by Airtel beyond connectivity, as cloud adoption, AI workloads, and data localisation requirements reshape enterprise infrastructure demand in India.