The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved US-based Alpha Wave Global's proposed stake purchase in Nxtra Data, the data centre and cloud services arm of Bharti Airtel. According to reports from PTI, the CCI announced the approval on Tuesday, stating it has cleared the proposed deal involving the acquisition of certain shareholding in Nxtra Data Limited by Alpha Wave Ventures II, LP. The approval was issued following a notice filed under Section 6(2) of the Competition Act, 2002, with the commission's review process focusing on potential vertical and horizontal overlaps in the development of commercial real estate and downstream provision of colocation services. The CCI's approval confirms that the proposed combination does not raise any appreciable adverse effect on competition within the relevant markets for data centre colocation services.
As reported by PTI, Alpha Wave Global is acquiring its stake through Alpha Wave Ventures II, LP, a private equity fund co-managed by the alternative asset manager. The transaction involves a consortium of investors with Alpha Wave Global investing $435 million, The Carlyle Group contributing $240 million, Anchorage Capital investing $35 million, and Bharti Airtel committing an additional $290 million. In March this year, Bharti Airtel announced that its subsidiary Nxtra Data has secured USD 1 billion investment led by Alpha Wave Global, Carlyle and Anchorage Capital. Bharti Airtel will also participate in the investment round and will continue to retain a controlling stake in Nxtra. After the completion of the transaction, Nxtra will be valued at around USD 3.1 billion.
According to company statements, the fresh liquidity will be utilized to expand Nxtra's current operational capacity from roughly 300 megawatts (MW) to a target of 1 gigawatt (GW) over the next few years. The investment in Nxtra Data would be utilised for AI data centre expansion and to fuel the next phase of growth, as stated by Bharti Airtel. The partnership with Alpha Wave Ventures and continued support from The Carlyle Group provide the necessary financial and strategic depth to accelerate Nxtra's transition toward gigawatt-scale capacity, ensuring the company remains at the forefront of India's digital infrastructure evolution.
As reported by PTI, Nxtra, founded in 2012, is headquartered in New Delhi and operates 14 large core data centres and 120-plus edge facilities across the country. The company offers co-location, cloud infrastructure, managed hosting, data backup, disaster recovery and edge computing services. It has a facility in Pune and is developing additional AI-ready campuses in Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata to accommodate the infrastructure requirements of hyperscalers and large-scale language model (LLM) providers. The company has recently partnered with Google to build a gigawatt-scale AI data centre campus, backed by a USD 15-billion investment.
The CCI's approval confirms that the proposed combination does not raise any appreciable adverse effect on competition within the relevant markets for data centre colocation services. This approval is significant as it clears the path for one of the largest infrastructure investments in India's data center sector this year. For investors, the deal underscores the high growth potential of digital infrastructure assets driven by AI. For the Indian enterprise sector, the expansion of Nxtra's capacity promises more robust, sustainable, and high-performance cloud and edge computing capabilities, supporting the nation's digital transformation. As India's data center market projects a massive capacity increase by 2030, this funding allows Nxtra to compete more aggressively against major industrial groups, including Reliance and Adani, which are also investing heavily in the digital backbone of the country.
