Blackstone Leads $1.2B Funding Round for India AI Data Centre Startup Neysa

Blackstone is expanding its bets on digital infrastructure in India, with the private equity titan on Monday announcing its lead role in a $1.2 billion capital raise for Mumbai-based AI data centre startup Neysa.

Blackstone-managed funds and co-investors will provide up to $600 million in equity capital for the Indian cloud operator, the Manhattan-based firm said in a release. Neysa, a provider of purpose-built artificial intelligence infrastructure based on high-performance graphics processing units, intends to secure an additional $600 million in debt financing.

The investment will support Neysa’s planned expansion of compute capacity in India, including deployment of more than 20,000 GPUs to accelerate AI workloads. Amit Dixit, head of Asia private equity at Blackstone, said the deal reinforces the fund manager’s focus on supporting what it calls the essential “picks and shovels” of AI, including in the key market of India.

“With our scale, deep expertise and track record of building market-leading businesses, we believe we are well-positioned to support Neysa’s next phase of growth and the advancement of India’s AI transformation,” Dixit said.

NTT Vet in Charge

Founded in 2023, Neysa builds and operates AI acceleration cloud infrastructure that enables enterprises, government entities and institutions to train, fine-tune and deploy AI systems locally within India, according to Blackstone.

The fund management giant will partner with Neysa co-founder and CEO Sharad Sanghi to expand the company’s platform and support India’s growing AI compute needs. In 1998, Sanghi launched the pioneering Indian data centre operator Netmagic, which Japan’s NTT acquired in 2012. Since 2023 he has served as chairman of NTT Global Data Centres India.

“With Blackstone’s experience in scaling critical infrastructure, we aim to help establish India as a globally relevant AI compute destination,” Sanghi said.

Blackstone is making the investment through its private equity funds. Other equity investors in the transaction include the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s Teachers’ Venture Growth arm and Indian firms TVS Capital, 360 ONE Assets and Nexus Venture Partners.

Digging In for Digital Infra

Blackstone, which also invests in data centres in India via its wholly owned Lumina CloudInfra, describes digital infrastructure as one of its “highest conviction investment themes” globally.

Indian media reported last September that Lumina had acquired two land parcels measuring 3.8 acres (1.5 hectares) in Mumbai’s Chandivali area of Andheri East for INR 4.75 billion (then $54 million). Construction of Lumina’s first hyperscale data centre campus in India, a 60-megawatt project in Navi Mumbai’s Airoli area, began in 2023.

In Australia, Blackstone led a $10 billion debt facility for Tasmanian AI data centre developer Firmus Technologies earlier this month. The capital injection by funds under Blackstone’s tactical opportunities and credit and insurance platforms, with support from fellow Manhattan-based investor Coatue Management, will finance Firmus’s national rollout of up to 1.6 gigawatts of infrastructure through 2028.

The transaction, one of the biggest-ever private debt financings in Australia, came 14 months after the US giant teamed with Canada’s CPPIB on the $16.1 billion takeover of Sydney-based regional platform AirTrunk.