Migration to colo, AI-Cloud demand, and GCC growth fueling Nxtra’s expansion: CEO Ashish Arora

The data center arm of Airtel, Nxtra, will double its capacity from 200 MW to 400 MW in the next two and a half years due to increased demand. Earlier this year, the company announced ₹5,000 crore capex investment in this expansion. 

The company has 12 large data centers and over 120 edge data centers. As part of the expansion plan, Nxtra will be establishing newer facilities in Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. Nxtra, which services over 450 customers mostly in BFSI, IT/ITeS, media, teleco, OTTs, and ecommerce, sees a major opportunity with growing AI and cloud demand. 

“India is experiencing a surge in high-end technology work, driven by the influx of Global Capability Centers (GCCs) and other organizations focused on advanced research and development. This shift demands specialized computing power and distinct environments to support such high-value activities. Alongside this, the growth in the cloud sector—encompassing both AI-focused and traditional cloud services from hyperscalers—continues to be a significant growth driver for us,” Nxtra’s CEO Ashish Arora told TechCircle.

AI is driving additional growth in the cloud space, introducing new use cases that require distinct infrastructure investments from both enterprises and AI cloud providers. Hyperscalers are heavily investing in AI, and within the next 12 to 24 months, a substantial portion of Nxtra's capacity will be dedicated to AI needs, he said. 

Further, Arora also pointed out that there is a major trend of companies migrating from captive, on-premises infrastructure to colocation facilities, further fueling expansion in this sector. “Companies are shifting from small, captive data centers to colocation facilities as their digital platforms require greater resilience, scalability, and sustainability. This migration is set to drive significant growth for us in the coming years.”

Arora was speaking on the sidelines of an event where the company announced a partnership with sustainability tech firm Ecolibrium to implement AI in its data centers to enhance operations. Nxtra implemented Ecolibrium’s AI-based SmartSense platform in its Chennai data center first and will now deploy the capabilities across all its core data centers. This deployment is expected to improve asset lifecycle, equipment performance, productivity, and reduce non-IT power consumption.

This year, Nxtra became the only Indian data center to be part of RE100 initiative by Climate Group and CDP that encourages businesses to use 100% renewable electricity. Nxtra has group captive ventures with 10 green energy firms to meet its power requirements. “Through open-access policies, we form power purchase agreements with green energy companies to supply our data centers, with plants set up across various states. We’re also exploring large plants that can serve multiple states under this government-backed open-access initiative,” Nxtra spokesperson said. 

In February, Nxtra announced a power-wheeling agreement with Ampln and Amplus Energy to procure an additional 140,208 MWh of renewable energy. 

(Note: The author was in Chennai on Nxtra's invitation)