Blackstone’s $1.2 Billion Investment Fuels Neysa’s AI Infrastructure Expansion in India
In a significant move to bolster India’s artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, U.S. private equity giant Blackstone, alongside co-investors such as Teachers’ Venture Growth, TVS Capital, 360 ONE Asset, and Nexus Venture Partners, has committed up to $600 million in primary equity to Mumbai-based AI infrastructure startup Neysa. This investment grants Blackstone a majority stake in the company. Additionally, Neysa plans to secure an extra $600 million through debt financing, marking a substantial increase from its previous $50 million funding.
This financial infusion comes at a time when global demand for AI computing resources is escalating, leading to shortages in specialized chips and data center capacities essential for training and operating large-scale AI models. Emerging AI-focused infrastructure providers, often termed neo-clouds, are stepping in to address this gap by offering dedicated GPU capacity and expedited deployment services, especially for enterprises and AI laboratories with specific regulatory, latency, or customization needs.
Neysa positions itself within this burgeoning sector, offering tailored, GPU-centric infrastructure solutions to enterprises, government bodies, and AI developers across India. The country’s appetite for local computing resources is in its nascent stages but is experiencing rapid growth.
A lot of customers want hand-holding, and a lot of them want round-the-clock support with a 15-minute response and a couple of our resolutions. And so those are the kinds of things that we provide that some of the hyperscalers don’t, stated Sharad Sanghi, co-founder and CEO of Neysa.
Ganesh Mani, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone Private Equity, highlighted the current landscape, noting that India has fewer than 60,000 GPUs in operation. He anticipates this number will surge nearly 30-fold to over two million in the coming years. This growth is driven by a combination of government initiatives, enterprises in regulated sectors like financial services and healthcare that require localized data processing, and AI developers creating models within India. Furthermore, global AI laboratories, many of which have substantial user bases in India, are increasingly seeking to establish computing capacities closer to their users to minimize latency and comply with data regulations.
This investment aligns with Blackstone’s broader strategy to expand its footprint in data center and AI infrastructure globally. The firm has previously invested in large-scale data center platforms such as QTS and AirTrunk, as well as specialized AI infrastructure providers like CoreWeave in the U.S. and Firmus in Australia.
Neysa specializes in developing and managing GPU-based AI infrastructure, enabling enterprises, researchers, and public sector clients to train, fine-tune, and deploy AI models locally. Currently operating approximately 1,200 GPUs, the startup aims to significantly scale its capacity, targeting deployments exceeding 20,000 GPUs over time to meet accelerating customer demand.
We are seeing a demand that we are going to more than triple our capacity next year, Sanghi remarked. Some of the conversations we are having are at a fairly advanced stage; if they go through, then we could see it sooner rather than later. We could see in the next nine months.
The majority of the new capital will be allocated to deploying large-scale GPU clusters, encompassing compute, networking, and storage components. A smaller portion will be dedicated to research and development, as well as enhancing Neysa’s software platforms for orchestration, observability, and security.
Neysa projects more than a threefold increase in revenue next year, driven by the accelerating demand for AI workloads. The company also harbors ambitions to expand beyond India in the future. Founded in 2023, Neysa currently employs 110 individuals across offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai.
