Blackstone Supports Neysa with $1.2B Funding for India’s AI Infrastructure Development

Neysa Secures $600 Million Investment from Blackstone to Scale AI Infrastructure in India

Neysa, an Indian AI infrastructure startup, has recently received backing from U.S. private equity firm Blackstone to enhance its domestic compute capacity amidst India’s growing emphasis on building homegrown AI capabilities.

Blackstone, along with co-investors such as Teachers’ Venture Growth, TVS Capital, 360 ONE Asset, and Nexus Venture Partners, has agreed to invest up to $600 million in primary equity in Neysa, with Blackstone acquiring a majority stake in the Mumbai-based startup. Neysa also plans to secure an additional $600 million in debt financing to expand its GPU capacity significantly, a substantial increase from its previous funding of $50 million.

The investment comes at a time when the global demand for AI computing is on the rise, leading to supply constraints for specialized chips and data center capacity essential for training and running large AI models. In response to this demand, newer AI-focused infrastructure providers, known as “neo-clouds,” have emerged to provide dedicated GPU capacity and quicker deployment compared to traditional hyperscalers, catering specifically to enterprises and AI labs with unique regulatory, latency, or customization needs.

Neysa operates in this emerging sector, positioning itself as a provider of tailored, GPU-centric infrastructure for enterprises, government entities, and AI developers in India, where the demand for local computing resources is steadily increasing.

According to Neysa’s co-founder and CEO, Sharad Sanghi, the startup distinguishes itself by offering personalized services such as round-the-clock support with rapid response times, a feature that sets it apart from traditional hyperscale providers.

Ganesh Mani, a senior managing director at Blackstone Private Equity, projects that India currently has fewer than 60,000 deployed GPUs, with expectations for this number to surge nearly 30 times to over two million in the near future. This growth is being primarily driven by government requirements, enterprises in regulated sectors like finance and healthcare that necessitate local data storage, and AI developers creating models within India. Additionally, global AI labs, many of which have a significant user base in India, are increasingly seeking to deploy computing resources closer to users to reduce latency and align with data regulations.

Blackstone’s investment in Neysa aligns with the firm’s broader strategy of expanding into data center and AI infrastructure on a global scale. Previously, Blackstone has supported large data center platforms like QTS and AirTrunk, as well as specialized AI infrastructure providers such as CoreWeave in the U.S. and Firmus in Australia.

Neysa specializes in developing and managing GPU-based AI infrastructure that enables enterprises, researchers, and public sector clients to locally train, fine-tune, and deploy AI models. With approximately 1,200 live GPUs currently, the startup aims to significantly increase this capacity by targeting deployments of over 20,000 GPUs as demand for AI workloads grows.

Sharad Sanghi disclosed that the majority of the new capital will be utilized to deploy large-scale GPU clusters encompassing compute, networking, and storage components, with a smaller portion allocated to research and development and enhancing Neysa’s software platforms for orchestration, observability, and security.

Looking ahead, Neysa anticipates tripling its revenue in the upcoming year as the demand for AI workloads intensifies, with plans to eventually expand beyond India. Since its establishment in 2023, the startup has grown to a team of 110 employees spread across offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai.