AI firm Neysa to raise $1.2 billion from Blackstone, others in debt-equity mix

The company has raised $600 million in equity capital, and Neysa is seeking to secure an additional $600 million in debt financing led by Blackstone. Other equity investors in this transaction include Teachers’ Venture Growth, TVS Capital, 360 ONE Assets and Nexus Ventures. The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s growth trajectory and provide a material impetus to Neysa’s planned scale-up and deployment of over 20,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) in India, as demand for AI-led services heats up. Founded in 2023 by Sharad Sanghi, who also serves as chief executive officer (CEO), Neysa designs and develops AI systems deployed and operated in India. The company provides purpose‑built and cost-effective GPU‑based AI infrastructure that enables enterprises and institutions to train, fine‑tune and deploy AI workloads. Its customers span industries such as financial services, technology, healthcare and public services. “India’s AI ambition requires production-grade infrastructure built and operated at scale. Neysa is focused on delivering the execution layer of sovereign compute, and AI research enablement and adoption in alignment with the goals of India AI Mission," Sanghi said. He added that the company seeks to provide performance certainty and data assurance to enable enterprises, hyperscalers and global AI labs to deploy and scale reliable AI infrastructure in India. “In addition to this, we will also be building capabilities around orchestration, observability and security platforms. With the Blackstone partnership, we intend to go beyond the Indian market by leveraging their datacentres in Asia (AirTrunk) and across the world (QTS)," Sanghi said in an interview with Mint. Using tax holiday, global expertise Global cloud service providers are looking to set up inferencing clusters in India, especially after the budget declared the tax holiday, not only to target the Indian market but also the regional markets. Earlier this month, the Union government proposed that a foreign company providing cloud services globally while utilizing data centre services located in India would be eligible for a tax holiday extending up to 2047. “This has prompted companies, including large hyper scalers, to set up deeper infrastructure in India, and we want to tap that market," Sanghi explained. “India is fast catching up in the AI infrastructure and deployment landscape. There is a lot of potential with smaller or even vertical-specific models in the AI space. The agentic space also augurs well for India, and infrastructure will be a consequence of deployment," Sanghi said, adding that there will be more companies building in India for India and for the world. While he did not disclose specific details on the company’s performance, Sanghi estimated that the company will more than triple its revenues next year based on demand and growth across sectors. Neysa will further leverage Blackstone’s experience in scaling critical infrastructure as the global investment firm’s other affiliates have invested significantly in the foundational tools, infrastructure and technologies that drive AI’s development and adoption. It has invested in the world’s largest data centre platform QTS, Asia-Pacific-based data centre firm AirTrunk, specialized cloud infrastructure company CoreWeave and Australia-based AI infrastructure platform Firmus. “Digital infrastructure is one of our highest conviction investment themes globally. This investment positions Neysa to play a meaningful role in advancing AI infrastructure in India and enables businesses and public institutions to deploy AI technologies more effectively as AI adoption accelerates," said Ganesh Mani, senior managing director at Blackstone Private Equity. Road to 30x growth Mani further added that India is at an inflection point and has the potential to grow to more than 30 times the current levels. “As a result, we have always been on the lookout to fund assets in the artificial intelligence space in India. With Neysa, this will be our platform to integrate any further investments we will be making in this segment, including neoclouds and GPU deployment. It will happen through Neysa under Sharad’s leadership." Amit Dixit, Blackstone’s head of Asia private equity, added that the investment reinforces the private equity firm’s focus on backing the essential ‘picks and shovels’ of AI globally, including in India, which is a key market. Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, handles about $1.3 trillion in assets under management, which includes global investment strategies focused on real estate, private equity, credit, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, secondaries and hedge funds. DC Advisory served as the lead financial advisor to Neysa, and KPMG advised Blackstone.