Bharti Airtel capex: ₹39,000 crore, 1GW data push

The announcement in brief

Bharti Airtel has laid out a fresh investment roadmap spanning telecom networks, data centres and financial services, with a stated focus on disciplined capital allocation. Sunil Mittal, Bharti Enterprises chairman and promoter of Bharti Airtel, told investors the company will invest ₹39,000 crore across India and Africa. The plan includes stepping up investments in data centres to go well past 1 gigawatt (GW) of capacity. Airtel also reiterated it will pursue only opportunities that remain attractive, with shareholder interest kept in mind. Separately, the group is building out a regulated financial services engine after Airtel Money received a non-banking financial company (NBFC) licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The combination signals Airtel’s intent to broaden its growth levers beyond core telecom.

How Airtel split its capex across India and Africa

Mittal said Airtel will broadly spend ₹30,000 crore as capex for India and ₹9,000 crore for Africa. The Africa number was also framed as about $1 billion. The company’s messaging stressed a preference for investments that meet return thresholds rather than chasing scale for its own sake. Management also indicated it will not yield space in either rural or urban markets in India or Africa. That stance matters because network quality, coverage and capacity directly shape subscriber additions, pricing power and churn. Airtel’s capex trajectory has been closely watched after heavy 5G rollouts.

Data centres move to the centre of the strategy

Airtel’s leadership has been explicit that data centres are moving from a supporting asset to a core pillar. Mittal said Airtel is making “serious” investments in data centres and is tying up with artificial intelligence (AI) companies to bring services to customers, with advanced discussions underway with several firms. The data centre expansion is being driven through Nxtra, Airtel’s data centre arm. Airtel has also spoken about strengthening data centre-to-data centre connectivity, low-latency fibre networks and subsea cable integration as part of a broader digital infrastructure stack. In addition to capacity, the emphasis on connectivity highlights that Airtel is positioning to sell integrated enterprise solutions rather than only racks and power.

Nxtra’s capacity roadmap: from ~0.13GW to 1GW

On capacity, Airtel executives said Nxtra is currently at about 120-130 MW and could scale to about 1 GW over the next three to four years. The stated ambition was to reach around 25% market share, versus roughly 12% at present, as demand rises from cloud providers, AI workloads, OTT platforms and enterprises. Airtel has also said it has been investing about ₹1,500 crore a year in Nxtra and will allocate more capital to buy land in the right places. Another disclosed target from Nxtra’s CEO, Ashish Arora, was an investment of approximately $100 million in the latest expansion phase, aiming to reach nearly 400 MW of capacity by the end of 2027.

Partnerships and the Visakhapatnam AI data centre plan

Airtel has referenced partnerships tied to an AI-centric data centre hub in Visakhapatnam. One report noted Airtel collaborated with Google Cloud and the Adani Group to support a planned AI data centre hub in Visakhapatnam. Another note said Airtel, along with Google and Adani Enterprises, joined forces for an AI data centre in Visakhapatnam with a combined investment of $15 billion (₹125,000 crore) over five years. Airtel has described the Google arrangement as a composite deal, where Nxtra handles the data centre build-out while Airtel Business handles connectivity and a cable landing station. Airtel also said it is one of two partners selected by Google to execute parts of the 1-gigawatt build-out, with another partner handling another portion.

Airtel Money NBFC: ₹20,000 crore capital plan

Airtel’s diversification also includes a large financial services push. The company said it will invest ₹20,000 crore in its financial arm over the next few years, after Airtel Money received an NBFC licence from the RBI on February 13. Airtel said it will contribute 70% of the ₹20,000 crore, with key shareholder Bharti Enterprises providing the remaining 30%. Mittal told investors that in the first year, the company will put 10% capital to work, or about ₹1,500-2,000 crore, and the listed entity will put in 70% of that. Over the past two years, Airtel has operated as a lending service platform (LSP), facilitating more than ₹9,000 crore in disbursements, and it has indicated the NBFC will maintain operational segregation between the lending entity and platform services.

What management said on dividends, ARPU and other stakes

On shareholder returns, Mittal said Airtel would adopt a “progressive increase policy” for dividends, stepping it up gradually. On average revenue per user (ARPU), Airtel reiterated a goal of ₹300, which it said is now 15% short, while also stating its intention to keep the low-end entry point affordable. Mittal also said Bharti Airtel will not be making financial investments in British Telecom, where it picked up a 25% stake in 2024. In parallel, Airtel has described Indus Towers as a strategic, dividend-generating asset and said it plans to acquire up to an additional 5% stake.

Market impact: capex cycle expectations and free cash flow debate

Airtel’s changing capex mix is drawing scrutiny because it can alter free cash flow (FCF) assumptions. JP Morgan said Airtel’s ambitions in home broadband, data centres and 5G services may start a fresh capex cycle from fiscal year 2027 and could impact FCF generation. The brokerage noted Airtel’s capex peaked in Q1FY24 and has moderated for eight quarters due to lower 5G spending, leading to expectations of further moderation in FY26 and FY27. But it flagged risks from a broadband “land-grab”, a 1GW data centre plan, and early signs of 5G capacity constraints. The same note cited Airtel adding nearly 1 million home connects and 2.5 million home passes, while referencing rival Jio adding 3 million home connects in the quarter ended September 30, 2025.

Key numbers at a glance

Why the strategy matters

Airtel is attempting what it described as a structural turn from a “minute and data factory” to a “money factory” by ramping up financial services, while simultaneously building digital infrastructure capacity through Nxtra and enterprise connectivity. The data centre scale-up is being framed around AI workloads, cloud adoption, data localisation requirements, and enterprise demand for low-latency networks. The NBFC move is positioned as a regulated extension to an existing lending distribution and underwriting layer, supported by Airtel’s customer data attributes and in-app reach, while acknowledging that financial services will require marketing investment over time. At the same time, Airtel’s focus on disciplined capital allocation and a gradually rising dividend policy signals it is balancing expansion with shareholder expectations.

Conclusion

Bharti Airtel’s latest plan brings together ₹39,000 crore of India and Africa capex, a 1GW-class data centre ambition through Nxtra, and a ₹20,000 crore NBFC build-out under Airtel Money. Management has linked these moves to enterprise cloud and AI demand, telecom maturity, and the need for new long-term growth engines. The next set of disclosures from earnings calls and partnership announcements will be key to tracking the pace of Nxtra capacity additions, the rollout of the NBFC’s lending book, and the resulting capex and cash flow profile.