Neysa has secured $1.2 billion in financing – led by Blackstone and other investors – to develop sovereign AI infrastructure in India. The company aims to emerge as a homegrown alternative to global hyperscalers by delivering scalable, high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities to enterprises across the country. At the India AI Impact Summit, Sharad Sanghi, co-founder & CEO, Neysa, spoke to Sudhir Chowdhary on how his AI infrastructure startup competes with hyperscalers that have far deeper pockets andglobalscale. Excerpts:
India is seeing a surge in AI announcements. How much of this is real infrastructure build-out versus narrative-driven hype?
AI is very real, and there will be genuine infrastructure deployment. However, when large investment numbers are announced, the real test is how much actually gets deployed on the ground and how quickly that happens. If we go by past trends, some portion tends to be hype.
That said, AI infrastructure, especiallydata centresand GPU compute capacity, will see significant deployment in India over the next few years.
Neysa positions itself as an AI-first cloud platform. What gap in India’s cloud ecosystem are you trying to fill?
Worldwide, there are many NeoCloud providers; nextgen cloud companies built specifically to support AI and HPC workloads, rather than general-purpose enterprise cloud services. Our vision has been to democratise AIinfrastructurefor enterprises, startups, governments, and research institutions in India.
We identified two key gaps. First, there was insufficient local compute infrastructure. Second, there wasn’t a robust platform that could genuinely democratise access to AI infrastructure. At Neysa, we set out to address both challenges, and we have made meaningful progress so far in building that ecosystem.
Is Neysa building for India first, or for global AI workloads?
We are building for both. Our original vision was India-focused, democratising AI access domestically. However, with the technical capabilities we have developed, we are now seeing strong interest from global cloud providers and frontier AI labs. Many of them are looking at India for inferencing workloads, because of our technical capabilities they are looking to work with us in the near future and we are well-positioned to support that demand. So, our strategy is dual: serve India while also addressing global AI workloads.
How do you compete with players like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud that have massive capital?
We have secured a $1.2 billion capital commitment from Blackstone, which will be deployed as required. Capital is no longer a constraint for us. Our differentiation lies in our focused approach. While we partner with other cloud providers and in some cases compete with them, we operate in a distinct category known as “NeoClouds,” which are AI-focused cloud providers.
Globally, companies such as CoreWeave, Crusoe, Lambda Labs, and Nebius have successfully built this model alongside hyperscalers. These players both collaborate and compete with hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
We aim to follow a similar path. As a dedicated AI cloud provider, we are more agile and flexible in handling AI workloads. Our singular focus allows us to optimise infrastructure specifically for AI-native use cases, making us more efficient and cost-effective.
With India pushing for data sovereignty, how important is a domestically controlled AI cloud stack?
It is critical for sectors such as financial services, healthcare, government, and defence, where sovereignty becomes increasingly important as India builds scale in these areas. For financial enterprises and government institutions in particular, having control over their data and infrastructure is essential.
With Blackstone’s global footprint in AI infrastructure (data centres and cloud platforms), how will you leverage their network beyond capital?
We chose Blackstone not just for capital, but for strategic alignment. They are among the largest investors in AI data centres globally. Their portfolio includes QTS in the US, AirTrunk in Asia-Pacific, and Lumina in India. This gives us the ability to leverage world-class data center infrastructure as we scale and expand geographically.
They are also one of the largest investors in NeoCloud companies worldwide, including leading platforms such as CoreWeave and others. This creates opportunities for collaboration and capacity sharing, especially during periods of GPU shortages. In addition, Blackstone’s experience as an early investor in scaling AI infrastructure businesses provides us with valuable operational insights.
Beyond infrastructure, Blackstone has a significant presence across India through its diversified portfolio. Many of their group companies could become potential customers or strategic partners for Neysa.
We see Blackstone not merely as a financial investor, but as a long-term strategic partner across the entire AI value chain, spanning infrastructure, capacity, expertise, partnerships, and enterprise customers, both in India and globally.
