Blackstone backs Neysa with up to $1.2 billion in funding as India pushes to build domestic AI infrastructure | TechCrunch

Indian AI infrastructure startup Neysa has secured backing from US private equity firm Blackstone to expand domestic computing capacity amid India’s push to build domestic AI capabilities.

Blackstone and co-investors including Teachers’ Venture Growth, TVS Capital, 360 ONE Assets and Nexus Venture Partners have agreed to invest up to $600 million in seed capital into Neysa, giving Blackstone a majority stake, Blackstone and Neysa told TechCrunch. The Mumbai-based startup also plans to raise another $600 million in debt financing as it expands GPU capacity, a sharp increase from the $50 million it raised earlier.

The deal comes as demand for artificial intelligence computers around the world rises, leading to a squeeze on the supply of specialized chips and data center capacity needed to train and run large models. Newer AI-focused infrastructure providers—often referred to as “neo-clouds”—have emerged to bridge this gap by offering dedicated GPU capacity and faster deployment than traditional hyperscalers, especially for enterprises and AI labs with specific regulation, latency, or customization requirements.

Neysa operates in this emerging segment, positioning itself as a provider of customized GPU-based infrastructure for enterprises, government agencies and AI developers in India, where demand for local computing is still in its early but rapidly expanding phase.

“A lot of customers want hand-holding, and a lot of them want 24/7 support with a 15-minute response and a few of our resolutions. And those are the kinds of things we provide, but some hyperscalers don’t,” said Neysa co-founder and CEO Sharad Sanghi.

Ganesh Mani, senior director at Blackstone Private Equity, said his firm estimates that India currently has fewer than 60,000 GPUs deployed — and expects that number to increase nearly 30-fold to more than two million in the coming years.

This expansion is being driven by a combination of government demand, businesses in regulated sectors like financial services and healthcare that need to store data locally, and AI developers building models in India, Mani told TechCrunch. Global AI labs, many of which count India among their largest user bases, are also increasingly looking to deploy computing capacity closer to users to reduce latency and meet data demands.

The investment also builds on Blackstone’s broader push into data centers and AI infrastructure around the world. The firm has previously supported large-scale data center platforms such as QTS and AirTrunk, as well as dedicated AI infrastructure providers including CoreWeave in the US and Firmus in Australia.

Neysa develops and operates a GPU-based artificial intelligence infrastructure that enables enterprises, researchers and public sector clients to train, tune and deploy artificial intelligence models locally. The startup currently has about 1,200 GPUs active and plans to expand that capacity significantly, aiming to deploy more than 20,000 GPUs over time as customer demand accelerates.

“We see demand to triple our capacity next year,” Sanghi said. “Some of the talks we’re having are at a fairly advanced stage; if they go through, we could see that sooner rather than later. We’ll see over the next nine months.”

Sanghi told TechCrunch that the bulk of the new capital will be used to deploy large-scale GPU clusters, including compute, networking and storage, while a smaller portion will go towards R&D and building out Neysa’s software platforms for orchestration, observability and security.

Neysa aims to more than triple its revenue next year as demand for AI workloads accelerates, with ambitions to expand beyond India, Sanghi said. The startup was founded in 2023 and employs 110 people across offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai.