Blackstone Acquires Majority Stake in Neysa Networks: CCI Approval

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has granted approval for Blackstone’s acquisition of a controlling stake in AI cloud infrastructure startup Neysa Networks. The investment, made through Blackstone’s affiliates BCP Asia II Topco V and Asia II Topco XIV, signifies a major development in India’s burgeoning AI sector.

This approval facilitates a substantial funding round for Neysa, which had previously announced an agreement to raise $600 million in equity, led by Blackstone, with an additional $600 million planned through debt financing. The total transaction was valued at a reported $1.4 billion enterprise valuation, positioning it as one of the largest funding rounds for an AI-native startup in India.

Neysa Networks, founded in 2023 by Sharad Sanghi and Anindya Das, specializes in providing GPU-led cloud and AI infrastructure services. The company aims to empower enterprises, startups, and public sector organizations to efficiently train, customize, and deploy AI workloads at scale. The fresh capital will be deployed to expand its AI cloud infrastructure network, with plans to deploy over 20,000 GPUs across India.

The investment by Blackstone is part of a broader trend of significant capital flowing into AI infrastructure and sovereign AI initiatives in India. Investors are increasingly backing startups focused on GPU cloud services, foundation models, and AI compute capabilities. Other investors participating in Neysa’s funding round include 360 ONE Asset, TVS Capital, Nexus Ventures, Anchorage Capital Scheme III, founder and CEO Sharad Sanghi, and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund.

This move by Blackstone into Neysa Networks aligns with increased strategic investments in the AI domain, mirroring other large-scale projects such as Sarvam AI’s reported fundraising efforts and Yotta Data Services’ significant investment in AI superclusters.