Mittal outlines Airtel's next growth engines: Finance, cloud, data centres

Chairman Sunil Mittal says Airtel will build on digital infrastructure investments by expanding financial services, data centres and Airtel Cloud as key long-term growth engines

Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest provider of telecom services, will focus on data centres, cloud, and financial services for its next phase of growth, Chairman Sunil Mittal said in the company’s Annual Report for 2025-26.

 

Having invested ₹3.3 trillion over the past decade in building digital infrastructure, Mittal said Airtel’s investment would harness new growth engines backed by resilient and secure digital infrastructure.

 

“Over the last few years, we took a calibrated approach to build new growth engines for Airtel. These bold bets yielded strong outcomes and have grown our conviction in three adjacencies where we believe Airtel has a clear right to win — financial services, data centres and Airtel Cloud,” Mittal said in his address to shareholders, in the report, issued late Saturday night. 

 

 

“Airtel’s investments are directed towards harnessing new growth engines for India that rest on the foundation of a resilient and secure digital infrastructure. These will be shaped by the same principles that have guided Airtel’s journey so far — a customer first approach, disciplined execution and a long-term vision,” he added.

 

The Reserve Bank of India in February approved Airtel Money, which would operate as a non-deposit taking non-banking financial company (NBFC). Mittal said it was “a significant milestone” for the broader goal of expanding the reach of financial inclusion in India.

 

“Airtel Money will be suitably capitalised over the years,” he said.

 

The same month, the company had announced an investment of ₹20,000 crore over the next few years in Airtel Money, with 70 per cent coming from Airtel and the rest coming from parent Bharti Enterprises.

 

Data centres under subsidiary Nxtra Data will see additional investment as it scales up its capacity to 1 Gw from 300 Mw now, over the next few years.

 

Nxtra raised $1 billion from existing investor Carlyle and new investors Alpha Wave Global and Anchorage Capital, as well as Airtel in March this year, with Airtel maintaining a controlling stake. The data centre play will be driven by demand from India’s rapid digitisation, rising cloud adoption and increasing data localisation requirements.

 

“Our third growth engine, Airtel Cloud, is seeing encouraging early traction. Our sovereign, telco-grade cloud offering addresses an emerging need in the Indian market. Airtel Cloud allows our customers to get access to world-class cloud offerings hosted and held in India and delivered in a cost-effective manner,” Mittal said.

 

He further noted that the company was actively working to ensure that the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) was broadbased and responsibility-driven and was in line with India’s technology priorities.

 

He added that policies were in place to support cloud, AI and digital infrastructure, which will accelerate investment and strengthen the ecosystem.

 

“Building on this momentum, the long-term tax holiday laid out by the Government of India for cloud and AI-led data centre investments is a timely initiative, expected to catalyse sustained capital inflows into digital infrastructure, while assuring the people of India of sovereign, secure data flows,”Mittal said.

 

He further noted partnership with global technology leaders such as Adobe, Apple, Cisco, Ericsson, Eutelsat OneWeb, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Nokia, Oracle, Qualcomm, Samsung and SpaceX were enabling the company to create differentiated customer experiences, accelerate new-age services, and reinforce its competitive position.

 

Executive Vice-Chairman Gopal Vittal said that Airtel was transitioning the network towards advanced 5G capabilities and Standalone Architecture (SA).

 

“While this now operates at scale on Fixed Wireless Access, our Mobile network is also now transitioning in a phased manner to Standalone,” he said.

 

The number of Airtel’s 5G customers grew to 188 million during the year. He also noted women making up 20 per cent of the company’s workforce.

 

Vittal flagged the need for “tariff repair” for the long-term health of the industry, while highlighting premiumisation levers of feature phones to smartphone upgrades, postpaid growth, data monetisation, and expanding international roaming.

 

Vittal added that Airtel was replicating capabilities developed in India across its homes and enterprise segments in the African market, while also extending the digital platforms to its telecom tower subsidiary Indus Towers, which will be used to digitise tower operations end-to-end.

 

Airtel said it had contingent liabilities towards a one-time spectrum charge of ₹6,066 crore, with total liabilities rising to ₹12,137 crore, including interest, as of March 2026.

 

The company added that it would oppose the Department of Telecom’s appeal in the Supreme Court filed in January this year in an ongoing matter related to demand for higher spectrum-usage charges.

 

Meanwhile, the company’s board recommended a dividend of ₹24 per share for 2025-26, an increase of 50 per cent over last year.

 

Mittal said the record dividend was in line with the philosophy of progressive growth in payouts alongside continued investment in core business and new growth engines to future-proof the company.