Airtel partners with IBM to expand cloud, AI infrastructure footprint in India

India’s second-largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, has partnered with IBM to offer the American technology firm’s cloud and AI infrastructure services through Airtel Cloud, as enterprises across regulated sectors ramp up their digital transformation and computing needs.

Announcing the partnership on Wednesday, the companies said Airtel Cloud customers will now be able to deploy IBM Power systems portfolio-as-a-service, including the latest IBM Power11 autonomous, AI-ready servers, designed for mission-critical workloads in sectors such as banking, healthcare, government, and others.

The Power11 hybrid platform will support enterprise workloads across IBM Power AIX, IBM i, Linux, and SAP Cloud ERP, Airtel said in a stock exchange filing. The collaboration will also enable SAP customers on IBM Power to accelerate their ERP migration to SAP Cloud ERP on IBM Power Virtual Server, facilitating hybrid cloud modernisation.

“Airtel Cloud is designed to be highly secure and compliant, setting new industry benchmarks as an agile and resilient cloud platform,” said Gopal Vittal, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel. “With the IBM partnership, we are adding substantial capabilities to our platform to address the unique needs of industries that require migration from IBM Power Systems and allow for AI readiness.”

Vittal added that the partnership will also help Airtel expand its cloud infrastructure footprint significantly. The telecom major plans to increase its availability zones in India from four to ten, hosted on its next-generation sustainable data centres, and will establish two new multizone regions in Mumbai and Chennai. The new regions are expected to help Indian enterprises enhance operational resilience, meet data residency mandates, and ensure that mission-critical workloads remain available at all times.

IBM, which has been strengthening its hybrid cloud and AI ecosystem globally, sees the collaboration as a strategic move to help Indian enterprises balance innovation with compliance and resilience requirements.

“Enterprises today need to balance modernisation with growing regulated technology and AI requirements,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, IBM. “Through our partnership with Bharti Airtel, clients across India can leverage IBM’s innovative cloud offerings to address their strategic business priorities. Together, we will help clients drive true transformation in the era of AI.”

This announcement comes only a day after Google announced a $15 billion investment over five years to set up an AI data centre campus in Andhra Pradesh, in partnership with AdaniConneX. Airtel, which is also collaborating with Google on the Visakhapatnam facility, appears to be positioning itself as a key player in India’s rapidly evolving AI and cloud ecosystem.

By bringing IBM’s enterprise-grade cloud and AI infrastructure to its platform, Airtel aims to strengthen its appeal among regulated industries and fast-growing digital enterprises, as the demand for secure, scalable, and AI-ready computing infrastructure accelerates across India.