Lightstorm Secures ₹2,500 Crore From IndusInd Bank to Build India AI Superhighway

Lightstorm has secured a ₹2,500 crore debt facility from IndusInd Bank to build out its fibre network connecting India’s AI infrastructure with data centre hubs in Singapore and Malaysia.

The 10-year facility is fully underwritten and will fund the expansion of Lightstorm’s India network across the southern corridor, along with international connectivity through the I-2SEA subsea cable system.

The company said its ‘AI Superhighway’ will connect AI infrastructure across India and extend to Southeast Asia, as hyperscalers expand data centre and GPU capacity in the region.

“India is building the compute infrastructure of the AI era, and the network connecting that compute needs to be built to the same standard: purpose-built, performance-guaranteed, and designed to scale,” said Scott McGibbony, Group CFO at Lightstorm.

The network is being built with deep-trenched fibre to support low-latency and deterministic connectivity for AI workloads. Lightstorm said the network will provide a direct route between Indian AI infrastructure and hyperscale hubs in Singapore and Malaysia.

Lightstorm currently operates more than 30,000 km of terrestrial fibre and 21,000 km of subsea fibre, connecting more than 100 data centres globally. The company said the new investment will increase its network capacity in India and extend its reach across Southeast Asia.

“The AI Superhighway we are creating spans the length and breadth of India and reaches internationally into Southeast Asia, giving hyperscalers and enterprises a single, high-performance connectivity layer from the subcontinent to the region’s major AI hubs,” McGibbony said.

Niraj Shah, Head of Corporate & Institutional Banking, Gems & Jewellery at IndusInd Bank, said the bank’s financing will support connectivity infrastructure as India increases investments in AI, cloud computing and hyperscale data centres.

“Lightstorm’s vision of creating a high-capacity, low-latency network connecting India's key AI corridors with the rest of the world aligns strongly with the next phase of the region's digital growth,” Shah said.

Lightstorm said its network serves hyperscalers operating in India and is also used by enterprises and AI infrastructure providers. Its connectivity services are delivered through its Polarin network-as-a-service platform, which provides on-demand provisioning and monitoring of network performance.