Now Reading: Lightstorm raises Rs 2,500 crore debt for AI fibre network
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Lightstorm raises Rs 2,500 crore debt for AI fibre network
Network infrastructure company Lightstorm has raised a Rs 2,500 crore long-term debt facility from IndusInd Bank. The 10-year fully underwritten facility will fund terrestrial and subsea fibre projects connecting Indian data centre…
The Story in Brief
Network infrastructure company Lightstorm has raised a Rs 2,500 crore long-term debt facility from IndusInd Bank. The 10-year fully underwritten facility will fund terrestrial and subsea fibre projects connecting Indian data centre clusters with regional hubs in Southeast Asia, Japan, and the US.
Lightstorm plans to build an AI-dedicated fibre corridor linking Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad to hyperscale AI zones in Singapore and Malaysia. The company, backed by I Squared Capital, already operates over 30,000 km of terrestrial fibre and 21,000 km of subsea fibre, connecting more than 100 data centres globally. The debt facility can also roll up an existing Rs 700 crore credit line from NIIF.
The Indian Opinion
The claim of an 'AI fibre highway' sounds grand, but Lightstorm competes with established players like Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio. The real test will be whether this debt-funded expansion actually delivers the high internal rates of return the company targets, not just infrastructure promises. Watch if Lightstorm's debt-to-profit ratio, already improved to 1.06x, stays healthy as capital gets deployed over the next 12-36 months.
Sources (2): livemint.com, telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
