Bharti Airtel has tapped IBM to augment its recently launched Airtel Cloud offering.

Through the partnership, IBM's cloud solutions, infrastructure, and software for AI inferencing will be made available via the India-based Airtel Cloud.

In addition, Airtel Cloud will be expanded to six new availability zones, bringing its total to ten locations in India.

Airtel Cloud was launched in August 2025, offering Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and is described as a "telco-grade" cloud platform and is hosted in "next-gen sustainable" data centers.

Airtel Cloud customers are able to deploy the IBM Power systems portfolio as-a-Service, including the IBM Power11 servers that are designed for AI workloads. It will also support enterprise workloads, including IBM Power AIX, IBM i, Linux, and SAP Cloud ERP.

According to the companies, they are targeting regulated industries like banking, healthcare, government, and others.

Gopal Vittal, vice chairman & MD, Bharti Airtel, said: "Airtel Cloud is designed to be highly secure and compliant, setting new industry benchmarks as an agile and resilient cloud platform. Today, with the IBM partnership, we are adding substantial capabilities to our Cloud platform to address the unique needs of several industries that require migration from IBM Power systems and allow for AI readiness.

"With this partnership, we are also extending the footprint of our availability zones in India from four to ten, hosting these on our own next-gen sustainable data centers. We will, together, also establish two new Multizone Regions (MZRs) in Mumbai and Chennai soon."

Rob Thomas, SVP and chief commercial officer at IBM, added: "Enterprises today need to balance modernization with the growing regulated technology and AI requirements. Through our partnership with Bharti Airtel, clients across India can leverage IBM's innovative cloud offerings designed for workloads that address their strategic business priorities. Together, we will help clients drive true transformation in the era of AI."

IBM's Power11 range was unveiled in July 2025. It included Power11 servers and chips, designed to support AI, hybrid cloud, and automation applications.

Airtel Cloud was launched by Bharti's subsidiary Xtelify. In January 2025, another Bharti Airtel subsidiary - Airtel Business - revealed it was developing a sovereign AI cloud offering with Google that would be tailored for government organizations.