TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Blackstone’s Jas Khaira Talks Creating the Next Wave of AI Giants

Meta description: Blackstone's Neysa and Anthropic deals show how AI scaling capital choices will shape companies discussed at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco.

Tags: AI capital, Blackstone, TechCrunch Disrupt, Neysa, Anthropic

Featured image: Abstract technology style with neutral data-center silhouettes, network lines, and light gradients, with no real people, no company logos, and no text.

At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Jas Khaira, global head of Blackstone N1, will speak on the Builders Stage in a session titled “Building the Next Generation of AI Giants.” The Blackstone AI capital strategy at the center of that discussion matters because AI companies can reach large scale quickly, but that speed also forces founders to finance compute, data centers, and expansion before they know whether early demand will become a durable business. Recent Blackstone-backed moves in infrastructure and implementation show how the firm is testing that question outside the conference floor.

Background: Why AI Capital Needs Changed

For an earlier generation of software startups, growth often meant adding servers and sales teams. For AI companies, the same growth can require far more physical infrastructure. Training, inference, data centers, and specialized compute can become major balance-sheet items, not afterthoughts. That changes the founder’s timeline: financing decisions arrive while product roadmaps, hiring plans, and customer acquisition are still moving.

Khaira brings that investor-side context to Disrupt. He joined Blackstone in 2004 and is global head of Blackstone N1 and Blackstone Growth, as well as head of tactical opportunities Americas. He serves on several of the firm’s investment committees and founded Blackstone N1, its platform for growth, hybrid, and perpetual private equity investing across the AI ecosystem and next-generation high-growth companies. Blackstone is one of the world’s largest alternative asset managers, so the capital choices discussed at the session carry weight for companies trying to become category-defining leaders.

Development: Neysa and Anthropic Show Where Capital Is Flowing

Two recent investments illustrate the kinds of scale Blackstone is engaging with. Blackstone and co-investors agreed to invest up to $600 million in primary equity in Neysa, an Indian AI infrastructure company. Neysa planned to raise an additional $600 million in debt financing, underscoring how infrastructure-heavy AI expansion can require layered funding sources.

The second example moves from compute toward deployment. In July, Anthropic launched Ode with Anthropic, an AI implementation company backed through a $1.5 billion joint venture with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs and others. That structure points to a broader theme: AI value is not only in model development, but also in putting systems into enterprise workflows and operational environments. Together, the Neysa and Ode with Anthropic deals show Blackstone positioning around two chokepoints of AI growth: infrastructure capacity and practical implementation.

Latest Progress: What Disrupt 2026 Will Reveal

The session will take place October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco as part of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. “Building the Next Generation of AI Giants” is one of 200+ sessions across six industry stages, roundtables and breakouts. More than 10,000 founders, investors, operators and tech leaders are expected, along with 250+ speakers and 300+ exhibiting startups. Registration offers a 50% discount on a second pass, with additional savings for groups of four or more.

Khaira’s Builders Stage talk will focus on what Blackstone looks for when backing category-defining companies, and how founders think about capital as they scale. The key distinction he is expected to explore is the gap between early traction and staying power: whether a company’s financing choices can support long-term product strength, competitive advantages, and operational resilience rather than only faster growth.

The next signal will come from how founders and investors weigh these decisions at Disrupt. With Blackstone’s Neysa and Anthropic-backed investments already showing the size of capital required for AI infrastructure and implementation, the discussion will test whether the same standards can separate companies built to endure from those simply growing fast.