New Delhi | February 16, 2026
Global tech leaders, including Sundar Pichai and Sam Altman, along with representatives from around 20 countries, are expected at the AI Impact Summit this week; the participation of Bill Gates, amid scrutiny over his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has drawn criticism
Global tech leaders Sundar Pichai and Sam Altman, along with leaders from about 20 countries, including Brazil and France, are among the participants expected to attend the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Impact Summit this week. The event kicks off on today, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the “India AI Impact Expo 2026,” featuring pavilions from 13 other countries.
The event is being hosted from February 16 to 20 at the Bharat Mandapam complex in Delhi, where the G-20 Summit was hosted for the first time in 2023. It marks the 4th AI Summit, following those in the U.K., South Korea, and France. Officials said it would be the first time the Summit on the transformative effects and challenges of AI is hosted in a Global South country.
“India has consistently championed the voice of developing economies in digital policy forums. The Summit will push for equitable access to AI resources and fair rule-making,” a senior government official briefing journalists about the Summit said here. Unlike developed countries, India was not seeking to build regulatory frameworks; instead, the Summit focused on a “human-centric” approach for the “economic good” of all, the official added.
2.5 lakh visitors expected
According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday, the AI Impact event will feature more than 3,000 speakers over 500 sessions and host more than 300 exhibitions and live demonstrations of AI technology and startups, which are “structured across three thematic chakras — People, Planet and Progress”. The government hopes to attract more than 2.5 lakh visitors to the event, the statement said.
After the Expo inauguration on Monday, the Summit will see an “all-women” hackathon on Tuesday in Delhi. Meanwhile, PM Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron will hold bilateral talks in Mumbai on February 17. On February 18, Mr Modi will host a dinner banquet for the dignitaries and then chair a leaders’ summit followed by a Tech-CEOs event on February 19. Brazilian President Lula, who will also hold bilateral talks with PM Modi, is accompanied by a large delegation of AI officials and tech company representatives and will host an entire session on February 20.
The heads of 18 other countries attending at the highest levels range from European countries, including Switzerland, Spain, Serbia, Slovakia, Croatia, Estonia, Netherlands, Finland and Greece, to Mauritius, Bhutan and Sri Lanka in the neighbourhood and Kazakhstan, two countries from South America (Bolivia and Guyana) and one from Africa (Seychelles), a list provided by the External Affairs Ministry said.
The crown princes of Liechtenstein and the UAE will also attend as heads of their delegations, as will some prominent former leaders, including former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Rishi Sunak. Ministerial delegations from more than 45 countries would participate in the Summit, officials said. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, whose tenure ends this year, will also attend the Summit. Officials said that big tech leaders such as Google’s Sundar Pichai and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will “headline” sessions, as will Demis Hassabis (CEO of DeepMind Technologies), Dario Amodei (Anthropic CEO) and Brad Smith (Microsoft president). NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, who was to be a key speaker, pulled out on Saturday “due to unforeseen circumstances”, while Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is at the centre of allegations over his links with American businessman and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is expected to attend. When asked, officials did not confirm his role in the event.