Big tech giants in attendance: India sets course for AI

High-profile event sees several commitments made, a technology-driven future envisioned.

From AI engineers, researchers to policymakers and top CEOs, everyone described Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a significant force that would guide the world towards development. At the same time, various countries and organisations endorsed a vision for trusted, resilient and efficient AI. The India AI Impact Summit 2026, held in New Delhi from February 16 to 20, attracted over five lakh visitors, and featured prominent figures in the global tech industry and international politics, who acknowledged that the future will be shaped by technological breakthroughs, while highlighting the need for partnerships and infrastructure investment.

Big tech giants and AI startups announced their partnerships at the summit. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said we are on the cusp of hyper progress and new discoveries that can help emerging economies leapfrog legacy gaps. “But that outcome is neither guaranteed nor automatic. To build AI that is truly helpful for everyone, we must pursue it boldly, approach it responsibly and work through this defining moment together,” he said at the opening ceremony of the summit. Google has trained 100 million people in digital skills. On infrastructure, Pichai said Google’s $15 billion investment in India, including an AI hub in Visakhapatnam that “will house gigawatt-scale compute when finished”, will bring cutting-edge capabilities to businesses across the country.

Microsoft Vice-Chair Brad Smith addressed the growing AI divide. Solutions will not come easily. The needs are multifaceted, and will require substantial investments, he said. From OpenAI boss Sam Altman to Anthropic chief Dario Amodei, CEOs spoke about India’s advantages and its AI potential. Microsoft announced that it is on pace to invest $50 billion by the end of the decade, to help bring AI to countries across the Global South. At the summit, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced a Rs 10 lakh crore investment over seven years to build the country’s sovereign AI infrastructure.

While the sessions were quite interesting, what caught the attention of the general public and students was the exhibition that demonstrated the country’s potential in creating various AI-led innovations and solutions.

In a couple of years, across sectors, professionals can employ various agents to perform their tasks. Cutting-edge technologies and energy-efficient AI systems, apart from Voice AI models, caught the attention of visitors. Thirteen country pavilions — Australia, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia, Estonia, Tajikistan, and a collective African pavilion — all displayed their ideas and investments.

Due to overwhelming interest in the expo, the government extended the exhibition till February 21. In his inaugural address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said this is the country’s benchmark for artificial intelligence. Any AI model that succeeds in India, he said, can be deployed globally.

At the French Pavilion, visited by President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Modi, 29 companies displayed France’s technological edge. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) attracted many visitors, as it demonstrated the country’s role in driving electronics and IT innovation policies. Sarvam AI drew attendees through live showcases of its India-focused foundational AI models built for local languages, enterprises, and public sector applications. BharatGPT presented multilingual AI models tailored to the country’s diverse linguistic and digital landscape. Gnani.ai introduced Inya VoiceOS at the summit, a 5-billion-parameter, voice-first AI model designed for multilingual speech, enabling seamless and natural voice-to-voice interactions for government, enterprise, and public sector applications.

During the summit, many partnerships were announced. On February 20, India announced that it joined the Pax Silica initiative by becoming a signatory to the Pax Silica Declaration. India also signed a Joint Statement on the ‘India-U.S. AI Opportunity Partnership’ as a bilateral addendum to the Declaration. Companies such as Tata Group tied up with OpenAI. At the summit, OpenAI for India, a nationwide initiative with leading Indian partners to expand access to AI and unlock its economic and societal benefits in the world’s largest democracy, was also announced.

Series of setbacks

Though the event attracted global delegates, leading AI startups’ CEOs and innovators, there were a few setbacks, including logistics issues and traffic snarls. India hosted one of the biggest events, but several delegates expressed frustration over its organisation.

It was a tough task for some speakers to reach seminar halls due to significant traffic issues. Even former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, who arrived late for a session, said, “AI can do many things, but it can’t yet fix Delhi’s traffic.”

Though companies and universities displayed their cutting-edge technologies, Galgotias University, which passed off a Chinese-made robot dog as their students’ creation, caused embarrassment to the organisers. The university displayed the Chinese-made robotic dog ‘Orion’, as a product developed by its Centre of Excellence. Also, the hand-holding moment of two AI giants OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei went viral. Both refused to hold hands at the summit. However, Altman later stated that he was confused and did not know what he was supposed to do.

On the last day of the summit, February 20, a group of protesters, linked to the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), stormed the expo, holding or wearing T-shirts bearing phrases such as “PM is compromised”.