PM Modi to inaugurate AI summit in Feb; Bill Gates, Hassabis to attend

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the AI Impact Summit in February 2026, with global tech leaders such as Bill Gates and Demis Hassabis confirming participation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the AI Impact Summit, to be held between February 15 and 20, 2026, the secretary of the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, S Krishnan, said.

 

French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are expected to be present at the summit. Delegations of governments and business representatives from nearly 100 countries will also participate. India has also invited China to attend the five-day event, he said.

 

The main events, scheduled for February 19 and 20, will be inaugurated by Modi, during which he will also chair a roundtable of chief executive officers from leading technology companies. So far, Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, Google DeepMind Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Demis Hassabis, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam, among others, have confirmed their participation in the event, Krishnan said.

 

 

The AI Impact Summit has been held in the UK, South Korea, and France so far. Countries such as Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, among others, have expressed interest to host the next edition of the Summit, a senior government official said on the sidelines of the press conference.

 

The IT ministry has proposed setting up seven working groups to deliberate on the finer points of concepts such as AI for economic growth and social good, democratisation of resources, human capital, resilience, innovation and efficiency, inclusion for social empowerment, safe and trusted AI, and science, Krishnan said.

 

While various experts from India will chair the respective working groups, the government has also invited experts from 14 countries to co-chair these groups and deliberate on the aspects, he said.

 

The government will also help startups working in the space of artificial intelligence get mentorship and funding opportunities by connecting them to the right investors through the IT ministry startup hub, Krishnan said.