Top executives from global AI firms and world leaders are gathering in New Delhi for the India AI Impact Summit, the first such event in a developing country. India aims to attract more investment in the AI sector. The summit seeks to amplify the voices of developing nations in global AI governance.
The India AI Impact Summit began in New Delhi, India, on Monday, February 16, 2026, according to Rappler. More than 250,000 delegates and over 300 exhibitors are expected at the 70,000-square-meter expo held at Bharat Mandapam, a $300 million convention complex.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X: “The theme of the summit is … welfare for all, happiness for all, reflecting our shared commitment to harnessing Artificial Intelligence for human-centric progress.”
Key speakers on Thursday include Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani, and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis. Modi is set to share the stage with French President Emmanuel Macron that day.
Google and Amazon have already committed $68 billion to AI and cloud infrastructure investments up to 2030. India's Economic Survey, released last month, urged the government to focus on “application-led innovation” rather than frontier models. India has more than 72 million daily ChatGPT users as of late 2025, making it OpenAI's largest market.
However, rapid AI adoption threatens jobs in India's $283 billion IT sector, with Jefferies predicting a 50% revenue hit for call centers by 2030. Previous global AI summits at Bletchley Park in 2023, Seoul in 2024, and Paris in 2025 emphasized safety commitments but produced few enforceable outcomes, according to critics.
The event has driven up luxury hotel prices in Delhi, with a suite at the Taj Palace listed at over $33,000 per night, up from about $2,200. India's Supreme Court issued a circular allowing advocates to appear via video conferencing due to anticipated traffic congestion.
