NEW DELHI: Bill Gates pulled out of his keynote address at India’s AI Impact Summit on Thursday, dealing another blow to a flagship event marred by organisational lapses, a robot controversy, and complaints of traffic chaos.

Despite the difficulties, the six-day event notched more than $200 billion in investment pledges for artificial intelligence infrastructure in India. This included a $110bn plan announced by Reliance Industries on Thursday, while the Tata Group signed a partnership deal with OpenAI.

Gates’ absence followed another high-profile cancellation by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang earlier in the week. The cancellations added to a difficult opening for a summit billed as the first major AI forum in the Global South, where India has sought to position itself as a leading voice in worldwide AI governance.

Epstein emails

The Gates Foundation said the billionaire would not deliver his address “to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit’s key priorities”. Only days ago, the foundation had dismissed rumours of his absence and insisted he was on track to attend.

Unity gesture flops as Altman, Amodei skip handhold in awkward stage moment

The cancellation follows the release of emails last month by the US Department of Justice that included communication between the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Gates Foundation staff. Gates has previously said the relationship was confined to philanthropy-related discussions and that it was a mistake for him to meet with Epstein.

Awkward moment

In his keynote address Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for maintaining children’s safety on AI platforms. He addressed the gathering alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

Following the address, Modi and the top AI executives stood on stage with their arms raised to declare the formal launch of the New Delhi Frontier AI Commitments, a set of voluntary principles adopted by leading AI companies to advance inclusive, responsible development of frontier AI models. The symbolic photoshoot produced an awkward moment when Altman and Amodei, chiefs of rival AI firms OpenAI and Anthropic, stood side by side but did not hold hands, although the other executives did.

Organisational lapses

Despite the investment successes, India’s first major AI summit left many attendees shocked and angry over what they described as a lack of planning by the Indian government.

The summit exhibition halls were shut to the public in a surprise move on Thursday, angering participating companies that had set up stalls and pavilions. The venue compound was largely deserted after three days of large crowds.

Adding to the controversy, Indian university Galgotias was asked to vacate its stall after a staff member presented a commercially available robotic dog made in China as the university’s own creation, sparking public uproar.

Outside the venue, police repeatedly shut roads to give preference to VIP movement, creating chaos in the city of 20 million people. On Wednesday, footage on social media showed scores of attendees walking for miles in central Delhi because roads were closed and no taxis or shuttle services were available.

The Indian government apologised for the inconvenience caused in the initial days, but opposition parties attacked the government and the prime minister for poorly managing the global summit.

“How can you expect your engineers, AI guys to walk such distances ... And then we complain that entrepreneurs are leaving India,” Congress’ spokesperson Pawan Khera said.

Attendees echoed the frustration online.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2026