By Gulshan Luthra and R Chandrakanth
- India is positioning itself as a development hub and a deployment powerhouse, leveraging vast talent pool and digital public infrastructure
- “Design and Develop in India, Deliver to the World”: Prime Minister Modi’s Call
- India and France will help to shape this future together. The journey has just begun: French President Macron
New Delhi, The AI Impact Summit in the Indian capital has emerged as more than a technology conference. It is a theatre of strategic competition, where nations are positioning themselves for leadership in the defining technology of the 21st century.
Countries such as United States, China, India, and members of the European Union are using Artificial Intelligence to reshape global influence, much like nuclear technology and space exploration once did in earlier eras.
The summit reflects how AI supremacy is no longer confined to private innovation but is deeply tied to national policy, digital sovereignty, and geopolitical leverage. Governments are unveiling national AI missions, sovereign computing infrastructure, and regulatory frameworks designed to ensure that their economies are embedded in the algorithms shaping the future.
At its core, the battle is about technological dominance across the entire innovation stack, be it from semiconductor design and cloud computing to foundational models and autonomous systems. Technology giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Open AI are working closely with governments, blurring the lines between commercial and national strategic interests.
India Positioning As Development Hub
Nations that control advanced AI infrastructure will influence global digital trade, data flows, and standards. India, in particular, is positioning itself as both a development hub and a deployment powerhouse, leveraging its vast talent pool, digital public infrastructure, and scale to compete with established leaders while offering an alternative to Western and Chinese technological ecosystems.
In Defence, Artificial Intelligence is enabling autonomous weapons, predictive surveillance, cyber warfare capabilities, and faster battlefield assessment and decision-making. AI is now a critical pillar of national security. Economically, nations with strong AI capabilities will drive higher growth, attract investment, and dominate future industries.
The AI Summit in India accordingly symbolizes a pivotal moment, not just a gathering of innovators, but a strategic contest that will determine which nations lead the next era of economic power, military strength, and technological influence.
PM Modi Presents India’s MANAV Mission
Prime Minister Narendra Modi described artificial intelligence as a transformative force comparable to the most defining turning points in human civilization, emphasizing that its scale, speed, and impact are unprecedented. He stressed that AI is not merely making machines intelligent but multiplying human capability, reshaping how societies work, innovate, and grow. He presented India’s MANAV vision, defining it as Moral and Ethical Systems, Accountable Governance, National Sovereignty, Accessible and Inclusive, and Valid and Legitimate he underscored the need to ensure that AI remains ethical, transparent, and human-centric. He called for democratizing AI so that it becomes a tool of inclusion and empowerment, particularly for the Global South, rather than a monopoly of a few nations or corporations.
Global Common Good
Positioning India as a global AI leader, the Prime Minister highlighted the country’s vast talent pool, strong digital infrastructure, and rapidly growing ecosystem spanning semiconductors, data centers, startups, and advanced computing. He emphasized that India sees AI not only as an economic opportunity but as the blueprint of the future, capable of transforming industries, creating new jobs, and driving innovation. At the global level, he called for collective responsibility to develop AI as a “Global Common Good,” stressing the importance of open collaboration, shared development, and international standards to address risks such as deepfakes and misinformation.
The Prime Minister concluded by inviting the world to “Design and Develop in India, Deliver to the World,” positioning India as a trusted and scalable hub for the next era of AI-driven progress.
Here is a table of Heads of State and Government who visited/attended the AI Impact Summit 2026 (the India AI Impact Summit 2026 held in New Delhi, 16–20 February 2026), based on confirmed reporting and official lists from multiple news sources and announcements:
| Country | Name | Title / Position |
| India | Narendra Modi | Prime Minister (host) |
| France | Emmanuel Macron | President |
| Brazil | Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva | President |
| Spain | Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón | Prime Minister |
| Slovakia | Peter Pellegrini | President |
| Serbia | Aleksandar Vučić | President |
| Sri Lanka | Anura Kumara Dissanayake | President |
| Greece | Kyriakos Mitsotakis | Prime Minister |
| Finland | Petteri Orpo | Prime Minister |
| Croatia | Andrej Plenković | Prime Minister |
| Estonia | Alar Karis | President |
| Switzerland | Guy Parmelin | President |
| Netherlands | Dick Schoof | Prime Minister |
| Bhutan | Tshering Tobgay | Prime Minister |
| Mauritius | Navinchandra Ramgoolam | Prime Minister |
| Kazakhstan | Olzhas Bektenov | Prime Minister |
| UAE | Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan | Crown Prince (UAE representative) |
| Liechtenstein | Hereditary Prince Alois | Hereditary Prince |
| Guyana | Bharrat Jagdeo | Vice President (Head of delegation) |
| Bolivia | Edmand Lara Montano | Vice President (Head of delegation) |
| Seychelles | Sebastien Pillay | Vice President (Head of delegation) |
Notes:
- The summit drew more than 20 heads of state/government according to official data, and included several vice presidents and senior representatives leading national delegations.
- Some leaders — e.g., heads of international organizations such as António Guterres (UN Secretary-General) and Kristalina Georgieva (IMF Managing Director) — were also present but are not included in this spreadsheet since they are not heads of sovereign states.
President Macron Says AI Shaping Geopolitics, Economic Power and Global Balance
Delivering his keynote address, French President Emmanuel Macron, emphasised the importance of sovereign, independent, and collaborative AI development in an era of accelerating technological competition.
Drawing parallels between India’s digital public infrastructure revolution and the current AI transformation, he described AI as a strategic domain shaping geopolitics, economic power, and global balance.
Highlighting complementary paths taken by India and Europe, Mr Macron observed: “The smartest AI is not the most expensive. It is the one built by the best people and for the right purpose. The future of AI will be built by those who combine innovation and responsibility, technology with humanity. No country is bound to serve only as a market where foreign companies sell models and download citizens’ data. There is a path for innovation, independence and strategic autonomy, and India and France will help shape this future together.”
AI Strategy Rooted in Democratisation, Scale
Mr Ashwini Vaishnaw, Indian Minister of Electronics & Information Technology, positioned India’s AI strategy as one rooted in democratisation, scale, and sovereignty. He outlined India’s comprehensive approach across the five layers of the AI stack – applications, models, compute, talent, and energy, emphasising on their real-world deployment in healthcare, agriculture, education, and public services.
UN Secretary General Calls for Guardrails, And A Global Fund
Mr António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, welcomed India’s leadership in hosting the first AI Summit in the Global South and emphasised that the future of artificial intelligence must not be determined by a small group of countries or private interests. He highlighted two major steps taken by the UN General Assembly: The creation of an independent international scientific panel on AI comprising 40 global experts, and the launch of a Global Dialogue on AI Governance to ensure inclusive, multistakeholder participation.
Calling for guardrails that preserve human agency, he said “The future of AI cannot be decided by a handful of countries or left to the whims of a few billionaires. We need guardrails that preserve human agency, human oversight and human accountability.
AI must be accessible to everyone. That is why I am calling for a Global Fund on AI to build basic capacity in developing countries. Real impact means technology that improves lives and protects the planet, so let’s build AI for everyone, with dignity as the default setting.”
AI, the Next Foundational Infrastructure: Tata Chairman
Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran described AI as the next foundational infrastructure, “The infrastructure of Intelligence” with transformative potential comparable to steam engines, electricity, and the internet. He highlighted India’s digital public infrastructure achievements and positioned AI as a strategic national capability built across the full stack, from chips and systems to energy and applications.
Emphasising the immense opportunity for industry, he said “AI is the next big infrastructure. It is the infrastructure of intelligence. Our mission should be to make AI work for every individual and every citizen in this country. We should put AI tools in the hands of the last person of the country, and in fact on the earth. We are standing at a defining moment, it is the Age of Abundant Intelligence, where the Scarce Resources are Trust, Stewardship and Human Capability.”
India most promising AI market: Sam Altman
Mr Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has praised India’s accelerating role in the global artificial intelligence landscape, describing it as one of the fastest-growing and most promising AI markets in the world.
Speaking at the Summit, he observed it was “incredible to see India’s leadership and advanced AI,” pointing to the country’s progress in making the technology accessible to people and communities.
“It is striking how much progress India has made in its mission to put AI to work for more people in more parts of the country. And India’s leadership in sovereign AI has been great to watch.”
Staggering Progress: Anthropic CEO
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei reflected on the extraordinary pace of AI advancement since the first global AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in Britain in 2023, describing progress over the past two-and-a-half years as “staggering.” He argued that AI has been advancing along an exponential curve for nearly a decade and is rapidly approaching a point where systems may surpass human cognitive capabilities across most domains.
“AI has been on an exponential trend for the last 10 years, and we are now well advanced on that curve. We are increasingly close to what I’ve called a ‘country of geniuses in the data centre’, a set of AI agents more capable than most humans at most things, coordinating at superhuman speed. That level of capability brings extraordinary opportunities, to cure diseases, lift billions out of poverty, and create a better world, but it also brings serious risks. Because this is happening so fast, we must work together, companies and governments, to manage disruption and ensure that prosperity is shared smoothly and responsibly.
An Awkward Moment on Stage
There was an awkward moment when Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, former friends and colleagues, did not link hands in the Be Together Chain when Mr Modi asked the lading participants to join hands. The two tech leaders held the hands of other persons, but not of each other. Their companies are fighting an intense battle in AI supremacy.
Biggest Platform Shift of a Lifetime: Sundar Pichai
Google CEO Sundar Pichai described AI as “the biggest platform shift of a lifetime,” highlighting its potential to accelerate scientific discovery.
“AI is the biggest platform shift of a lifetime. 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. We cannot allow the digital divide to become an AI divide.”
At the Research Symposium on AI and its Impact, Mr Vaishnaw, framing India’s AI journey around practical deployment and population-scale impact, stated: “Interacting with thousands of young people at the ongoing AI Expo, I was struck by their optimism about the future. That confidence has made me hopeful about a new chapter for our country and for the world. In India, our focus is on AI at the edge, AI that solves real-world problems, improves enterprise productivity, and addresses population-scale challenges in healthcare, agriculture, and climate change. This symposium is an opportunity to shape that future responsibly, and I urge leaders here to offer concrete ideas on how to make AI safe and truly beneficial for humanity.”
Ambanis and Adanis to Invest over $ 200 billion
They promised huge investments, Mr Gautam Adani of $ 100 billion and Mr Mukesh Ambani of $ 110b in AI.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani outlined an ambitious roadmap to position Jio at the heart of India’s artificial intelligence transformation and made three major announcements to “Connect the Country to The Intelligence Era.”
Jio, along with Reliance, will invest Rs 10 lakh crore ($ 110b) over the next seven years, starting 2026.
Jio will build India’s sovereign compute infrastructure through bold initiatives:
- Gigawatt scale data centres. We have started construction on multi-GW AI-ready data centres at Jamnagar. 120MW will come online this year..
- A green energy advantage, as RIL has an inhouse energy advantage with up to 10GW of ready green power in both Kutch and Andhra Pradesh.
- Development of a nationwide edge compute layer deeply integrated with Jio Network to make AI responsive, low latency and affordable close to where people live, learn and work.
The Adani Group announced $ 100b investment by 2035 to build Renewal Powered AI Infrastructure, aiming to turn India into a global exporter of AI technologies.
Transformative Technologies in Human History: Co-Founder & CEO Google DeepMind
Highlighting AI’s potential to advance science and medicine, Sir Demis Hassabis, Co-Founder & CEO, Google DeepMind, said “We are at a threshold moment where artificial general intelligence (AGI) is on the horizon. AI will be one of the most transformative technologies in human history, with extraordinary potential to advance science, medicine, and human health but it also carries real risks. Because this technology will affect the whole world, international dialogue and cooperation are essential to ensure its benefits are shared and its dangers responsibly managed.”
He reflected on the rapid progress of AI since founding DeepMind in 2010, while cautioning that true artificial general intelligence (AGI) remains a work in progress.
He outlined key technical gaps, including continual learning, long-term planning and consistency across tasks, even as he expressed strong optimism about AI ushering in a new era of scientific discovery. He closed with a message of “cautious optimism,” emphasising that while technical challenges can be solved through innovation, international cooperation will be essential to ensuring AI’s benefits are widely shared and its risks responsibly managed.
Workforce Transformation
Dame Wendy Hall, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, examined the future of artificial intelligence through the lens of governance, inclusion and workforce transformation. Speaking in the context of the Global South, she called for AI systems that are built “for humanity” grounded in safety frameworks, equitable access and sovereign capability.
Emphasising that AI strategies must reflect national priorities, linguistic diversity and local data ecosystems, she highlighted the importance of inclusive development models that ensure long-term societal benefit. Her address conveyed cautious optimism, urging governments, researchers and young innovators, particularly in emerging economies, to shape AI in ways that are locally grounded, globally connected and fundamentally inclusive.
Emerging Risks
Prof. Yoshua Bengio, Professor of Computer Science, Université de Montréal, focused on the emerging risks associated with increasingly capable and agentic AI systems, particularly issues of misalignment, deceptive behaviour and inadequate risk mitigation. Warning that recent advances in AI capabilities are outpacing existing evaluation and safeguard mechanisms, Prof Bengio called for a fundamental shift in AI design, moving away from goal-driven, human-imitative systems toward models grounded in scientific reasoning.
Mr S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said, “We approach this moment with cautious optimism embracing AI’s potential while remaining mindful of risks, standards, governance, and, most importantly, ensuring that all global voices are empowered in shaping the AI discourse.”
