Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday projected India as a pivotal force in the global artificial intelligence ecosystem, urging the world to embrace a development model rooted in domestic innovation and global delivery.
Addressing world leaders, technology executives and policymakers at the India AI Impact Summit, Modi outlined India’s vision for AI-led growth. “Design and develop in India. Deliver to the world. Deliver to humanity,” he said.
India as a Bridge Between Advanced Economies and the Global South
As one of the fastest-growing digital markets globally, India is leveraging its experience in building large-scale digital public infrastructure — including digital identity and online payment systems — to position itself as a cost-effective and scalable AI innovation hub.
Modi emphasized that AI must not remain concentrated in a handful of nations or corporations. “We must democratize AI. It must become a tool for inclusion and empowerment, particularly for the Global South,” he said.
Echoing this sentiment, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for the creation of a $3 billion global fund to help developing countries build foundational AI capacity, including skills development, data access and affordable computing infrastructure. “The future of AI cannot be decided by a handful of countries, or left to the whims of a few billionaires. AI must belong to everyone,” Guterres said.
The summit was also addressed by French President Emmanuel Macron and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, underlining the global significance of the event.
Tech Leaders Announce Investments and Collaborations
On the sidelines of the summit, Modi met with leading global technology executives, many of whom reaffirmed their investment commitments in India and agreed to support principles for developing “inclusive and multilingual” AI systems.
CEO Sam Altman announced that OpenAI will collaborate with India’s Tata Group on AI initiatives, including data center infrastructure development. “We believe the democratization of AI is the only fair and safe path forward,” Altman said.
A group photograph from the meeting went viral when Modi invited tech leaders to join hands in a symbolic gesture of unity. Observers noted that Altman and Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, did not participate in holding hands — a moment that drew attention given the competitive dynamics between their companies. Altman later clarified he was unsure of what was happening at the time.
India’s Expanding AI Investment Landscape
With nearly one billion internet users, India has emerged as a crucial market for global AI expansion.
In December, Microsoft announced a $17.5 billion investment over four years to expand its cloud and AI infrastructure in India. This followed Google’s $15 billion commitment over five years, including plans to establish its first AI hub in the country. Amazon has also pledged $35 billion by 2030 to support AI-driven digitization initiatives.
The Indian government is targeting up to $200 billion in data center investments in the coming years, aiming to strengthen domestic computational capabilities.
However, India still trails global leaders such as OpenAI and China’s DeepSeek in developing large-scale foundational AI models. Key challenges include limited access to advanced semiconductor chips, expanding data center capacity, and training AI systems across hundreds of Indian languages.
Organizational Challenges and Controversies
The summit was not without setbacks. The opening day saw logistical issues, including long queues and delays. Some attendees reported missing belongings and display materials, though organizers later said the items were recovered.
Midweek, a private Indian university was expelled after a staff member showcased a commercially available Chinese-made robotic dog while presenting it as an indigenous innovation.
On Thursday, Bill Gates withdrew from a scheduled keynote address. While no official reason was provided, the Gates Foundation stated the move was intended “to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit’s key priorities.” Gates has recently faced renewed scrutiny over his past association with Jeffrey Epstein.
A Strategic Moment for India
Despite the operational hiccups, the summit underscored India’s ambitions to shape the global AI agenda — positioning itself as a bridge between advanced economies and the Global South, while advocating for inclusive, multilingual and affordable AI systems.
With rising global investment commitments and a rapidly expanding digital ecosystem, India is signaling that it intends not merely to consume AI technologies — but to co-create and deploy them at scale for the world.
