New Delhi, Feb 15: In a landmark event for India and the world against the backdrop of the Artificial Intelligence boom, CEOs of all the top tech and AI companies in the world and ministerial delegations from over 45 countries will participate in the AI Impact Summit 2026, set to start at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi from Monday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the India AI Impact Expo 2026 at 5 PM on Monday. The Expo will be held from 16th to 20th February alongside the Summit. According to a statement from the PMO, the Expo will serve as a national demonstration of AI in action, where policy meets practice, innovation meets scale, and technology meets the everyday citizen.
At the invitation of the Prime Minister, many global leaders are scheduled to attend the summit including President of France, Emmanuel Macron, Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Spain, Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, President of Switzerland, Guy Parmelin, Netherlands Prime Minister Dick Schoof, UAE’s Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Prime Minister of Mauritius Dr Navinchandra Ramgoolam, Sri Lanka President Anura Kumara Disanayaka, Vice President of Seychelles, Sebastien Pillay and Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay.
The External Affairs Ministry said in a statement that leaders from Bolivia, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Guyana, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Serbia, and Slovakia, are also set to participate in the summit.
Prime Minister Modi will address the Summit and engage closely with the CEOs. The event will be closely watched globally as it unfolds, given that some of the biggest names shaping the tech narrative are slated to be part of it.
Spread across 10 arenas covering more than 70,000 square metres, the summit will bring together global technology firms, startups, academia and research institutions, Union Ministries, State Governments, and international partners. The event will also feature 13 country pavilions from Australia, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia, Estonia, Tajikistan and Africa.
For India, the event is as much about signalling capability as it is about intent, showcasing the nation’s deep talent pool, expanding digital public infrastructure and growing startup ecosystem, while positioning itself as a key architect of responsible, scalable and inclusive AI solutions for the world.
While earlier global gatherings – including the UK’s AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park (2023), the Seoul Summit (2024), and the Paris meet (2025) – placed significant emphasis on frontier risks, safety guardrails and voluntary commitments, India is widening the lens to foreground AI’s developmental impact and real-world applications that can drive economic growth, social inclusion and sustainability.
India is the architect of one of the world’s largest digital public infrastructures, which has drawn global recognition, and is home to a fast-growing startup ecosystem. Backed by the IndiaAI Mission’s push for compute capacity, datasets and skilling, the summit will signal New Delhi’s strategy for harnessing Artificial Intelligence while balancing rapid innovation with appropriate safeguards.
Seven thematic working groups, co-chaired by representatives from the Global North and Global South, will present concrete deliverables, including proposals for AI Commons, trusted AI tools, shared compute infrastructure, and sector-specific compendiums of AI use cases.
Power-packed sessions, over 700 planned over five days, will address AI safety, governance, ethical use, data protection and India’s approach to sovereign AI, including the development of indigenous foundation models for strategic sectors.
The summit will have deep dives into how AI is impacting professions and industries, the new skill requirements for the evolving job market, and the role of AI in supporting farmers, small businesses and individuals.
As automation reshapes industries, workforce readiness will come under the spotlight. India has one of the youngest workforces in the world, with over 65 per cent of the population under 35, giving the nation a substantial edge in the new era. Given the favourable demographic profile, the tech-savvy talent base can be trained and adapted for AI-driven industries, creating a foundation for innovation, digital services, and future-ready jobs.
Recent amendment to IT rules and FAQs around AI-generated content and labelling is the huge talking point in the industry at the moment, as is increased accountability of social media platforms and AI tool providers. The summit will offer insights into India’s approach to tackling deepfakes and AI misinformation.
Unlike the EU’s regulation-heavy AI Act or the US’ market-driven approach, India has opted, and indeed advocated, for an innovation-first approach. A development-first model focused on scaling benefits across emerging economies.
The event will be the first global AI summit to be hosted in the Global South. The summit has a blockbuster lineup of CEOs headlined by Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google), Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI), Demis Hassabis (CEO of DeepMind Technologies), Dario Amodei (Anthropic CEO), Brad Smith (Microsoft president) and many others.
In preparation for the India AI Impact Summit 2026, 12 Indian AI start-ups selected under the Foundation Model Pillar recently engaged in a roundtable chaired by Prime Minister Modi and presented their ideas and work.
These startups are working in a diverse set of areas, including Indian language foundation models, multilingual LLMs, speech-to-text, text-to-audio and text-to-video; 3D content using generative AI for e-commerce, marketing, and personalised content creation; engineering simulations, material research and advanced analytics for data-driven decision-making across industries; healthcare diagnostics and medical research, among others.
The India AI Impact Expo 2026 is expected to witness participation of over 2.5 lakh visitors, including international delegates. The event aims to foster new partnerships and create business opportunities within the global AI ecosystem.
